1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [135]
Welles, Orson (1915–1985) At 26, Welles directed—and starred in—Citizen Kane (1941), based loosely on the life and career of media magnate William Randolph Hearst and considered by most critics of film the greatest American movie ever made. In addition to telling a compelling story, the film introduced innovations in narrative, cinematography, lighting, and editing—all of which exerted a profound influence on film. Although Citizen Kane was the apogee of Welles’ career, he had also earned fame—and notoriety—for his radio plays, especially his 1938 adaptation of H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, which used the format of a news broadcast, projecting such realism that it caused widespread panic among listeners who believed the earth was being invaded by Martians.
Welty, Eudora (1909–2001) Welty was born, raised, and lived in the Delta town of Jackson, Mississippi, and created a body of fiction focused on this region. Welty’s characters are drawn with realistic precision—she was one of the great writers of regional dialect—but their situations partake of universal aspects of human relationships.
West, Benjamin (1738–1820) One of the most important of early American painters, West reversed the usual situation—in which an American painter studied abroad then returned to America—by getting the bulk of his artistic training in America, supplementing it by study in Italy, then settling in England, where he was celebrated as a painter of historical and mythological subjects. His patron was no less than King George III. West, who was a founder of the Royal Academy in 1768, had an extensive influence on history painting in England.
Westinghouse, George (1846–1914) Westinghouse’s first major invention was the air brake, which he patented in 1869 and which made rail travel safe and comfortable. Toward the end of the 19th century, Westinghouse developed the innovation for which he is best known, alternating current (AC) generation, which (against much opposition, including that of Thomas Edison) he deemed far more practical for commercial power generation than traditional direct current (DC). It is thanks to Westinghouse that the United States soon adopted the AC standard.
Westmoreland, William (1914–2005) A distinguished officer in World War II and a rising star afterward, Westmoreland directed military operations in the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968, the peak years of the conflict. Repeatedly requesting larger and larger forces, he was a lightning rod for antiwar protest. Under his command, paradoxically, the U.S. Army won every battle in Vietnam, yet nevertheless lost the war to an enemy who, repeatedly beaten, would not accept defeat.
Weston, Edward (1886–1958) Weston started his photographic career making “pictorial” pictures, imitative of Impressionist paintings, but by 1915 he began to make sharply focused, straightforward photographs and, in conjunction with this, formulated an entire aesthetic theory of photography. He developed a style of great purity and directness, always using a large-format camera, never enlarging negatives, and never cropping them. His influence over 20th century American photography was profound.
Weyerhaeuser, Frederick K. (1834–1914) Born in Germany, Weyerhaeuser immigrated to the United States when he was 18. He worked in an Illinois sawmill, which he purchased after its owner was wiped out in the financial panic of 1857. From this beginning, Weyerhaeuser built an empire of lumber forests (some two million acres), sawmills, paper mills, and other wood-products processing facilities.
Wharton, Edith (1862–1937) Born Edith Newbold Jones, Wharton lived among the New York City gentry, which became the focus of her most important novels, including The House of Mirth (1905) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Age of Innocence (1920). Within the confines of this select universe, Wharton found boundless emotion