title: Bactria

text: The modern English name of the region is Bactria. Historically, the region was first mentioned in Avestan as "Bakhdi" in Old Persian. This later developed into "Bāxtriš" in Middle Persian and "Baxl in" New Persian. The modern name is derived from the (Romanized Greek term: "Baktrianē"), which is the Hellenized version of the Bactrian endonym. Other cognates include (Romanized: ). بلخ (Romanized: "Balx"), Chinese 大夏 (pinyin: "Dàxià"), Latin Bactriana. The region was mentioned in ancient Sanskrit texts as बाह्लीक or "Bāhlīka".


title: Bactria

text: Bactria was located in Central Asia in an area that comprises most of modern-day Afghanistan and parts of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. To the south and east, it was bordered by the Hindu Kush mountain range. On its western side, the region was bordered by the great Carmanian desert and to the north it was bound by the Oxus river. The land was noted for its fertility and its ability to produce most ancient Greek agricultural products, with the notable exception of olives.


title: Bactria

text: The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC, also known as the "Oxus civilization") is the modern archaeological designation for a Bronze Age archaeological culture of Central Asia, dated to c. 2200–1700 BC, located in present-day eastern Turkmenistan, northern Afghanistan, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan, centred on the upper Amu Darya (known to the ancient Greeks as the Oxus River), an area covering ancient Bactria. Its sites were discovered and named by the Soviet archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi (1976). Bactria was the Greek name for Old Persian "Bāxtriš" (from native *"Bāxçiš") (named for its capital Bactra, modern Balkh), in what is now northern Afghanistan, and "Margiana" was the Greek name for the Persian satrapy of Margu, the capital of which was Merv, in today's Turkmenistan.


title: Bactria

text: The early Greek historian Ctesias, c. 400 BC (followed by Diodorus Siculus), alleged that the legendary Assyrian king Ninus had defeated a Bactrian king named Oxyartes in c. 2140 BC, or some 1000 years before the Trojan War. Since the decipherment of cuneiform script in the 19th century, however, which enabled actual Assyrian records to be read, historians have ascribed little value to the Greek account.


title: Bactria

text: According to some writers, Bactria was the homeland (Airyanem Vaejah) of Indo-Iranians who moved south-west into Iran and the north-west of the South Asian subcontinent around 2500–2000 BC. Later, it became the northern province of the Achaemenid Empire in Central Asia. It was in these regions, where the fertile soil of the mountainous country is surrounded by the Turan Depression, that the prophet Zoroaster was said to have been born and gained his first adherents. Avestan, the language of the oldest portions of the Zoroastrian "Avesta", was one of the Old Iranian languages, and is the oldest attested member of the Eastern Iranian languages.


title: Bactria

text: Ernst Herzfeld suggested that Bactria belonged to the Medes before its annexation to the Achaemenid Empire by Cyrus the Great in sixth century BC, after which it and Margiana formed the twelfth satrapy of Persia. After Darius III had been defeated by Alexander the Great, the satrap of Bactria, Bessus, attempted to organise a national resistance but was captured by other warlords and delivered to Alexander. He was then tortured and killed.


title: Bactria

text: Under Persian rule, many Greeks were deported to Bactria, so that their communities and language became common in the area. During the reign of Darius I, the inhabitants of the Greek city of Barca, in Cyrenaica, were deported to Bactria for refusing to surrender assassins. In addition, Xerxes also settled the "Branchidae" in Bactria; they were the descendants of Greek priests who had once lived near Didyma (western Asia Minor) and betrayed the temple to him. Herodotus also records a Persian commander threatening to enslave daughters of the revolting Ionians and send them to Bactria. Persia subsequently conscripted Greek men from these settlements in Bactria into their military, as did Alexander later.


title: Bactria

text: Alexander conquered Sogdiana. In the south, beyond the Oxus, he met strong resistance, but ultimately conquered the region through both military force and diplomacy, marrying Roxana, daughter of the defeated Satrap of Bactria, Oxyartes. He founded two Greek cities in Bactria, including his easternmost, Alexandria Eschate (Alexandria the Furthest).


title: Bactria

text: After Alexander's death, Diodorus Siculus tells us that Philip received dominion over Bactria, but Justin names Amyntas to that role. At the Treaty of Triparadisus, both Diodorus Siculus and Arrian agree that the satrap Stasanor gained control over Bactria. Eventually, Alexander's empire was divided up among the generals in Alexander's army. Bactria became a part of the Seleucid Empire, named after its founder, Seleucus I.


title: Bactria

text: The Macedonians, especially Seleucus I and his son Antiochus I, established the Seleucid Empire and founded a number of Greek towns. The Greek language became dominant for some time there.


title: Bactria

text: The paradox that Greek presence was more prominent in Bactria than in areas far closer to Greece can possibly be explained by past deportations of Greeks to Bactria. When Alexanders troops entered Bacrtia they discovered communities of Greeks who appeared to have been deported to the region by the Persians in previous centuries.


title: Bactria

text: Considerable difficulties faced by the Seleucid kings and the attacks of Pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus gave the satrap of Bactria, Diodotus I, the opportunity to declare independence about 245 BC and conquer Sogdia. He was the founder of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. Diodotus and his successors were able to maintain themselves against the attacks of the Seleucids—particularly from Antiochus III the Great, who was ultimately defeated by the Romans (190 BC).


title: Bactria

text: The Greco-Bactrians were so powerful that they were able to expand their territory as far as South Asia:


title: Bactria

text: The Greco-Bactrians used the Greek language for administrative purposes, and the local Bactrian language was also Hellenized, as suggested by its adoption of the Greek alphabet and Greek loanwords. In turn, some of these words were also borrowed by modern Pashto.


title: Bactria

text: The Bactrian king Euthydemus I and his son Demetrius I crossed the Hindu Kush mountains and began the conquest of the Indus valley. For a short time, they wielded great power: a great Greek empire seemed to have arisen far in the East. But this empire was torn by internal dissension and continual usurpations. When Demetrius advanced far east of the Indus River, one of his generals, Eucratides, made himself king of Bactria, and soon in every province there arose new usurpers, who proclaimed themselves kings and fought against each other.


title: Bactria

text: Most of them we know only by their coins, a great many of which are found in Afghanistan. By these wars, the dominant position of the Greeks was undermined even more quickly than would otherwise have been the case. After Demetrius and Eucratides, the kings abandoned the Attic standard of coinage and introduced a native standard, no doubt to gain support from outside the Greek minority.


title: Bactria

text: In the Indus valley, this went even further. The Indo-Greek king Menander I (known as Milinda in South Asia), recognized as a great conqueror, converted to Buddhism. His successors managed to cling to power until the last known Indo-Greek ruler, a king named Strato II, who ruled in the Punjab region until around 55 BC. Other sources, however, place the end of Strato II's reign as late as 10 AD.


title: Bactria

text: "Daxia", "Ta-Hsia", or "Ta-Hia" () was the name given in antiquity by the Han Chinese to Tukhara or Tokhara: the central part of Bactria. The name "Daxia" appears in Chinese from the 3rd century BC to designate a little-known kingdom located somewhere west of China. This was possibly a consequence of the first contacts between China and the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom.


title: Bactria

text: During the 2nd century BC, the Greco-Bactrians were conquered by nomadic Indo-European tribes from the north, beginning with the Sakas (160 BC). The Sakas were overthrown in turn by the Da Yuezhi ("Greater Yuezhi") during subsequent decades. The Yuezhi had conquered Bactria by the time of the visit of the Chinese envoy Zhang Qian (circa 127 BC), who had been sent by the Han emperor to investigate lands to the west of China. The first mention of these events in European literature appeared in the 1st century BC, when Strabo described how "the Asii, Pasiani, Tokhari, and Sakarauli" had taken part in the "destruction of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom". Ptolemy subsequently mentioned the central role of the Tokhari among other tribes in Bactria. As "Tukhara" or "Tokhara" it included areas that were later part of Surxondaryo Region in Uzbekistan, southern Tajikistan and northern Afghanistan. The Tokhari spoke a language known later as Bactrian – an Iranian language. (The Tokhari and their language should not be confused with the Tocharian people who lived in the Tarim Basin between the 3rd and 9th centuries AD, or the Tocharian languages that form another branch of Indo-European languages.)


title: Bactria

text: The name Daxia was used in the "Shiji" ("Records of the Grand Historian") by Sima Qian. Based on the reports of Zhang Qian, the "Shiji" describe Daxia as an important urban civilization of about one million people, living in walled cities under small city kings or magistrates. Daxia was an affluent country with rich markets, trading in an incredible variety of objects, coming from as far as Southern China. By the time Zhang Qian visited, there was no longer a major king, and the Bactrians were under the suzerainty of the Yuezhi. Zhang Qian depicted a rather sophisticated but demoralised people who were afraid of war. Following these reports, the Chinese emperor Wu Di was informed of the level of sophistication of the urban civilizations of Ferghana, Bactria and Parthia, and became interested in developing commercial relationship with them: These contacts immediately led to the dispatch of multiple embassies from the Chinese, which helped to develop trade along the Silk Roads.


title: Bactria

text: Kujula Kadphises, the "xihou" (prince) of the Yuezhi, united the region in the early 1st century and laid the foundations for the powerful, but short-lived, Kushan Empire. In the 3rd century AD, Tukhara was under the rule of the "Kushanshas" (Indo-Sasanians).


title: Bactria

text: The form Tokharistan – the suffix "-stan" means "place of" in Persian – appeared for the first time in the 4th century, in Buddhist texts, such as the "Vibhasa-sastra". Tokhara was known in Chinese sources as "Tuhuluo" (吐呼羅) which is first mentioned during the Northern Wei era. In the Tang dynasty, the name is transcribed as Tuhuoluo (土豁羅). Other Chinese names are Doushaluo 兜沙羅, Douquluo 兜佉羅 or Duhuoluo 覩貨羅. During the 5th century AD, Bactria was controlled by the Xionites and the Hephthalites, but was subsequently reconquered by the Sassanid Empire.


title: Bactria

text: By the mid-7th century AD, Islam under the Rashidun Caliphate had come to rule much of the Middle East and western areas of Central Asia.


title: Bactria

text: In 663 AD, the Umayyad Caliphate attacked the Buddhist Shahi dynasty ruling in Tokharistan. The Umayyad forces captured the area around Balkh, including the Buddhist monastery at Nava Vihara, causing the Shahis to retreat to the Kabul Valley.


title: Bactria

text: In the 8th century AD, a Persian from Balkh known as Saman Khuda left Zoroastrianism for Islam while living under the Umayyads. His children founded the Samanid Empire (875–999 AD). Persian became the official language and had a higher status than Bactrian, because it was the language of Muslim rulers. It eventually replaced the latter as the common language due to the preferential treatment as well as colonization.


title: Bactria

text: Bactrians were the inhabitants of Bactria. Several important trade routes from India and China (including the Silk Road) passed through Bactria and, as early as the Bronze Age, this had allowed the accumulation of vast amounts of wealth by the mostly nomadic population. The first proto-urban civilization in the area arose during the 2nd millennium BC.


title: Bactria

text: Control of these lucrative trade routes, however, attracted foreign interest, and in the 6th century BC the Bactrians were conquered by the Persians, and in the 4th century BC by Alexander the Great. These conquests marked the end of Bactrian independence. From around 304 BC the area formed part of the Seleucid Empire, and from around 250 BC it was the centre of a Greco-Bactrian kingdom, ruled by the descendants of Greeks who had settled there following the conquest of Alexander the Great.


title: Bactria

text: The Greco-Bactrians, also known in Sanskrit as Yavanas, worked in cooperation with the native Bactrian aristocracy. By the early 2nd century BC the Greco-Bactrians had created an impressive empire that stretched southwards to include north-west India. By about 135 BC, however, this kingdom had been overrun by invading Yuezhi tribes, an invasion that later brought about the rise of the powerful Kushan Empire.


title: Bactria

text: "Now in early times the Sogdians and Bactrians did not differ much from the nomads in their modes of life and customs, although the Bactrians were a little more civilised; however, of these, as of the others, Onesicritus does not report their best traits, saying, for instance, that those who have become helpless because of old age or sickness are thrown out alive as prey to dogs kept expressly for this purpose, which in their native tongue are called "undertakers," and that while the land outside the walls of the metropolis of the Bactrians looks clean, yet most of the land inside the walls is full of human bones; but that Alexander broke up the custom."


title: Bactria

text: The Bactrians spoke Bactrian, a north-eastern Iranian language. Bactrian became extinct, replaced by north-eastern Iranian languages such as Pashto, Yidgha, Munji, and Ishkashmi. The "Encyclopaedia Iranica" states: The principal religions of the area before the Islamic invasion were Zoroastrianism and Buddhism. Contemporary Tajiks are the descendants of ancient Eastern Iranian inhabitants of Central Asia, in particular, the Sogdians and the Bactrians, and possibly other groups, with an admixture of Western Iranian Persians and non-Iranian peoples. The "Encyclopædia Britannica" states:


title: Anne Brontë

text: Anne Brontë (, ; 17 January 1820 – 28 May 1849) was an English novelist and poet, and the youngest member of the Brontë literary family.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Anne Brontë was the daughter of Maria (born Branwell) and Patrick Brontë, a poor Irish clergyman in the Church of England. Anne lived most of her life with her family at the parish of Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. Otherwise, she attended a boarding school in Mirfield between 1836 and 1837, and between 1839 and 1845 lived elsewhere working as a governess. In 1846 she published a book of poems with her sisters and later two novels, initially under the pen name Acton Bell. Her first novel, "Agnes Grey", was published in 1847 with "Wuthering Heights". Her second novel, "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall", was published in 1848. "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" is thought to be one of the first feminist novels.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Anne died at 29, most likely of pulmonary tuberculosis. After her death, her sister Charlotte edited "Agnes Grey" to fix issues with its first edition, but prevented republication of "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall". As a result, Anne is not as well known as her sisters. Nonetheless, both of her novels are considered classics of English literature.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Anne's father was Patrick Brontë (1777–1861). Patrick Brontë was born in a two-room cottage in Emdale, Loughbrickland, County Down, Ireland. He was the oldest of ten children born to Hugh Brunty and Eleanor McCrory, poor Irish peasant farmers. The family surname, "mac Aedh Ó Proinntigh", was Anglicised as Prunty or Brunty. Struggling against poverty, Patrick learned to read and write, and from 1798 taught others. In 1802, at 25, he won a place to study theology at St. John's College, Cambridge. Here he changed his name, Brunty, to the more distinguished sounding Brontë. In 1807, he was ordained in the priesthood in the Church of England. He served as a curate in Essex and then in Wellington, Shropshire. In 1810, he published his first poem, "Winter Evening Thoughts", in a local newspaper. In 1811, he published a collection of moral verse, "Cottage Poems". Also in 1811, he became vicar of St. Peter's Church in Hartshead, Yorkshire. In 1812, he was appointed an examiner in Classics at Woodhouse Grove School, near Bradford. This was a Wesleyan academy where, at 35, he met his future wife, the headmaster's niece, Maria Branwell.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Maria Branwell (1783–1821), Anne's mother, was the daughter of Anne Carne, the daughter of a silversmith, and Thomas Branwell, a successful and property-owning grocer and tea merchant in Penzance. Maria was the eleventh of twelve children and enjoyed the benefits of a prosperous family in a small town. After the death of her parents, Maria went to help her aunt with housekeeping functions at the school. Maria was intelligent and well read, and her strong Methodist faith attracted Patrick Brontë, whose own leanings were similar.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Within three months, on 29 December 1812, though from considerably different backgrounds, Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell were married. Their first child, Maria (1814–1825), was born after they moved to Hartshead. In 1815, Patrick was appointed curate of the chapel in Market Street Thornton, near Bradford. A second daughter, Elizabeth (1815–1825), was born shortly after. Four more children followed: Charlotte (1816–1855), Patrick Branwell (1817–1848), Emily (1818–1848), and Anne (1820–1849).


title: Anne Brontë

text: Anne was the youngest of the Brontë children. She was born on 17 January 1820 on the outskirts of Bradford. Her father, Patrick, was curate there. Anne was baptised there on 25 March 1820. Later Patrick was appointed to the perpetual curacy in Haworth, a small town away. In April 1820 the family moved into the five-roomed Haworth Parsonage.


title: Anne Brontë

text: When Anne was barely a year old her mother, Maria, became ill, probably with uterine cancer. Maria Branwell died on 15 September 1821. Patrick tried to remarry, without success. Maria's sister, Elizabeth Branwell (1776–1842), had moved to the parsonage initially for Maria, but spent the rest of her life there raising Maria's children. She did it from a sense of duty. She was stern and expected respect, not love. There was little affection between her and the older children. According to tradition Anne was her favourite.


title: Anne Brontë

text: In Elizabeth Gaskell's biography of Charlotte, Patrick remembered Anne as precocious. Patrick said that when Anne was four years old he had asked her what a child most wanted and that she had said: "age and experience".


title: Anne Brontë

text: In summer 1824 Patrick sent daughters Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, and Emily to Crofton Hall in Crofton, West Yorkshire, and subsequently to the Clergy Daughter's School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire. Maria and Elizabeth Brontë died of consumption on 6 May and 15 June 1825 respectively, and Charlotte and Emily were brought home. The unexpected deaths distressed the family so much that Patrick could not face sending them away again. They were educated at home for the next five years, largely by Elizabeth Branwell and Patrick. The children made little attempt to mix with others outside the parsonage and relied on each other for company. The bleak moors surrounding Haworth became their playground. Anne shared a room with her aunt, Elizabeth. They were close, and she may have influenced Anne's personality and religious beliefs.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Anne's studies at home included music and drawing. The Keighley church organist gave piano lessons to Anne and Emily and Branwell, and John Bradley of Keighley gave them art lessons. Each drew with some skill. Their aunt tried to teach the girls how to run a household, but they inclined more to literature. They read much from their father's well-stocked library. Their reading included the Bible, Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron, Scott, articles from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine and Fraser's Magazine and The Edinburgh Review, and miscellaneous books of history and geography and biography.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Their reading fed their imaginations, and their creativity soared after their father gave Branwell a set of toy soldiers in June 1826. They gave names to the soldiers, or the "Twelves", and developed their characters. This led to the creation of an imaginary world: the African kingdom of "Angria", which was illustrated with maps and watercolour renderings. The children devised plots about the inhabitants of Angria and its capital city, "Glass Town", later called Verreopolis or Verdopolis.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Their fantastical worlds and kingdoms gradually acquired characteristics from their historical world, drawing from its sovereigns, armies, heroes, outlaws, fugitives, inns, schools, and publishers. The characters and lands created by the children were given newspapers and magazines and chronicles written in tiny books with writing so small that it was difficult to read without a magnifying glass. These creations and writings were an apprenticeship for their later literary talents.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Around 1831, when Anne was eleven, she and Emily broke away from Charlotte and Branwell to create and develop their own fantasy world, "Gondal". Anne and Emily were particularly close, especially after Charlotte left for Roe Head School in January 1831. Charlotte's friend Ellen Nussey visited Haworth in 1833 and reported that Emily and Anne were "like twins" and "inseparable companions". She described Anne so:


title: Anne Brontë

text: Anne took lessons from Charlotte after Charlotte had returned from Roe Head. Charlotte returned to Roe Head as a teacher on 29 July 1835, accompanied by Emily as a pupil. Emily's tuition was largely financed by Charlotte's teaching. Emily was unable to adapt to life at school and was physically ill from homesickness within a few months. She was withdrawn from school by October and replaced by Anne.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Anne was 15 and it was her first time away from home. She made few friends at Roe Head. She was quiet and hardworking and determined to stay to acquire the education which she would need to support herself. She stayed for two years and returned home only during Christmas and summer holidays. She won a good-conduct medal in December 1836. Charlotte's letters almost never mention Anne while Anne was at Roe Head, which might imply that they were not close, but Charlotte was at least concerned about Anne's health. By December 1837 Anne had become seriously ill with gastritis and embroiled in religious crisis. A Moravian minister was called to see her several times during her illness, suggesting her distress was caused, in part, by conflict with the local Anglican clergy. Charlotte wrote to their father and he brought Anne home.


title: Anne Brontë

text: A year after leaving the school, and aged 19, Anne was seeking a teaching position. She was the daughter of a poor clergyman and needed to earn money. Her father had no private income and the parsonage would revert to the church on his death. Teaching or working as a governess were among few options for a poor and educated woman. In April 1839 Anne started work as a governess for the Ingham family at Blake Hall, near Mirfield.


title: Anne Brontë

text: The children in her charge were spoiled and disobedient. Anne had great difficulty controlling them and little success in educating them. She was not allowed to punish them, and when she complained about their behaviour she received no support and was criticised for being incapable. The Inghams were dissatisfied with their children's progress and dismissed Anne. She returned home in 1839 at Christmas. At home also were Charlotte and Emily, who had left their positions, and Branwell. Anne's time at Blake Hall was so traumatic that she reproduced it in almost perfect detail in her novel "Agnes Grey".


title: Anne Brontë

text: Anne returned to Haworth and met William Weightman (1814–1842), her father's new curate who had started work in the parish in August 1839. Weightman was 25 and had obtained a two-year licentiate in theology from the University of Durham. He was welcome at the parsonage. Anne's acquaintance with him parallels her writing a number of poems, which may suggest she fell in love with him although there is disagreement over this possibility. Little evidence exists beyond a small anecdote of Charlotte's to Ellen Nussey in January 1842.


title: Anne Brontë

text: In "Agnes Grey" Agnes' interest in the curate refreshes her interest in poetry. Outside fiction William Weightman aroused much curiosity. It seems that he was good-looking and engaging, and that his easy humour and kindness towards the sisters made an impression. It is such a character that she portrays in Edward Weston, and that her heroine Agnes Grey finds deeply appealing.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Weightman died of cholera in the same year. Anne expressed her grief for his death in her poem "I will not mourn thee, lovely one", in which she called him "our darling".


title: Anne Brontë

text: From 1840 to 1845 Anne worked at Thorp Green Hall, a comfortable country house near York. Here she was governess to the children of the Reverend Edmund Robinson and his wife, Lydia. The house appeared as Horton Lodge in "Agnes Grey". Anne had four pupils: Lydia (15), Elizabeth (13), Mary (12), and Edmund (8). She initially had problems similar to those at Blake Hall. Anne missed her home and family. In a diary paper in 1841 she wrote that she did not like her situation and wished to leave it. Her quiet and gentle disposition did not help. But Anne was determined and made a success of her position, becoming well-liked by her employers. Her charges, the Robinson girls, became lifelong friends.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Anne spent only five or six weeks a year with her family, during holidays at Christmas and in June. The rest of her time was spent with the Robinsons. She accompanied the Robinsons on annual holidays to Scarborough. Between 1840 and 1844 Anne spent around five weeks each summer at the coastal town and loved it. A number of locations in Scarborough were used for her novels. She had opportunities to collect semi-precious stones, considering an interest in geology, at least in her novels, or from personal experience, as something suitable for men and women to be considered as equals.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Anne and her sisters considered setting up a school while she was still working for the Robinsons. Various locations were considered, including the parsonage, but the project never materialised. Anne came home on the death of her aunt in early November 1842 while her sisters were in Brussels. Elizabeth Branwell left a £350 legacy (equivalent to £ in ) for each of her nieces.


title: Anne Brontë

text: It was at the Long Plantation at Thorp Green in 1842 that Anne wrote her three-verse poem "Lines Composed in a Wood on a Windy Day", which was published in 1846 under the name Acton Bell.


title: Anne Brontë

text: In January 1843 Anne returned to Thorp Green and secured a position for Branwell. He was to tutor Edmund, who was growing too old to be in Anne's care. Branwell did not live in the house as Anne did. Anne's vaunted calm appears to have been the result of hard-fought battles, balancing deeply felt emotions with careful thought, a sense of responsibility and resolute determination. All three Brontë sisters worked as governesses or teachers, and all experienced problems controlling their charges, gaining support from their employers, and coping with homesickness, but Anne was the only one who persevered and made a success of her work.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Anne and Branwell taught at Thorp Green for the next three years. Branwell entered into a secret relationship with his employer's wife, Lydia Robinson. When Anne and Branwell returned home for the holidays in June 1846 Anne resigned. Anne gave no reason, but the reason may have been the relationship between her brother and Mrs Robinson. Branwell was dismissed when his employer found out about the relationship. Anne continued to exchange letters with Elizabeth and Mary Robinson. They came to visit Anne in December 1848.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Anne took Emily to visit some of the places which Anne had become fond of. A plan to visit Scarborough fell through, but they went to York and saw York Minster.


title: Anne Brontë

text: The Brontës were at home with their father during the summer of 1845. None had any immediate prospect of employment. Charlotte found Emily's poems, which had been shared only with Anne. Charlotte said that they should be published. Anne showed her own poems to Charlotte, and Charlotte "thought that these verses too had a sweet sincere pathos of their own". The sisters eventually reached an agreement. They told nobody what they were doing. With the money from Elizabeth Branwell they paid for publication of a collection of poems, 21 from Anne and 21 from Emily and 19 from Charlotte.


title: Anne Brontë

text: The book was published under pen names which retained their initials but concealed their sex. Anne's pseudonym was Acton Bell. "Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell" was available for sale in May 1846. The cost of publication was 31 pounds and 10 shillings, about three-quarters of Anne's salary at Thorp Green. On 7 May 1846 the first three copies were delivered to Haworth Parsonage. The book achieved three somewhat favourable reviews, but was a commercial failure, with only two copies sold in the first year. Anne nonetheless found a market for her later poetry. The "Leeds Intelligencer" and "Fraser's Magazine" published her poem "The Narrow Way" under her pseudonym in December 1848. Four months earlier, Fraser's Magazine had published her poem "The Three Guides".


title: Anne Brontë

text: By July 1846 a package containing the manuscripts of each sister's first novel was making the rounds of London publishers. Charlotte had written "The Professor", Emily had written "Wuthering Heights", and Anne had written "Agnes Grey".


title: Anne Brontë

text: After some rejections "Wuthering Heights" and "Agnes Grey" were accepted by the publisher Thomas Cautley Newby. "The Professor" was rejected. It was not long before Charlotte had completed her second novel, "Jane Eyre". "Jane Eyre" was accepted immediately by Smith, Elder & Co. It was the first published of the sisters' novels, and an immediate and resounding success. Meanwhile, Anne and Emily's novels "lingered in the press". Anne and Emily were obliged to pay fifty pounds to help meet their publishing costs. Their publisher was galvanised by the success of "Jane Eyre" and published "Wuthering Heights" and "Agnes Grey" together in December 1847. They sold well, but "Agnes Grey" was outshone by Emily's more dramatic "Wuthering Heights".


title: Anne Brontë

text: It is easy to underestimate the extent to which the novel challenged the social and legal structures. In 1913 May Sinclair said that the slamming of Helen Huntingdon's bedroom door against her husband reverberated throughout Victorian England.


title: Anne Brontë

text: In the book Helen has left her husband to protect their son from his influence. She supports herself and her son in hiding by painting. She has violated social conventions and English law. Until the Married Women's Property Act 1870 was passed, a married woman had no legal existence independent from her husband and could not own property nor sue for divorce nor control the custody of her children. Helen's husband had a right to reclaim her and charge her with kidnapping. By subsisting on her own income she was stealing her husband's property since this income was legally his.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Anne stated her intentions in the second edition, published in August 1848. She presented a forceful rebuttal to critics (among them Charlotte) who considered her portrayal of Huntingdon overly graphic and disturbing. Anne "wished to tell the truth". She explained further that


title: Anne Brontë

text: Anne also castigated reviewers who speculated on the sex of authors and the perceived appropriateness of their writing. She was


title: Anne Brontë

text: In July 1848 Anne and Charlotte went to Charlotte's publisher George Smith in London to dispel the rumour that the "Bell brothers" were one person. Emily refused to go. Anne and Charlotte spent several days with Smith. Many years after Anne's death, he wrote in the "Cornhill Magazine" his impressions of her:


title: Anne Brontë

text: The increasing popularity of the Bells' works led to renewed interest in "Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell", originally published by Aylott and Jones. The remaining print run was bought by Smith and Elder, and reissued under new covers in November 1848. It still sold poorly.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Branwell's persistent drunkenness disguised the decline of his health and he died on 24 September 1848. His sudden death shocked the family. He was 31. The cause was recorded as chronic bronchitismarasmus, but was probably tuberculosis.


title: Anne Brontë

text: The family suffered from coughs and colds during the winter of 1848, and Emily became very ill. She worsened over two months and rejected medical aid until the morning of 19 December. She was very weak and said that "if you will send for a doctor, I will see him now". But Emily died at about two o'clock that afternoon, aged 30.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Emily's death deeply affected Anne. Her grief undermined her physical health. Over Christmas Anne had influenza. Her symptoms intensified and in early January her father sent for a Leeds physician. The doctor diagnosed advanced consumption with little hope of recovery. Anne met the news with characteristic determination and self-control. However, in her letter to Ellen Nussey she expressed her frustrated ambitions:


title: Anne Brontë

text: Unlike Emily, Anne took all the recommended medicines and followed the advice she was given. That same month she wrote her last poem, "A dreadful darkness closes in", in which she deals with being terminally ill. Her health fluctuated for months, but she grew thinner and weaker.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Anne seemed somewhat better in February. She decided to visit Scarborough to see if the change of location and the fresh sea air might benefit her. Charlotte was initially against the journey, fearing that it would be too stressful, but changed her mind after the doctor's approval and Anne's assurance that it was her last hope.


title: Anne Brontë

text: On 24 May 1849 Anne set off for Scarborough with Charlotte and Ellen Nussey. They spent a day and night in York en route. Here they escorted Anne in a wheelchair and did some shopping and visited York Minster. It was clear that Anne had little strength left.


title: Anne Brontë

text: On Sunday 27 May Anne asked Charlotte whether it would be easier to return home and die instead of remaining in Scarborough. A doctor was consulted the next day and said that death was close. Anne received the news quietly. She expressed her love and concern for Ellen and Charlotte, and whispered for Charlotte to "take courage". Anne died at about two o'clock in the afternoon on Monday 28 May 1849, aged 29.


title: Anne Brontë

text: Charlotte decided to "lay the flower where it had fallen". So Anne was buried in Scarborough. The funeral was held on 30 May. Patrick Brontë could not have made the journey if he had wished to. The former schoolmistress at Roe Head, Miss Wooler, was in Scarborough, and she was the only other mourner at Anne's funeral. Anne was buried in St Mary's churchyard, beneath the castle walls and overlooking the bay. Charlotte commissioned a stone to be placed over her grave with the inscription, When Charlotte visited the grave three years later she discovered multiple errors on the headstone and had it refaced. But this was not free of error. For Anne was 29 when she died, not 28 as written.


title: Anne Brontë

text: In 2011 the Brontë Society installed a new plaque at Anne Brontë's grave. The original gravestone had become illegible at places and could not be restored. It was left undisturbed while the new plaque was laid horizontally, interpreting the fading words of the original and correcting its error. In April 2013 the Brontë Society held a dedication and blessing service at the gravesite to mark the installation of the new plaque.


title: Anne Brontë

text: After Anne's death Charlotte addressed issues with the first edition of "Agnes Grey" for its republication, but she prevented republication of "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall". In 1850 Charlotte wrote that Subsequent critics paid less attention to Anne's work and some dismissed her as "a Brontë without genius".


title: Anne Brontë

text: But since the mid-20th century her life and works have been given better attention. Biographies by Winifred Gérin (1959) and Elizabeth Langland (1989) and Edward Chitham (1991), as well as Juliet Barker's group biography, "The Brontës" (1994; revised edition 2000), and work by critics such as Inga-Stina Ewbank, Marianne Thormählen, Laura C Berry, Jan B Gordon, Mary Summers, and Juliet McMaster has led to acceptance of Anne Brontë as a major literary figure. Sally McDonald of the Brontë Society said in 2013 that in some ways Anne "is now viewed as the most radical of the sisters, writing about tough subjects such as women's need to maintain independence and how alcoholism can tear a family apart." In 2016 Lucy Mangan championed Anne Brontë in the BBC's "Being the Brontës", declaring that "her time has come".


title: Herman Cain

text: Herman Cain (December 13, 1945July 30, 2020) was an American businessman and Tea Party movement activist within the Republican Party. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Cain grew up in Georgia and graduated from Morehouse College with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. He then earned a master's degree in computer science at Purdue University while also working full-time for the U.S. Department of the Navy. In 1977, he joined the Pillsbury Company where he later became vice president. During the 1980s, Cain's success as a business executive at Burger King prompted Pillsbury to appoint him as chairman and CEO of Godfather's Pizza, in which capacity he served from 1986 to 1996.


title: Herman Cain

text: Cain was chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Omaha Branch from 1989 to 1991. He was deputy chairman, from 1992 to 1994, and then chairman until 1996, of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. In 1995, he was appointed to the Kemp Commission and, in 1996, he served as a senior economic adviser to Bob Dole's presidential campaign. From 1996 to 1999, Cain served as president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association.


title: Herman Cain

text: In May 2011, Cain announced his 2012 presidential candidacy. By the fall, his proposed 9–9–9 tax plan and debating performances had made him a serious contender for the Republican nomination. In November, however, Cain was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women. Cain denied the allegations, but announced the suspension of his campaign on December 3. He remained active in the Republican Party, and was a co-chairman of Black Voices for Trump in the 2020 election cycle.


title: Herman Cain

text: Herman Cain was born on December 13, 1945, in Memphis, Tennessee, to Lenora Davis Cain (1925–1982), a cleaning woman and domestic worker, and Luther Cain (1925–2005), who was raised on a farm and worked as a barber and janitor, as well as a chauffeur for Robert W. Woodruff, the president of The Coca-Cola Company. Cain said that as he was growing up, his family was "poor but happy." Cain related that his mother taught him about her belief that "success was not a function of what you start out with materially, but what you start out with spiritually." His father worked three jobs to own his own home—which he achieved during Cain's childhood—and to allow his two sons to attend college.


title: Herman Cain

text: Cain grew up on the west side of Atlanta, attending S. H. Archer High School and the Rev. Cameron M. Alexander's Antioch Baptist Church North in the neighborhood now known as The Bluff. Eventually the family moved to a modest brick home on Albert Street in the Collier Heights neighborhood. He graduated from high school in 1963.


title: Herman Cain

text: In 1967, Cain graduated from Morehouse College with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics. In 1971, he received a Master of Science in computer science from Purdue University, while working full-time as a ballistics analyst for the U.S. Department of the Navy as a civilian.


title: Herman Cain

text: After completing his master's degree at Purdue, Cain left the Department of the Navy and began working for Coca-Cola in Atlanta as a computer systems analyst. In 1977, he moved to Minneapolis to join Pillsbury, becoming director of business analysis in its restaurant and foods group in 1978.


title: Herman Cain

text: At age 36, Cain was assigned to analyze and manage 400 Burger King stores in the Philadelphia area. At the time, Burger King was a Pillsbury subsidiary. Under Cain, his region posted strong improvement in three years. According to a 1987 account in the "Minneapolis Star Tribune", Pillsbury's then-president Win Wallin said, "He was an excellent bet. Herman always seemed to have his act together." At Burger King, Cain "established the BEAMER program, which taught our employees, mostly teenagers, how to make our patrons smile" by smiling themselves. It was a success: "Within three months of the program's initiation, the sales trend was moving steadily higher."


title: Herman Cain

text: Cain's success at Burger King prompted Pillsbury to appoint him president and CEO of another subsidiary, Godfather's Pizza. On his arrival on April 1, 1986, Cain told employees, "I'm Herman Cain and this ain't no April Fool's joke. We are not dead. Our objective is to prove to Pillsbury and everyone else that we will survive." Godfather's Pizza was performing poorly, having slipped in ranks of pizza chains from third in 1985 to fifth in 1988. Under Cain's leadership, Godfather's closed approximately 200 restaurants and eliminated several thousand jobs, and by doing so returned to profitability. In a leveraged buyout in 1988, Cain, executive vice president and COO Ronald B. Gartlan, and a group of investors bought Godfather's from Pillsbury.


title: Herman Cain

text: Cain served as chairman of the board of the Omaha Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from January 1, 1989, to December 31, 1991. He became a member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1992. He served as deputy chairman from January 1, 1992, to December 31, 1994, and then as its chairman until August 19, 1996, when he resigned to become active in national politics.


title: Herman Cain

text: Cain left Godfather's Pizza in 1996 and moved to the District of Columbia, From 1996 to 1999 he served as CEO of the National Restaurant Association, a trade group and lobbying organization for the restaurant industry, on whose board of directors he had previously served. Cain's lobbying work for the association led to a number of connections to Republican lawmakers and politicians. Under Cain's leadership, the Association lobbied against increases to the minimum wage, mandatory health care benefits, regulations against smoking, and lowering the blood alcohol limit that determines whether one is driving under the influence.


title: Herman Cain

text: After Cain's term with the restaurant advocacy group ended in 1999, he returned to Omaha for about a year, then moved to his hometown of Atlanta in 2000.


title: Herman Cain

text: Cain appeared in the 2009 documentary "An Inconvenient Tax". From 2008 to February 2011, Cain hosted "The Herman Cain Show" on Atlanta talk radio station WSB. On January 19, 2012, Cain began working for WSB again by providing daily commentaries, while occasionally filling in for Erick Erickson and Neal Boortz.


title: Herman Cain

text: Cain took over Boortz's radio talk show on January 21, 2013, upon Boortz's retirement. The show was dropped from the Westwood One Radio Network in December 2016 in favor of The Chris Plante Show, but continued to air in limited syndication through WSB's owner, Cox Radio.


title: Herman Cain

text: On February 15, 2013, Fox News Channel announced Cain would join the network as a contributor. In March 2019, Cain was a panelist on a "Watter's World" episode.


title: Herman Cain

text: Cain received the 1996 Horatio Alger Award and was bestowed with honorary degrees from Creighton University, Johnson & Wales University, Morehouse College, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the New York City College of Technology, Purdue University, Suffolk University, and Tougaloo College.


title: Herman Cain

text: Then former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Jack Kemp, referred to Cain as "the Colin Powell of American capitalism". Kemp stated that Cain's "conquests won't be counted in terms of countries liberated or lives saved, but in those things that make life worth living—expanding opportunity, creating jobs and broadening horizons, not just for those he knows, but through his example, for those he'll never meet."


title: Herman Cain

text: On April 4, 2019, President Donald Trump said that he intended to nominate Cain to the second of the two vacant seats on the Federal Reserve Board. Assessing the possible nomination, news publications reviewed Cain's sexual misconduct allegations that preceded his withdrawal from the 2012 presidential election. Cain acknowledged that the nomination process would be "more cumbersome" for him due to his "unusual career". He initially stated that he was not considering withdrawing his name from consideration for the seat. After it appeared likely that he would not receive enough votes to support his confirmation, Cain withdrew on April 22, 2019.


title: Herman Cain

text: In 1994, as president-elect of the National Restaurant Association, Cain challenged President Bill Clinton on the costs of the employer mandate contained within the Health Security Act and criticized the effect on small businesses. Bob Cohn of "Newsweek" described Cain as one of the primary opponents of the plan:


title: Herman Cain

text: Because Kemp was impressed with Cain's performance, he chartered a plane to Nebraska to meet Cain after the debate. As a result, Cain was appointed to the Kemp Commission in 1995.


title: Herman Cain

text: Joshua Green of "The Atlantic" called Cain's exchange with President Clinton his "auspicious debut on the national political stage."


title: Herman Cain

text: Cain briefly ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000. He later said in looking back at the effort that it was more about making political statements than winning the nomination. "George W. Bush was the chosen one, he had the campaign DNA that followers look for." However, Cain went on to state, "I believe that I had a better message and I believe that I was the better messenger." After ending his own campaign, however, he endorsed Steve Forbes.


title: Herman Cain

text: In 2004 Cain ran for the U.S. Senate in Georgia and did not win in the primaries. He was pursuing the seat that came open with the retirement of Democrat Zell Miller. Cain sought the Republican nomination, facing congressmen Johnny Isakson and Mac Collins in the primary. Collins tried to paint Cain as a moderate, citing Cain's support for affirmative action programs, while Cain argued that he was a conservative, noting that he opposed the legality of abortion except when the mother's life is threatened. Cain finished second in the primary with 26.2% of the vote, ahead of Collins, who won 20.6%, but because Isakson won 53.2% of the vote, Isakson was able to avoid a runoff.


title: Herman Cain

text: Starting in 2005, Cain worked for the political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) alongside Mark Block. Block would later become campaign manager for Cain's 2012 presidential run and would be joined in Cain's campaign by several other AFP employees. Cain continued to receive honoraria for speaking at AFP events until he announced his campaign for the Republican nomination. Cain's senior economic advisor during his 2012 presidential campaign, Rich Lowrie, who helped devise Cain's 9–9–9 tax plan, had served on the AFP board. In 2006, Cain voiced several radio ads encouraging people of color to vote Republican; the ads were funded by a group called America's PAC and its founder J. Patrick Rooney.


title: Herman Cain

text: A Tea Party activist, Cain addressed numerous Tea Party rallies in 2010. Following the 2010 midterm elections, Cain announced his intentions to run for president in December 2010, stating that there was a 70% chance that he would attempt to seek the office. Later that month, he was the "surprise choice" for 2012 GOP nominee in a RedState reader poll. Cain announced the formation of an exploratory committee on January 12, 2011, before formally announcing his candidacy on May 21 in Atlanta.


title: Herman Cain

text: Cain's addresses to conservative groups were well received, and in late September and early October 2011, Cain won the straw polls of the Florida Republican Party, TeaCon, and the National Federation of Republican Women's Convention. "My focus groups have consistently picked Herman Cain as the most likeable candidate in the debates," said GOP pollster Frank Luntz. "Don't underestimate the power of likability, even in a Republican primary. The more likeable the candidate, the greater the electoral potential."


title: Herman Cain

text: In July 2011, an advisor suggested that his campaign's tax policy plan be called "the Optimal Tax", but Cain rejected the name, saying "we're just going to call it what it is: 9–9–9 Plan." The plan would have replaced the then current tax code with a 9-percent business transactions tax, a 9-percent personal income tax, and a 9-percent federal sales tax. During a debate on October 12, Cain said his plan "expands the base," arguing that "when you expand the base, we can arrive at the lowest possible rate, which is 9–9–9." An analysis released to Bloomberg News by the campaign claimed that the rate for each of the three taxes could in fact be as low as 7.3%, but "poverty grants"—which Cain described as a lower rate in targeted "empowerment zones"—necessitated a national rate of nine percent. Paul Krugman criticized the plan, saying it shifts much of the current tax burden from the rich to the poor. Arthur Laffer, Lawrence Kudlow, the Club for Growth, and Congressman Paul Ryan spoke favorably of the plan. On October 21, Cain told a crowd in Detroit that the plan would be 9–0–9 for the poor, saying that "if you are at or below the poverty level ... then you don't pay that middle nine on your income." Cain's 9–9–9 plan attracted skepticism from his fellow candidates at numerous Republican debates.


title: Herman Cain

text: In late October 2011, "Politico" reported that Cain had been accused by two women of sexual harassment and misconduct during his time as CEO of the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s. Two other women made additional harassment accusations later on. Cain acknowledged that the restaurant organization made financial settlements to the complainants. Two of the four women came forward publicly: Sharon Bialek and Karen Kraushaar.


title: Herman Cain

text: On November 28, 2011, Cain asserted that a woman named Ginger White claimed to have had an affair with him and that the allegation was not true. In an interview with White, which aired on the same day, she stated that the affair lasted 13 years and ended right before Cain announced his presidential campaign. On November 30, 2011, at an event in Dayton, Ohio, Cain denounced the allegations of sexual harassment and adultery.


title: Herman Cain

text: On December 3, 2011, Cain suspended his campaign. The sexual harassment claims were widely considered responsible for the sharp drop in his poll numbers.


title: Herman Cain

text: According to a Pew Research Center report on December 21, 2011, Cain was the "most covered candidate" among the Republicans during that year.


title: Herman Cain

text: On January 4, 2012, Cain announced the "Cain's Solutions Revolution". Cain's stated goal was to get commitments from members of Congress to support the 9–9–9 Plan before the 2012 elections. Cain stated that he started a new movement because the "biggest comment I got when I ended my candidacy was to keep 9–9–9 alive. That's what this is about, and I'm going to keep it alive with what I'm calling Cain's Solutions Revolution." In order to promote this movement, Cain employed both a bus tour and a new website. "New York" magazine stated, "It's Cain's earnest effort to keep 9–9–9 alive and focus on solutions." On January 20, 2012, Cain spoke at Stephen Colbert's "Rock Me Like a Herman Cain: South Cain-Olina Primary Rally". "The Huffington Post" reported the crowd size was between 3,000 and 5,000 people. It was described at the time as "the largest campaign rally so far during this GOP presidential primary season".


title: Herman Cain

text: For President Barack Obama's 2012 State of the Union address, the Tea Party Express chose Cain to give its second annual response. After Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels gave the official GOP response, Cain delivered his speech at the National Press Club. The speech was streamed live on the Tea Party Express website. Cain referred to Obama's address as a "hodgepodge of liberal ideas," adding that there were "no big ideas that would impact job growth" and "no big ideas that would stimulate economic growth in this country."


title: Herman Cain

text: Although Mitt Romney was endorsed by Cain on May 15, 2012, he would eventually lose the general election to President Obama. Cain then told Bryan Fischer that the Republican Party no longer represented the interests of conservatives in the United States and that it did not have "the ability to rebrand itself." He asserted that "a legitimate third party" would be needed to replace it.


title: Herman Cain

text: Cain married Gloria Etchison of Atlanta, soon after her graduation from Morris Brown College in 1968. The couple had two children, Melanie and Vincent, and four grandchildren.


title: Herman Cain

text: Cain served as an associate minister at the Antioch Baptist Church North in Atlanta, which he joined at the age of 10. The church is part of the National Baptist Convention and is politically liberal and theologically conservative. The church's senior pastor, Rev. Cameron M. Alexander, did not share Cain's political philosophy.


title: Herman Cain

text: Disclosures filed during Cain's 2011 campaign categorized his wealth at that time as being between $2.9 and $6.6 million, with Cain's combined income for both 2010 and 2011 being between $1.1 and $2.1 million.


title: Herman Cain

text: In 2006, Cain was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer and metastasis to his liver, with a 30 percent chance of survival. After he underwent surgery and chemotherapy, the cancer was reported to be in remission.


title: Herman Cain

text: Cain opposed masking and social distancing mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. He attended the 2020 Trump Tulsa rally on June 20 and was photographed not wearing a face mask in a crowd who also were not wearing masks. On June 29, Cain tested positive for COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Georgia and was admitted to an Atlanta-area hospital two days later. On July 2, Cain's staff said there was "no way of knowing for sure how or where" he contracted the disease. Dan Calabrese, the editor of Cain's website, said, "I realize people will speculate about the Tulsa rally, but Herman did a lot of traveling [that] week, including to Arizona where cases [were] spiking."


title: Friesland

text: Friesland (, ; official ), historically known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of Flevoland, northeast of North Holland, and south of the Wadden Sea. As of January 2020, the province had a population of 649,944 and a total area of .


title: Friesland

text: The province is divided into 18 municipalities. The capital and seat of the provincial government is the city of Leeuwarden (West Frisian: "Ljouwert", Liwwaddes: "Liwwadde"), a city with 123,107 inhabitants. Other large municipalities in Friesland are Sneek (pop. 33,512), Heerenveen (pop. 50,257), and Smallingerland (includes city of Drachten, pop. 55,938). Since 2017, Arno Brok is the King's Commissioner in the province. A coalition of the Christian Democratic Appeal, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, the Labour Party, and the Frisian National Party forms the executive branch. The area of the province was once part of the ancient, larger region of Frisia. The land is mostly made up of grassland and it has numerous lakes. The official languages of Friesland are West Frisian and Dutch. It was named after the region of Frisia.


title: Friesland

text: In 1996, the Provincial Council of Friesland resolved that the official name of the province should follow the West Frisian spelling rather than the Dutch spelling, resulting in "Friesland" being replaced by "Fryslân". In 2004, the Dutch government confirmed this resolution, putting in place a three-year scheme to oversee the name change and associated cultural programme.


title: Friesland

text: The province of Friesland is occasionally referred to as "Frisia" by, amongst others, Hanno Brand, head of the history and literature department at the Fryske Akademy since 2009. However, the English-language webpage of the Friesland Provincial Council refers to the province as "Fryslân".


title: Friesland

text: The Frisii were among the migrating Germanic tribes that, following the breakup of Celtic Europe in the 4th century BC, settled along the North Sea. They came to control the area from roughly present-day Bremen to Bruges, and conquered many of the smaller offshore islands. What little is known of the Frisii is provided by a few Roman accounts, most of them military. Pliny the Elder said their lands were forest-covered with tall trees growing up to the edge of the lakes. They lived by agriculture and raising cattle.


title: Friesland

text: In his "Germania", Tacitus described all the Germanic peoples of the region as having elected kings with limited powers and influential military leaders who led by example rather than by authority. The people lived in spread-out settlements. He specifically noted the weakness of Germanic political hierarchies in reference to the Frisii, when he mentioned the names of two kings of the 1st century Frisii and added that they were kings "as far as the Germans are under kings".


title: Friesland

text: In the 1st century BC, the Frisii halted a Roman advance and thus managed to maintain their independence. Some or all of the Frisii may have joined into the Frankish and Saxon peoples in late Roman times, but they would retain a separate identity in Roman eyes until at least 296, when they were forcibly resettled as "laeti" (Roman-era serfs) and thereafter disappear from recorded history. Their tentative existence in the 4th century is confirmed by archaeological discovery of a type of earthenware unique to 4th-century Frisia, called "terp Tritzum", showing that an unknown number of Frisii were resettled in Flanders and Kent, likely as "laeti" under the aforementioned Roman coercion. The lands of the Frisii were largely abandoned by c. 400 as a result of the conflicts of the Migration Period, climate deterioration, and the flooding caused by a rise in the sea level.


title: Friesland

text: The area lay empty for one or two centuries, when changing environmental and political conditions made the region habitable again. At that time, during the Migration Period, "new" Frisians (probably descended from a merging of Frisii, Angles, Saxons and Jutes) repopulated the coastal regions. These Frisians consisted of tribes with loose bonds, centred on war bands but without great power. The earliest Frisian records name four social classes, the ("nobiles" in Latin documents; "adel" in Dutch and German) and ("vrijen" in Dutch and "Freien" in German), who together made up the "Free Frisians" who might bring suit at court, and the "laten" or "liten" with the slaves, who were absorbed into the "laten" during the Early Middle Ages, as slavery was not so much formally abolished, as evaporated. The "laten" were tenants of lands they did not own and might be tied to it in the manner of serfs, but in later times might buy their freedom.


title: Friesland

text: Under the rule of King Aldgisl, the Frisians came in conflict with the Frankish mayor of the palace Ebroin, over the old Roman border fortifications. Aldgisl could keep the Franks at a distance with his army. During the reign of Redbad, however, the tide turned in favour of the Franks; in 690, the Franks were victorious in the Battle of Dorestad. In 733, Charles Martel sent an army against the Frisians. The Frisian army was pushed back to Eastergoa. The next year the Battle of the Boarn took place. Charles ferried an army across the Almere with a fleet that enabled him to sail up to De Boarn. The Frisians were defeated in the ensuing battle, and their last king Poppo was killed. The victors began plundering and burning heathen sanctuaries. Charles Martel returned with much loot, and broke the power of the Frisian kings for good. The Franks annexed the Frisian lands between the Vlie and the Lauwers. They conquered the area east of the Lauwers in 785, when Charlemagne defeated Widukind. The Carolingians laid Frisia under the rule of "grewan", a title that has been loosely related to count in its early sense of "governor" rather than "feudal overlord". About 100,000 Dutch drowned in a flood in 1228.


title: Friesland

text: When, around 800, the Scandinavian Vikings first attacked Frisia, which was still under Carolingian rule, the Frisians were released from military service on foreign territory in order to be able to defend themselves against the heathen Vikings. With their victory in the Battle of Norditi in 884 they were able to drive the Vikings permanently out of East Frisia, although it remained under constant threat. Over the centuries, whilst feudal lords reigned in the rest of Europe, no aristocratic structures emerged in Frisia. This 'Frisian freedom' was represented abroad by "redjeven" who were elected from among the wealthier farmers or from elected representatives of the autonomous rural municipalities. Originally the "redjeven" were all judges, so-called "Asega", who were appointed by the territorial lords.


title: Friesland

text: After significant territories were lost to Holland in the Friso-Hollandic Wars, Frisia saw an economic downturn in the mid-14th century. Accompanied by a decline in monasteries and other communal institutions, social discord led to the emergence of untitled nobles called "haadlingen" ("headmen"), wealthy landowners possessing large tracts of land and fortified homes who took over the role of the judiciary as well as offering protection to their local inhabitants. Internal struggles between regional leaders resulted in bloody conflicts and the alignment of regions along two opposing parties: the Fetkeapers and Skieringers. On 21 March 1498, a small group of Skieringers from Westergo secretly met with Albert III, Duke of Saxony, the Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, in Medemblik requesting his help. Albrecht, who had gained a reputation as a formidable military commander, accepted and soon conquered all Friesland. Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg appointed Albrecht hereditary potestate and gubernator of Friesland in 1499.


title: Friesland

text: In 1515, an army of haadlingen and peasants, with the help of mercenaries known as the Arumer Zwarte Hoop, started a fight for freedom from oppression by the Habsburg authorities. One of the leaders was Pier Gerlofs Donia, whose farm had been burned down and whose kinfolk had been killed by a marauding "Landsknecht" regiment. Since the regiment had been employed by the Habsburg authorities to suppress the civil war of the Fetkeapers and Skieringers, Donia put the blame on the authorities. After this he gathered angry peasants and some petty noblemen from Frisia and Gelderland and formed the "Arumer Zwarte Hoop".The rebels received financial support from Charles II, Duke of Guelders, who claimed the Duchy of Guelders in opposition to the House of Habsburg. Charles also employed mercenaries under command of his military commander Maarten van Rossum in their support. However, when the tides turned against the rebels after the Donia's death in 1520, Charles withdrew his support, without which the rebels could no longer afford to pay their mercenary army. The revolt was put to an end in 1523 and Frisia was incorporated into the Habsburg Netherlands, bringing an end to the Frisian freedom.


title: Friesland

text: Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, became the first lord of the Lordship of Frisia. He appointed Georg Schenck van Toutenburg, who had crushed the peasants' revolt, as Stadtholder to rule over the province in his stead. When Charles abdicated in 1556, Frisia was inherited by Philip II of Spain along with the rest of the Netherlands. In 1566, Frisia joined the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule.


title: Friesland

text: In 1577, George de Lalaing, Count of Rennenberg was appointed Stadtholder of Frisia and other provinces. A moderate, trusted by both sides, he tried to reconcile the rebels with the Crown. But in 1580, Rennenburg declared for Spain. The States of Frisia raised troops and took his strongholds of Leeuwarden, Harlingen and Stavoren. Rennenburg was deposed and Frisia became the fifth Lordship to join the rebels' Union of Utrecht. From 1580 onward, all stadtholders were members of the House of Orange-Nassau. With the Peace of Münster in 1648, Frisia became a full member of the independent Dutch Republic, a federation of provincies. In economic and therefore also political importance, Friesland was next in rank to the provinces of Holland and Zeeland.


title: Friesland

text: In 1798, three years after the Batavian Revolution, the provincial lordship of Frisia was abolished and its territory was divided between the Eems and Oude IJssel departments. This was short-lived, however, as Frisia was revived, however as a department in 1802. When the Netherlands were annexed by the First French Empire in 1810, the department was in French renamed Frise. After Napoleon was defeated in 1813 and a new constitution was introduced in 1814, Friesland became a province of the Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands, then of the unitary Kingdom of the Netherlands a year later.


title: Friesland

text: Friesland is situated at in the northwest of the Netherlands, west of the province of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of Flevoland, northeast of the IJsselmeer and North Holland, and south of the North Sea. It is the largest province of the Netherlands if one includes areas of water; in terms of land area only, it is the third-largest province.


title: Friesland

text: Most of Friesland is on the mainland, but it also includes a number of West Frisian Islands, including Vlieland, Terschelling, Ameland and Schiermonnikoog, which are connected to the mainland by ferry. The province's highest point is a dune at above sea level, on the island of Vlieland.


title: Friesland

text: There are four national parks of the Netherlands located in Friesland: Schiermonnikoog, De Alde Feanen, Lauwersmeer (partially in Groningen), and Drents-Friese Wold (also partially situated in Drenthe).


title: Friesland

text: The province is divided into 18 municipalities, each with local government (municipal council, mayor and aldermen).


title: Friesland

text: The years 1880–1900 show slower population growth due to a farm crisis during which some 20,000 Frisians emigrated to the United States.


title: Friesland

text: Since the late Middle Ages, Friesland has been renowned for the exceptional height of its inhabitants. Even early Renaissance poet Dante Alighieri refers to the height of Frisians in his "Divine Comedy" when, in the canticle about Hell, he talks about the magnitude of an infernal demon by stating that "not even three tall Frieslanders, were they set one upon the other, would have matched his height".


title: Friesland

text: Friesland is mainly an agricultural province. The black and white Frisian cattle, black and white Stabyhoun and the black Frisian horse originated here. Tourism is another important source of income: the principal tourist destinations include the lakes in the southwest of the province and the islands in the Wadden Sea to the north. There are 195 windmills in the province of Friesland, out of a total of about 1200 in the entire country.


title: Friesland

text: The Gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was 19.8 billion € in 2018, accounting for 2.6% of the Netherlands economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 26,700 € or 89% of the EU27 average in the same year.


title: Friesland

text: Friesland is one of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands to have its national language that is recognized as such, West Frisian. Before the 18th century, varieties of Frisian were also spoken in the provinces of North Holland and Groningen, and together with the Frisian speakers in East Friesland and North Friesland a continuous linguistic area existed between Amsterdam and the present day Danish-German border.


title: Friesland

text: The mutual intelligibility in reading between Dutch and Frisian is limited. A cloze test in 2005 revealed native Dutch speakers understood 31.9% of a West Frisian newspaper, 66.4% of an Afrikaans newspaper and 97.1% of a Dutch newspaper. In 2007, West Frisian is the native language of 54.3% of the inhabitants of the province of Friesland, followed by Dutch with 34.7%, and speakers of other regional languages, most of these restricted to Friesland, with 9.7%, and in the end other foreign languages with 1.4%. Frisian speakers are traditionally underrepresented in urban areas, and predominant in the countryside.


title: Friesland

text: West Frisian is also spoken in a small adjacent part of the province of Groningen. Up to the 18th century Frisian was spoken in the, at that time Prussian and Hanoverian, lordships of East Friesland). Since then the East Frisian population switched to East Frisian ("Ostfriesisch"), a Low German dialect. Only in some, formerly remoted, East Frisian villages (Saterland) a variety of historically East Frisian ("Seeltersk") is still in use but by an older generation. A collection of dialects named North Frisian, is or was spoken in North Friesland, alongside the North Sea coast and on the islands of Schleswig-Holstein. The named Frisian languages are historically related to Old English, which points towards the fact that Angles and Saxons, eventually accompanied by Frisians, came from these areas.


title: Friesland

text: The language policy in Friesland is preservation. West Frisian is a mandatory subject in Friesland in primary and secondary schools of the Frisian speaking districts. Bilingual (Dutch–Frisian) and trilingual (Dutch–English–Frisian) schools in the province of Friesland use West Frisian as a language of instruction in some lessons, besides Dutch in most other lessons and alongside them English. Literacy in Frisian however, is not often a core aim and that makes the number of Frisians speakers able to write in Frisian only 12%.


title: Friesland

text: The provincial government takes various initiatives to preserve the West Frisian language. All parents in Friesland receive, at their children's birth, information about language and multilingualism (e.g. 'taaltaske'). To support the use of Frisian in public and at public events, the province also invests in the development of speech pathology materials and strives to create information technology devices for the West Frisian language. The Frisian government subsidizes the "Afûk" organization, which offers language courses and actively promotes Frisian in all sectors of society as well as the corporate domain which as a rule is dominated by Dutch and English. The province also promotes a wide range of art and entertainment in Frisian.


title: Friesland

text: The province is famous for its speed skaters, with mass participation in cross-country ice skating when weather conditions permit. When winters are cold enough to allow the freshwater canals to freeze hard, the province holds its traditional Elfstedentocht (Eleven cities tour), a ice skating tour. A traditional sport is Frisian handball. Another Frisian practice is "fierljeppen", a sport with some similarities to pole vaulting. A jump consists of an intense sprint to the pole ("polsstok"), jumping and grabbing it, then climbing to the top while trying to control the pole's forward and lateral movements over a body of water and finishing with a graceful landing on a sand bed opposite to the starting point. Because of all the diverse skills required in fierljeppen, fierljeppers are considered to be very complete athletes with superbly developed strength and coordination. In the warmer months, many Frisians practice "wadlopen", the traditional art of wading across designated sections of the Wadden Sea at low tide.


title: Friesland

text: Friesland has lots of waterways and lake s there for Sailcontests with a Skutsje or frisian Tjalk is done during the summer on various lakes.


title: Friesland

text: There are currently two top level football clubs playing in Friesland: SC Cambuur from Leeuwarden (home stadium Cambuur Stadion) and SC Heerenveen (home stadium Abe Lenstra Stadion).


title: Friesland

text: The King's Commissioner of Friesland is Arno Brok. The Provincial Council of Friesland has 43 seats. The Provincial Executive is a coalition of the Christian Democratic Appeal, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, the Labour Party and the Frisian National Party (FNP).


title: Friesland

text: The main railway station of Friesland is Leeuwarden, which connects the railways Arnhem–Leeuwarden, Harlingen–Nieuweschans, and Leeuwarden–Stavoren which are all (partially) located in the province.


title: Friesland

text: Ameland Airport near Ballum and Drachten Airfield near Drachten are the two small general aviation airports in the province. The Royal Netherlands Air Force uses Vlieland Heliport and the Leeuwarden Air Base.


title: Friesland

text: "Friesch Dagblad" and "Leeuwarder Courant" are daily newspapers mainly written in Dutch. Omrop Fryslân is the public broadcaster with radio and TV programs mainly in Frisian.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: Nilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" Lahiri (born July 11, 1967) is an American author known for her short stories, novels and essays in English, and, more recently, in Italian.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: Her debut collection of short-stories "Interpreter of Maladies" (1999) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Hemingway Award, and her first novel, "The Namesake" (2003), was adapted into the popular film of the same name.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: "The Namesake" was a New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist and was made into a major motion picture. "Unaccustomed Earth" (2008) won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, while her second novel, "The Lowland" (2013), was a finalist for both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction. On January 22, 2015, Lahiri won the US$50,000 DSC Prize for Literature for "The Lowland" In these works, Lahiri explored the Indian-immigrant experience in America. In 2011, Lahiri moved to Rome, Italy and has since then published two books of essays, and in 2018, published her first novel in Italian called "Dove mi trovo" and also compiled, edited and translated the "Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories" which consists of 40 Italian short stories written by 40 different Italian writers. She has also translated some of her own writings and those of other authors from Italian into English.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: In 2014, Lahiri was awarded the National Humanities Medal. She was a professor of creative writing at Princeton University from 2015 to 2022. In 2022, she became the Millicent C. McIntosh Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at her "alma mater", Barnard College of Columbia University.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: Lahiri was born in London, the daughter of Indian immigrants from the Indian state of West Bengal. Her family moved to the United States when she was three; Lahiri considers herself an American and has said, "I wasn't born here, but I might as well have been." Lahiri grew up in Kingston, Rhode Island, where her father Amar Lahiri worked as a librarian at the University of Rhode Island; the protagonist in "The Third and Final Continent", the story which concludes "Interpreter of Maladies", is modeled after him. Lahiri's mother wanted her children to grow up knowing their Bengali heritage, and her family often visited relatives in Calcutta (now Kolkata).


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: When Lahiri began kindergarten in Kingston, Rhode Island, her teacher decided to call her by her familiar name Jhumpa because it was easier to pronounce than her more formal given names. Lahiri recalled, "I always felt so embarrassed by my name... You feel like you're causing someone pain just by being who you are." Her ambivalence over her identity was the inspiration for the mixed feelings of Gogol, the protagonist of her novel "The Namesake", over his own unusual name. In an editorial in "Newsweek", Lahiri claims that she has "felt intense pressure to be two things, loyal to the old world and fluent in the new." Much of her experiences growing up as a child were marked by these two sides tugging away at one another. When she became an adult, she found that she was able to be part of these two dimensions without the embarrassment and struggle that she had when she was a child. Lahiri graduated from South Kingstown High School and received her B.A. in English literature from Barnard College of Columbia University in 1989.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: Lahiri then earned advanced degrees from Boston University: an M.A. in English, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing, an M.A. in Comparative Literature, and a Ph.D. in Renaissance Studies. Her dissertation, completed in 1997, was titled "Accursed Palace: The Italian palazzo on the Jacobean stage (1603–1625)". Her principal advisers were William Carroll (English) and Hellmut Wohl (Art History). She took a fellowship at Provincetown's Fine Arts Work Center, which lasted for the next two years (1997–1998). Lahiri has taught creative writing at Boston University and the Rhode Island School of Design.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: In 2001, Lahiri married Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, a journalist who was then deputy editor of "TIME" Latin America, and who is now senior editor of "TIME" Latin America. In 2012, Lahiri moved to Rome with her husband and their two children, Octavio (born 2002) and Noor (b. 2005). On July 1, 2015, Lahiri joined the Princeton University faculty as a professor of creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: Lahiri's early short stories faced rejection from publishers "for years". Her debut short story collection, "Interpreter of Maladies", was finally released in 1999. The stories address sensitive dilemmas in the lives of Indians or Indian immigrants, with themes such as marital difficulties, the bereavement over a stillborn child, and the disconnection between first and second generation United States immigrants. Lahiri later wrote, "When I first started writing I was not conscious that my subject was the Indian-American experience. What drew me to my craft was the desire to force the two worlds I occupied to mingle on the page as I was not brave enough, or mature enough, to allow in life." The collection was praised by American critics, but received mixed reviews in India, where reviewers were alternately enthusiastic and upset Lahiri had "not paint[ed] Indians in a more positive light." "Interpreter of Maladies" sold 600,000 copies and received the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (only the seventh time a story collection had won the award).


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: In 2003, Lahiri published her first novel, "The Namesake". The theme and plot of this story was influenced in part by a family story she heard growing up. Her father's cousin was involved in a train wreck and was only saved when the workers saw a beam of light reflected off of a watch he was wearing. Similarly, the protagonist's father in "The Namesake" was rescued because his peers recognized the books that he read by Russian author Nikolai Gogol. The father and his wife emigrated to the United States as young adults. After this life-changing experience, he named his son Gogol and his daughter Sonali. Together the two children grow up in a culture with different mannerisms and customs that clash with what their parents have taught them. A film adaptation of "The Namesake" was released in March 2007, directed by Mira Nair and starring Kal Penn as Gogol and Bollywood stars Tabu and Irrfan Khan as his parents. Lahiri herself made a cameo as "Aunt Jhumpa".


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: Lahiri's second collection of short stories, "Unaccustomed Earth", was released on April 1, 2008. Upon its publication, "Unaccustomed Earth" achieved the rare distinction of debuting at number 1 on "The New York Times" best seller list. "New York Times Book Review" editor, Dwight Garner, stated, "It's hard to remember the last genuinely serious, well-written work of fiction—particularly a book of stories—that leapt straight to No. 1; it's a powerful demonstration of Lahiri's newfound commercial clout."


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: Lahiri has also had a relationship with "The New Yorker" magazine, in which she has published short stories and non-fiction.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: Since 2005, Lahiri has been a vice president of the PEN American Center, an organization designed to promote friendship and intellectual cooperation among writers.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: In February 2010, she was appointed a member of the Committee on the Arts and Humanities, along with five others.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: In September 2013, her novel "The Lowland" was placed on the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize, which ultimately went to "The Luminaries" by Eleanor Catton. The following month it was also long-listed for the National Book Award for Fiction, and revealed to be a finalist on October 16, 2013. However, on November 20, 2013, it lost out for that award to James McBride and his novel "The Good Lord Bird".


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: In December 2015, Lahiri published a non-fiction essay called "Teach Yourself Italian" in "The New Yorker" about her experience learning Italian. In the essay she declared that she is now only writing in Italian, and the essay itself was translated from Italian to English. That same year, she published her first book in Italian, "In altre parole", in which she wrote her book about her experience learning the language; an English translation by Ann Goldstein titled "In Other Words" was published in 2016.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: Lahiri was the winner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2015 for her book "The Lowland" at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival for which she entered Limca Book of Records.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: In 2018, Lahiri published her first novel in Italian, "Dove mi trovo" (2018). In 2019, she compiled, edited and translated the "Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories" which consists of 40 Italian short stories written by 40 different Italian writers.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: Lahiri's writing is characterized by her "plain" language and her characters, often Indian immigrants to America who must navigate between the cultural values of their homeland and their adopted home.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: Lahiri's fiction is autobiographical and frequently draws upon her own experiences as well as those of her parents, friends, acquaintances, and others in the Bengali communities with which she is familiar. Lahiri examines her characters' struggles, anxieties, and biases to chronicle the nuances and details of immigrant psychology and behavior.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: Until "Unaccustomed Earth", she focused mostly on first-generation Indian American immigrants and their struggle to raise a family in a country very different from theirs. Her stories describe their efforts to keep their children acquainted with Indian culture and traditions and to keep them close even after they have grown up in order to hang onto the Indian tradition of a joint family, in which the parents, their children and the children's families live under the same roof.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: "Unaccustomed Earth" departs from this earlier original ethos, as Lahiri's characters embark on new stages of development. These stories scrutinize the fate of the second and third generations. As succeeding generations become increasingly assimilated into American culture and are comfortable in constructing perspectives outside of their country of origin, Lahiri's fiction shifts to the needs of the individual. She shows how later generations depart from the constraints of their immigrant parents, who are often devoted to their community and their responsibility to other immigrants.


title: Jhumpa Lahiri

text: Lahiri worked on the third season of the HBO television program "In Treatment". That season featured a character named Sunil, a widower who moves to the United States from India and struggles with grief and with culture shock. Although she is credited as a writer on these episodes, her role was more as a consultant on how a Bengali man might perceive Brooklyn.


title: Sam Altman

text: Samuel H. Altman ( ; born April 22, 1985) is an American entrepreneur, investor, programmer, and blogger. He is the CEO of OpenAI and the former president of Y Combinator.


title: Sam Altman

text: Altman grew up in St. Louis, Missouri; his mother is a dermatologist. He received his first computer at the age of 8. He was raised Jewish. He attended John Burroughs School for high school and studied computer science at Stanford University until dropping out in 2005. In 2017, he received an honorary degree from the University of Waterloo. Altman is gay, and has been out since his youth.


title: Sam Altman

text: In 2005, at age 19, Altman co-founded and became CEO of Loopt, a location-based social networking mobile application. After raising more than $30M in venture capital, Loopt was shut down in 2012 after failing to get traction. It was acquired by the Green Dot Corporation for $43.4 million.


title: Sam Altman

text: Altman began as a part-time partner at Y Combinator in 2011. In February 2014, Altman was named president of Y Combinator by its cofounder Paul Graham. His first batch of investments included Loopt. In a 2014 blog post, Altman said that the total valuation of Y Combinator companies had surpassed $65 billion, including well-known companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, Zenefits and Stripe. In September 2016, Altman announced that he would become president of YC Group, which included Y Combinator and other units.


title: Sam Altman

text: Altman said that he hoped to expand Y Combinator to fund 1,000 new companies per year. He also tried to expand the types of companies funded by YC, especially 'hard technology' companies.


title: Sam Altman

text: In October 2015, Altman announced YC Continuity, a $700 million growth-stage equity fund that invests in YC companies. Also in October 2015, Altman announced Y Combinator Research, a non-profit research lab, and donated $10 million to the group. YC Research has thus far announced research on basic income, the future of computing, education, and building new cities.


title: Sam Altman

text: Altman was named the top investor under 30 by "Forbes" in 2015, one of the "Best Young Entrepreneurs in Technology" by "BusinessWeek" in 2008 and listed as one of the five most interesting startup founders between 1979 and 2009 by his colleague Paul Graham.


title: Sam Altman

text: In March 2019, YC announced Altman's transitioning into a Chairman position to focus more on OpenAI. This decision came shortly after YC announced it would be moving its headquarters to San Francisco. As of early 2020, he is no longer affiliated with YC.


title: Sam Altman

text: He is an investor in many companies, including Airbnb, Stripe, Reddit, Asana, Pinterest, Teespring, Zenefits, FarmLogs, True North, Shoptiques, Instacart, Optimizely, Verbling, Soylent, Reserve, Vicarious, Clever, Notable PDF (now Kami) and Change.org.


title: Sam Altman

text: He was the CEO of Reddit for eight days in 2014 after CEO Yishan Wong resigned. He announced the return of Steve Huffman as CEO on July 10, 2015.


title: Sam Altman

text: He is chairman of the board for Helion and Oklo, two nuclear energy companies. He has said that nuclear energy is one of the most important areas of technological development.


title: Sam Altman

text: Altman is the CEO of OpenAI. OpenAI is a for-profit research company whose goal is to advance digital intelligence in a way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, rather than cause harm. The organization was initially funded by Altman, Brockman, Elon Musk, Jessica Livingston, Peter Thiel, Amazon Web Services, Infosys and YC Research. In total, when the company launched in 2015, they had raised $1 billion from outside funders.


title: Sam Altman

text: Altman co-founded Worldcoin in 2020. Worldcoin aims to give its new digital money to every human on Earth for free by using privacy-preserving iris recognition to ensure that its users do not claim their free share more than once. Worldcoin paused its work in multiple countries after local contractors departed or regulations made doing business impossible.


title: Sam Altman

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic Altman helped fund and create Project Covalence which aimed to help researchers rapidly launch clinical trials in partnership with TrialSpark, a clinical trial startup.


title: Sam Altman

text: In 2019 Altman held a fundraiser at his house in San Francisco for Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.


title: Sam Altman

text: In May 2020 Altman donated $250k to American Bridge 21st century, a Super-PAC supporting Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.


title: Generation Kill (miniseries)

text: Generation Kill is an American seven-part television miniseries produced for HBO that aired from July 13 to August 24, 2008. It is based on Evan Wright's 2004 book about his experience as an embedded reporter with the US Marine Corps' 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, adapted for television by David Simon, Ed Burns, and Wright. The miniseries was directed by Susanna White and Simon Cellan Jones and produced by Andrea Calderwood. The ensemble cast includes Alexander Skarsgård as Sergeant Brad 'Iceman' Colbert, James Ransone as Corporal Josh Ray Person, and Lee Tergesen as Wright.


title: Generation Kill (miniseries)

text: The cable channel HBO gave the go-ahead to a seven-part miniseries, based on Evan Wright's book about his experiences as an embedded reporter with the U.S. Marine Corps' 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during the Iraq War's first phase. The series is set during the invasion of Iraq, from late March to early April 2003. The miniseries was shot over a six-month shoot from mid-to-late 2007 in South Africa, Mozambique, and Namibia. The primary production value aspired to was authenticity. The miniseries was produced on a budget of $56 million.


title: Generation Kill (miniseries)

text: David Simon and Ed Burns co-wrote and executive produced the miniseries alongside Company Pictures' George Faber and Charles Pattinson, and HBO's Anne Thomopoulos. Andrea Calderwood was the producer; Nina Noble served as co-executive producer; author Evan Wright was credited as a consulting producer; Susanna White and Simon Cellan Jones directed the episodes; and two former U.S. Marines, Eric Kocher and Rudy Reyes, served as the production's military advisors as well as starred in the series.


title: Generation Kill (miniseries)

text: There are 28 starring cast members with a large supporting cast. The majority of the characters were drawn from the Second Platoon of the First Reconnaissance Battalion's Bravo Company. Lee Tergesen played embedded reporter Evan Wright, though throughout the series he's only referred to as "reporter" or "Rolling Stone". Wright was assigned to the lead vehicle of Bravo Company, which he shared with Staff Sergeant Brad "Iceman" Colbert, played by Alexander Skarsgård, Corporal Josh Ray Person, played by James Ransone and Lance Corporal Harold James Trombley, played by Billy Lush. To prepare for their roles as Recon Marines, the cast attended a six-day boot camp led by Eric Kocher and Rudy Reyes.


title: Generation Kill (miniseries)

text: Although the series has no score, it features a large collection of music, much of it songs that were popular among the American populace in late 2002 and early 2003. The newer music (in the show's context) serves to illustrate pop culture during the time of the invasion. All of the songs are sung "a cappella" by cast members, with the exception of Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around" and Josh Ray Person's "Re-Up Time".


title: Generation Kill (miniseries)

text: The miniseries received very positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic, it received a score of 80 out of 100 based on 27 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On Rotten Tomatoes, the miniseries has an approval rating of 86% based on 42 reviews, with an average rating of 9.1/10. The critical consensus reads, ""Generation Kill" plunges the viewer into war with a visceral force that's still somehow reined in by masterful storytelling and a strong command of period details."


title: Generation Kill (miniseries)

text: "Entertainment Weekly" gave the series an "A−" rating, and critic Ken Tucker remarked favorably on its avoidance of cliché, self-consciousness, and agenda-driven storytelling, and praised its execution, nuance, and verisimilitude. Robert Bianco of "USA Today" wrote: "the seven-part "Generation Kill" is what you'd hope for from the people behind "The Wire": an honest, barely adorned, sometimes painfully vivid representation of life as we live it now. It's journalism converted to art, with both benefiting". Austin Smith of the "New York Post", however, was not as impressed; he described the series "as dull and throbbing as a severe headache".


title: Generation Kill (miniseries)

text: A red carpet screening of "Generation Kill" was held for U.S. Marines at Camp Pendleton in California, where the series was favorably received.


title: Joint Task Force 2

text: Joint Task Force 2 (JTF 2; ) is an elite special operations force of the Canadian Armed Forces, serving under the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command. JTF 2 is known to work with other special operations forces such as Delta Force, Seal Team Six the British SAS and the British SBS. The unit has distinguished itself as a world-class special operations unit.


title: Joint Task Force 2

text: Serving as the centrepiece of Canadian special operations, JTF 2 is primarily tasked with counter-terrorism operations, both domestic and abroad, and specializes in direct action, special reconnaissance and surveillance, hostage rescue, protective security, foreign internal defence and other high-value tasks. Much of the information regarding JTF 2 is classified, and is not commented on by the Government of Canada.


title: Joint Task Force 2

text: In 1992, Deputy Minister of Defence Robert Fowler announced he was recommending to Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn that he disband the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) and create a new military counter-terrorism group. The decision was made largely because the Canadian Forces offered a greater pool of recruits for the program than civilian police forces, and it stemmed the public uproar about police being taught to use primarily lethal means.


title: Joint Task Force 2

text: In early 1993, the unit was activated with just over 100 members, primarily drawn from the Canadian Airborne Regiment and Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. They were given the SERT facility on Dwyer Hill Road near Ottawa as their own base of operations, and permanently parked a Greyhound bus and a DC-9 aircraft on the grounds for use in training.


title: Joint Task Force 2

text: Its first scheduled action was Operation Campus, the protection of highways and water treatment plants around the Oka reserve while a police force tried to "crack down on smuggling" on the native reserve, immediately following the Oka crisis. However two daily newspapers in Quebec revealed the operation just days before it was to go into action, and it was cancelled.


title: Joint Task Force 2

text: The federal budget of December 2001 allocated approximately $120 million over six years to expand unit capabilities and double its size to an estimated 600 personnel, as part of the overall plan following the attacks of September 11, 2001.


title: Joint Task Force 2

text: Joint Task Force 2's motto is , Latin for "deeds not words". JTF 2 does not carry individual battle honours, but instead also shares the motto ("everywhere") with The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery and the Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers.


title: Joint Task Force 2

text: JTF 2 forces were inserted into Bosnia, operating in two- to four-man teams hunting for Serbian snipers who were targeting UN forces at the sniper alley. They were scheduled to free approximately 55 hostages in Operation Freedom 55, but the mission was cancelled as the Bosnian Serbs released all the prisoners voluntarily.