As Anglo-Irish tensions tore his country apart, William Butler Yeats sought to give Ireland songs of identity rooted in the island's particular history and myth. Invoking a strong sense of place and folk tradition, Yeats attempted to counter the rapid growth of industry and materialism that he saw as
Born in New York's Harlem in 1915, Arthur Miller was not a good student. After a lackluster high school career, he was ready to join his father's clothing business when he read Dostoyevsky's "Brothers Karamazov." Suddenly, the world changed -- Miller decided to dedicate his life to reading and writin