Curated playlist

20th-century American memoirists

F. Scott FitzgeraldF. Scott Fitzgerald died in 1940 believing his work was forgotten. The Great Gatsby later sold millions.
Ernest HemingwayErnest Hemingway, only 18, carried Italian soldiers to safety despite being seriously wounded by mortar fire.
Richard NixonRichard Nixon was the only U.S. president to resign. He left office on the 9th of August, 1974, over Watergate.
George W. BushGeorge W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, was standing at a press conference in Baghdad on the 14th of December 2008 when an Iraqi journalist named Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw both of his shoes at him. Bush ducked, and neither…
Clark GableA Warner Bros. executive once rejected Clark Gable because his ears were too big. He said Gable looked like an ape.
Katharine HepburnKatharine Hepburn bought out her own studio contract after theater owners called her box office poison.
Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut survived the bombing of Dresden by hiding in an underground meat locker.
Joan CrawfordA 1938 ad called Joan Crawford "box office poison," but Mildred Pierce later won her an Academy Award.
Robert MitchumRobert Mitchum, the American film actor and singer, gave critic Roger Ebert a picture that never faded. Ebert named him his favorite movie star and praised his "deep, laconic voice and his long face and those famous weary eyes." Ebert saw…
Colin PowellOn the 5th of February 2003, Colin Powell addressed the United Nations Security Council. He told the council: "there can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more." The…
Bette DavisBette Davis's tombstone reads, "She did it the hard way." A director suggested the epitaph after All About Eve.
Elia KazanIn 1952, Elia Kazan gave a congressional committee the names of eight former colleagues.
Jack L. WarnerJack Warner once rushed onstage at the Oscars and took a trophy that was not his. The prize was for Casablanca.
Lyndon B. JohnsonLyndon B. Johnson took the presidential oath from a woman, a first for any American president.
Truman CapoteOn the 23rd of August 1984, Truman Capote boarded a flight from New York to Los Angeles with a granny-square baby blanket. A relative he called Sook had made it for him when he was small. Friends said he was seldom without it, even when he…
Arthur MillerArthur Miller wrote Death of a Salesman in less than six weeks. He finished the first act in less than a day.
Harry S. TrumanHarry Truman became president knowing nothing about the atomic bomb. He had been vice president for only 82 days.
Malcolm XMalcolm X left the Nation of Islam in 1964 and flew to Mecca. There he saw Muslims of all colors treated as equals.
Sammy Davis Jr.Sammy Davis Jr. once answered a simple golf question with a line that became his signature. Playing a round with Jack Benny, he was asked what his handicap was. Davis replied, "Handicap?" and then went on: "Talk about handicap. I'm a…
Katharine GrahamKatharine Graham was running The Washington Post in 1972 when the attorney general of the United States threatened her through a reporter. John Mitchell, who served under President Richard Nixon, spoke to the Post reporter Carl Bernstein…
Carrie FisherCarrie Fisher once asked to be reported as drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra.
Vladimir NabokovNovelist Vladimir Nabokov also named butterfly species, and later genetic research backed his theory.
Ram Dass"I didn't have one whiff of God until I took psychedelics." That is how Ram Dass, born Richard Alpert, described his early self to a writer for Tufts Magazine in 2006. He said he had been inured to religion. This is a striking thing to…
Eugene SledgeEugene Sledge carried a pocket-sized New Testament through the fighting in the Pacific, and he filled its pages with notes about what happened around him. Those notes outlasted the war. So did the young Marine who wrote them, though few of…
Ludwig von MisesNazi troops raided Ludwig von Mises's Vienna apartment and took his papers. He was already in Geneva.
Anthony BourdainAnthony Bourdain was filming an episode of his series No Reservations in Beirut in July 2006 when a war cut the shoot short. The Israel-Lebanon conflict broke out after his crew had recorded only a few hours of footage. What the producers…
Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov coined the word "robotics" in a 1941 story, thinking it was just a natural term.
Timothy LearyTimothy Leary escaped prison in September 1970 by climbing a telephone wire over the wall.
Joseph BonannoJoseph Bonanno, nicknamed Joe Bananas, headed a New York crime family from 1931 until 1968. He took command at just 26, which made him one of the youngest bosses any crime family has ever had. On the 21st of October 1964, the day before he…
Eric RudolphEric Robert Rudolph was picking through a dumpster behind a Save-A-Lot store in Murphy, North Carolina, at about four in the morning on the 31st of May 2003. A rookie officer named Jeffrey Scott Postell, on routine patrol, assumed he was…
Carl PanzramCarl Panzram told investigators that he had murdered twenty-one boys and men, yet only five of those killings could ever be confirmed. Authorities suspect the real toll in the United States alone passes one hundred, with more victims in…
George de MohrenschildtGeorge de Mohrenschildt was a Russian-born petroleum geologist who, as a young man in New York, let a girl named Jacqueline Bouvier sit on his knee and call him Uncle George. She grew up to become First Lady. He grew up to become one of…
Jesse VenturaJesse Ventura, born James George Janos, stood before a crowd in November 1998 and declared, "We shocked the world!" He had a point. A man known to millions as a loud, villain-loving wrestling announcer had just won the governor's office of…