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Rosie O'Donnell

Roseann O'Donnell (born March 21, 1962) is an American comedian, television producer, actress, author, and television personality. She began her comedy career as a teenager and received her breakthrough on the television series Star Search in 1984. After a series of television and film roles that introduced her to a larger national audience, O'Donnell hosted her own syndicated daytime talk show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, between 1996 and 2002, which won several Daytime Emmy Awards. During this period, she developed the nickname "Queen of Nice", as well as a reputation for philanthropic efforts.

From 2006 to 2007, O'Donnell endured a controversial run as the moderator on the daytime talk show The View, which included a public feud with Donald Trump and on-air disputes regarding the Bush administration's policies with the Iraq War. She hosted Rosie Radio on Sirius XM Radio between 2009 and 2011, and from 2011 to 2012 hosted a second, short-lived talk show on OWN, The Rosie Show. O'Donnell returned to The View in 2014, leaving after a brief five-month run due to personal issues. From 2017 to 2019, she starred on the Showtime comedy series SMILF.

In addition to comedy, film, and television, O'Donnell has also been a magazine editor, celebrity blogger, and author of several memoirs, including Find Me (2002) and Celebrity Detox (2007). She used the Find Me $3 million advance to establish her For All foundation and promote other charity projects, encouraging celebrities on her show to take part.

She has also been an outspoken advocate for lesbian rights and gay adoption issues. O'Donnell is a foster and adoptive mother. She was named The Advocate 2002 Person of the Year; in May 2003, she became a regular contributor to the magazine. O'Donnell also continues to be a television producer and a collaborative partner in the LGBT family vacation company R Family Vacations.

Early life
O'Donnell, the third of five children, was born and raised in Commack, Long Island, New York. Her parents were homemaker Roseann Teresa (née Murtha; 1934–1973) and Edward Joseph O'Donnell (1933–2015), an electrical engineer who worked in the defense industry. Edward had emigrated from County Donegal, Ireland during his childhood, and her mother was Irish American. O'Donnell was raised Roman Catholic. Her older brother is Daniel J. O'Donnell, now a member of the New York State Assembly. On March 17, 1973, four days before O'Donnell's 11th birthday, her mother died from breast cancer. While she attended Commack High School, O'Donnell was voted homecoming queen, prom queen, senior class president, and class clown. During high school, she began exploring her interest in comedy, beginning with a skit performed in front of the school in which she imitated Gilda Radner's character Roseanne Roseannadanna. After graduating in 1980, O'Donnell briefly attended Dickinson College, later transferring to Boston University before ultimately dropping out of college.

1979–1995: Stand-up and early work
O'Donnell toured as a stand-up comedian in clubs from 1979 to 1984. She got her first big break on Star Search, explaining on Larry King Live:

"I was 20 years old, and I was at a comedy club in Long Island. This woman came over to me and she said, I think you're funny. Can you give me your number? My dad is Ed McMahon. I was like, yeah, right. I gave her my father's phone number. I was living at home, I'm like, whatever. And about three days later, the talent booker from Star Search called and said, we're going to fly you out to L.A. ... I won, like, five weeks in a row. And it gave me national exposure."

After this success, she moved on to television sitcoms, making her series debut as Nell Harper's neighbor on Gimme a Break! in 1986. In 1988, she joined music video station VH1's lineup of veejays. She started hosting a series for VH1, Stand-up Spotlight, a showcase for up-and-coming comedians. In 1992, she starred in Stand By Your Man, a Fox Network sitcom co-starring Melissa Gilbert. The show bombed, just as O'Donnell's film career took off. O'Donnell made her feature film debut in A League of Their Own (1992) alongside Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, and Madonna. She was originally considered for the role of Mary Sanderson in Disney's Hocus Pocus, but it was ultimately given to Kathy Najimy. O'Donnell claimed on her blog that she turned down the offer to work with Bette Midler because she refused to portray a frightening evil witch. Throughout her career, she has taken on an eclectic range of roles: she appeared in Sleepless in Seattle as Meg Ryan's character's best friend; as Betty Rubble in the live-action film adaptation of The Flintstones with John Goodman, Elizabeth Perkins, and Rick Moranis; as one of Timothy Hutton's co-stars in Beautiful Girls; as a federal agent comedically paired with Dan Aykroyd in Exit to Eden; as the voice of a tomboyish female gorilla named Terk in Disney's Tarzan; and as a baseball-loving nun in M. Night Shyamalan's Wide Awake.

O'Donnell was considered for the role of Elaine Benes on Seinfeld.

1996–2002: The Rosie O'Donnell Show
In 1996, she began hosting a daytime talk show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, for her production company KidRo Productions. The show proved very successful, winning multiple Emmy Awards, and earning O'Donnell the title of "The Queen of Nice" for her style of light-hearted banter with her guests and interactions with the audience. As part of her playful banter with her studio audience, O'Donnell often launched koosh balls at the crowd and camera. She also professed an infatuation with Tom Cruise.

With New York City as the show's home base, O'Donnell displayed her love of Broadway musicals and plays by having cast members as guests, encouraging the audience to see shows, premiering production numbers as well as promoting shows with ticket giveaways.

After the Columbine shootings, O'Donnell became an outspoken supporter of gun control and a major figure in the Million Mom March. During the April 19, 1999, broadcast of her talk show, she stated, "You are not allowed to own a gun, and if you do own a gun, I think you should go to prison." O'Donnell previously had remarked, "I don't personally own a gun, but if you are qualified, licensed and registered, I have no problem." In May 1999, a month after the Columbine shootings, O'Donnell interviewed Tom Selleck, who was promoting The Love Letter. O'Donnell interrogated him about his recent unpaid commercial for the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) and questioned him about the NRA's position on the use of "assault weapons". She said at the end of the segment the conversation had "not gone the way I had hoped" and added "if you feel insulted by my questions, I apologize because it was not a personal attack. It was meant to bring up the subject as it is in the consciousness of so many today." Ironically, O'Donnell at that time was a multi-million dollar paid spokesperson for 5 years for Kmart, which was the largest volume firearms retailer in the United States. Around the same time, the cast from Annie Get Your Gun was to appear on the show but refused O'Donnell's request to remove the line "I can shoot a partridge with a single cartridge" from the song "Anything You Can Do" and agreed to perform "My Defenses Are Down" instead.

Later in 1999, O'Donnell discontinued her contract with Kmart as their spokeswoman, as gun enthusiasts complained that she should not be the spokesperson for the largest gun retailer. O'Donnell countered that Kmart sells hunting rifles, not handguns or assault weapons and does so legally, which she supports. Both Kmart and O'Donnell denied publicly that Kmart had terminated the contract. In May 2000, O'Donnell's bodyguard applied for a concealed firearm permit. O'Donnell stated that the security firm contracted by Warner Bros. requested the gun. O'Donnell stated that because of threats, she and her family need protection.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Broadway and tourism in New York City was down and many shows were in danger of closing. O'Donnell was among many in the entertainment field who encouraged viewers to visit and support the performing arts. She announced that she would donate 1 million dollars for aid in the rescue efforts and encouraged other celebrities and citizens alike to "give till it hurts".

In 2002, she left her talk show. The show was replaced by The Caroline Rhea Show, with comedian Caroline Rhea, which ran for one additional season.

O'Donnell was a guest star on an episode of HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm entitled "The Bowtie".

2006–2007: The View
In September 2006, O'Donnell replaced Meredith Vieira as a co-host and moderator of The View, a daytime women-oriented talk show. Star Jones, a co-host on the show, quit, with some speculating Jones's conservative views would be in constant tension with O'Donnell's more liberal counterpoint. O'Donnell had also disputed Jones's route of rapid weight loss, alluding that it must have been through gastric bypass surgery, rather than dieting and exercise alone as Jones had insisted, which also fed speculation about certain tension between the two. (Jones later confirmed that surgery was involved.) O'Donnell is credited with keeping the show's "buzz factor up". She is also credited with making it more news-focused, though it still embraced the "fluff" of daytime TV talk shows (celebrities, fashion, and food). Despite an overall downward trend for most daytime broadcast shows, ratings rose by 27% during O'Donnell's first year on The View. The show was the fourth-most-watched in all of daytime in the key demographic of women ages 18–49 and scored record ratings in the total viewer category with an average of 3.4 million viewers—up 15% versus the same time in 2005. O'Donnell moderated the opening "Hot Topics" portion of the show, where news items were discussed. O'Donnell gave the show a more political slant, and she and fellow comic Joy Behar often gave strong opinions against former President Bush's domestic and foreign policies, including the Iraq War. As a conservative counterpoint, Elisabeth Hasselbeck would usually support the Bush administration's policies and the two would get into an adversarial give-and-take.

Encouraged by the show to be outspoken, O'Donnell sometimes provoked debate, at one time stating "radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam." On the February 24, 2003, episode of Phil Donahue's talk show, O'Donnell referred to the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Boston resulting in $157 million awarded to 983 claimants, stating "I hope the Catholic Church gets sued until the end of time. Maybe, you know, we can melt down some of the gold toilets in the Pope's Vatican and pay off some of the lawsuits because, the whole tenet of living a Christ-like life, has been lost in Catholicism."

O'Donnell joked about communion rituals alongside co-host Behar's drunk priest comments. On April 19, 2007, the panel discussed the Supreme Court of the United States's ruling in Gonzales v. Carhart, a decision upholding the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. O'Donnell cited a Florynce Kennedy quote, "If men could get pregnant abortion would be a sacrament" and asked rhetorically "How many Supreme Court judges are Catholic?" and "How about separation of church and state?" Some conservative commentators deemed her statements "anti-Catholic bigotry" and suggested that such statements against other religions would not be tolerated. O'Donnell's outspokenness and spontaneousness sometimes led to her views being recirculated by other media outlets, often surprising The View co-hosts including O'Donnell. Frequently portrayed unfavorably by conservative media outlets and what she deemed as Republican pundits, O'Donnell lamented that they were focusing on her comments instead of more important national and world issues.

On December 5, 2006, O'Donnell used a series of ching chongs to imitate newscasters in China. Vanessa Hua of the San Francisco Chronicle expressed disappointment in O'Donnell, given the comedian's championing of LGBT rights. On December 14, O'Donnell apologized to those she offended, explaining that "Some people have told me it's as bad as the n-word. I was like, really? I didn't know that." O'Donnell warned that "there's a good chance I'll do something like that again, probably in the next week, not on purpose. Only 'cause it's how my brain works." Time called it a "pseudo-apology". O'Donnell later wrote in Celebrity Detox that "I wish I had been a bit more pure in my public apology."

In December 2006, O'Donnell criticized Donald Trump for holding a press conference to reinstate Miss USA Tara Conner, who had violated pageant guidelines, accusing him of using her scandal to "generate publicity for the Miss USA Pageant" (to which he owns the rights) by announcing he was giving her a second chance. O'Donnell commented that due to Trump's multiple marital affairs and questionable business bankruptcies, he was not a moral authority for young people in America. She stated, "Left the first wife, had an affair. Left the second wife, had an affair – but he's the moral compass for 20-year-olds in America." In response, Trump began a "vicious" mass media blitz in which he appeared on various television shows, either in person or by phone, threatening to sue O'Donnell (he never did). He called her names, threatened to take away her partner Kelli, and claimed that Barbara Walters regretted hiring her. Walters was stuck in the middle as a social acquaintance of Trump's, and said O'Donnell did not feel like Walters defended her enough, which led to what both women agreed was an unfortunate confrontation in one of the dressing rooms. "I had pain and hurt and rejection," O'Donnell said, "sometimes [my emotions] overwhelm me. Sometimes I get flooded." Walters denied that she was unhappy with O'Donnell, saying, "I have never regretted, nor do I now, the hiring of Rosie O'Donnell."

On April 25, 2007, ABC announced that O'Donnell would be leaving the show before the end of the year because of a failure to reach agreement on a new contract.

O'Donnell condemned many of the Bush administration's policies, especially the war in Iraq and the resulting occupation. She also questioned the official explanation for the destruction of the World Trade Center, and stating in one episode, "I do believe that it's the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel". She consistently mentioned recent military deaths and news about the war and criticized the U.S. media for its lack of attention to these issues compared to media coverage throughout the world. This led to a series of heated exchanges with co-host Hasselbeck, as well as "the most-discussed moment of her professional life." On May 17, 2007, O'Donnell rhetorically asked, "655,000 Iraqi civilians dead. Who are the terrorists? ... if you were in Iraq and another country, the United States, the richest in the world, invaded your country and killed 655,000 of your citizens, what would you call us?" Conservative commentators criticized O'Donnell's statements, saying that she was comparing American soldiers to terrorists. On May 23, 2007, a heated discussion ensued, in part, because of what O'Donnell perceived as Elisabeth Hasselbeck's unwillingness to defend O'Donnell from the criticisms; O'Donnell asked Hasselbeck, "Do you believe I think our troops are terrorists?" Hasselbeck answered in the negative but also stated "Defend your own insinuations." O'Donnell was hurt and felt Hasselbeck had betrayed her friendship: "there's something about somebody being different on TV toward you than they are in the dressing room. It didn't really ring true for me." O'Donnell stated that Republican pundits were mischaracterising her statements and the right-wing media would portray her as a bully, attacking "innocent pure Christian Elisabeth" whenever they disagreed. O'Donnell decided to leave the show that day, but afterwards stated that the reason was not the argument itself, but rather the fact that she saw on the studio monitor that the camera had shown a split screen, with her and Hasselbeck on either side. O'Donnell felt that the show's director and producer "had to prepare that in advance ... I felt there was setup egging me into that position. The executive producer and I did not gel." O'Donnell and ABC agreed to cut short her contract agreement on May 25, 2007. ABC News reported that her arguments with Hasselbeck brought the show its best ratings ever. O'Donnell was replaced by Whoopi Goldberg as the moderator of The View.

In May 2007, Time magazine included O'Donnell in their annual list of the 100 most influential people. O'Donnell was named "The Most Annoying Celebrity of 2007" by a PARADE reader's poll, in response she said, "Frankly, most celebrities are annoying ... and I suppose I am the most annoying, but, whatever."

In 2008, The View won an Emmy for "Outstanding Special Class Writing" for a specially themed Autism episode that O'Donnell helped create. Janette Barber, O'Donnell's longtime friend and producer/writer of The Rosie O'Donnell Show, accepted the award on behalf of herself and the other two winners, Christian McKiernan and Andrew Smith.

2007–2012: The Rosie Show and blog
In March 2007, O'Donnell started a video blog, Jahero, on her website Rosie.com answering fans questions, giving behind the scenes information and serving as a video diary. Originally featuring only O'Donnell and her hair and make-up artist Helene Macaulay they were soon joined by her writer from The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Janette Barber. Called Jahero, a name composed of the first two letters of each of their first names, they occasionally had short cameo appearances by View co-hosts Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and Barbara Walters. Jenny McCarthy appeared once briefly, as has Hasselbeck's mother-in-law and O'Donnell's mother-in-law, her (now) ex-wife Kelli's mother. Kathy Griffin also appeared, where she read some of the questions. It became so popular that O'Donnell and her creative team considered an "on the road" version of the video blog using fan-submitted suggestions. O'Donnell was the front runner for the "best celebrity blogger" category in the 2007 Blogger's Choice Awards which she won.

O'Donnell expressed interest in replacing long-time host Bob Barker when he retired from CBS's game show The Price Is Right. Barker was a frequent guest on her talk show and told reporters that she "would make a fine host." Although it was reported he had "endorsed" her as a "possible successor", Barker said that he had no role in choosing his replacement. In June 2007, she announced on her blog it was not going to happen and noted she was reluctant to uproot her family to move to California.

In 2008, O'Donnell starred in and executive produced America, a Lifetime channel film in which she plays the therapist of the title character, a 16-year-old boy aging out of the foster care system. The film is based on the E.R. Frank book of the same name. In October 2009, she appeared in the original cast of Love, Loss, and What I Wore.

In November 2009, "Rosie Radio", a daily two-hour show with O'Donnell discussing news and events on Sirius XM Radio, premiered. O'Donnell said she was approached by the company after she appeared on Howard Stern's Sirius XM show. The radio show ended in June 2011. In 2009, O'Donnell made another guest appearance on Curb Your Enthusiasm, where she beat up Larry twice, in an episode titled Denise Handicapped.

In 2011, O'Donnell began producing material for the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). In May 2011, The Doc Club with Rosie O'Donnell premiered, a show where O'Donnell moderated live panel discussions following premieres of OWN Documentaries. She has hosted specials for Becoming Chaz in May 2011 and Miss Representation in October 2011. In fall 2011, O'Donnell began full-time work on her new show, The Rosie Show, for OWN. The show taped at the Chicago studio formerly home to The Oprah Winfrey Show. The show debuted on October 10, 2011, to generally positive reviews. OWN canceled The Rosie Show on March 16, 2012, with the last show taped March 20, on the eve of O'Donnell's 50th birthday. The final show aired on OWN on March 29, 2012. In a statement, Oprah Winfrey said: "I thank Rosie from the bottom of my heart for joining me on this journey. She has been an incredible partner, working to deliver the best possible show every single day. As I have learned in the last 15 months, a new network launch is always a challenge and ratings grow over time as you continue to gather an audience. I'm grateful to Rosie and the dedicated Rosie Show team for giving it their all." O'Donnell responded to the cancellation by thanking her viewers and the host city of Chicago: "I loved working with Oprah in the amazing city of Chicago. I was welcomed with open arms and will never forget the kindness of all I encountered. It was a great year for me—I wish the show was able to attract more viewers—but it did not. So I am headed back to my home in New York—with gratitude. On we go!"In 2011, O'Donnell made another guest appearance on Curb Your Enthusiasm, competing for the affection of a bisexual woman with Larry in an episode called "The Bi-Sexual".

2013–2016: The Fosters and return to The View
In 2013, O'Donnell appeared in a number of television shows. First, she played "brash but astute" reporter Dottie Shannon in an episode of Bomb Girls, followed by playing the voice of the Bouncing Bumble Queen in Jake and the Never Land Pirates. After that, also in 2013, she appeared in two episodes of Smash as herself. That same year she also appeared as herself in an episode of Impractical Jokers called "Everything's Rosie".

In 2014, O'Donnell landed a reoccurring role as Rita Hendricks on The Fosters, "a tough yet compassionate woman who works for the foster care system and becomes a mentor to a member of the Foster family." The character lasted through their 2016 season.

In the fall of 2014, O'Donnell returned to The View as a co-host, with a newly re-vamped version of the show, along with Whoopi Goldberg returning as moderator and new co-hosts Rosie Perez and Nicolle Wallace. On February 6, 2015, representatives for O'Donnell confirmed she would once again exit the panel. In a statement, made to The Hollywood Reporter, O'Donnell said, "[My health] got a little bit worse right before the holidays — [my doctor] was kind of concerned. ... I can't really fix [my personal life] right away, but I can fix [my job]."

In 2015, O'Donnell made a cameo in Pitch Perfect 2, playing a co-host on The View. Deadline called the cameo "a bit that already seems dated." That same year, she appeared in an episode of Empire, playing Pepper O'Leary, "a tough criminal who shared a cell for years with Cookie Lyon." In preparation for the role, she hired an acting coach and stated, "I prepared for this like I've never prepared for anything in my career, because I didn't want to disappoint and I understood the pace at which they work." O'Donnell also appeared as herself in two documentaries that same year. In April 2015, Roseanne For President! was released, a film about Roseanne Barr's presidential bid in 2012. O'Donnell appeared in the film alongside Michael Moore and Sandra Bernhard. In September 2015, the documentary Everything Is Copy was released, a film by Jacob Bernstein about his mother Nora Ephron. O'Donnell appeared in the documentary to help "bring his mother into focus" along with a number of other celebrities.

In 2016, O'Donnell made a two-episode appearance in the CBS series Mom, playing Jeanine, "the ex-girlfriend of Bonnie (Allison Janney)". That same year, she was also a regular panelist on Match Game and appeared in one episode of The $100,000 Pyramid, where she competed against Kathy Najimy. Later that year, O'Donnell also played the role of the gym teacher in Hairspray Live!

2017–present: Return to acting
In November 2016, Showtime announced she had joined the cast of the comedy pilot SMILF. The series aired from November 5, 2017, until March 31, 2019, and O'Donnell received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Tutu. On April 3, 2019, it was announced that O'Donnell would play the role of Lisa Sheffer in the HBO series I Know This Much Is True.

In 2021, O'Donnell guest starred on the series Run the World and The L Word: Generation Q. On June 15, 2021, it was announced that she would star as Detective Sunday, alongside Jon Bernthal, in a series reboot of American Gigolo on Showtime, premiering in 2022. In 2022 she voiced the role of the MTA subway announcements in the second season of Netflix series Russian Doll starring Natasha Lyonne. That same year she appeared as Vi in the Amazon Prime Video series A League of Their Own (2022).

Rosie magazine
In 2000, O'Donnell partnered with the publishers of McCall's to revamp the magazine as Rosie's McCall's (or, more commonly, Rosie). The magazine was launched as a competitor to fellow talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey's monthly magazine O. Rosie covered issues including breast cancer, foster care, and other matters of concern to O'Donnell. In the September 2000 issue, she shared that "she has struggled with depression her entire life" and decided to start medications when she realized her fears were affecting her family. With a strong start and a circulation close to 3.5 million, things looked promising, but the magazine stumbled as conflicts emerged between O'Donnell and the editors. The contract gave O'Donnell control over editorial process and editorial staff but veto power remained with publisher Gruner+Jahr USA. O'Donnell quit the magazine in September 2002, following a dispute over editorial control. "If I'm going to have my name and my brand on the corner of a magazine, it has to be my vision" she told People.

Rosie magazine folded in 2003. In late 2003, O'Donnell and the publishers each sued the other for breach of contract. The publishers said that, by removing herself from the magazine's publication, she was in breach of contract. The trial received considerable press coverage. O'Donnell would often give brief press interviews outside of the courtroom responding to various allegations. Of note was a former magazine colleague and breast cancer survivor who testified that O'Donnell said to her on the phone that people who lie "get sick and they get cancer. If they keep lying, they get it again". O'Donnell apologized the next day and stated, "I'm sorry I hurt her the way I did, that was not my intention." The judge dismissed the case, ruling that neither side should receive damages.

Books
In 1997, Rosie released the children's book Kids are Punny: Jokes Sent by Kids to the Rosie O'Donnell Show, which contained jokes she had received from children. A sequel titled Kids are Punny 2: More Jokes Sent by Kids to the Rosie O'Donnell Show was released a year later in 1998, and an HBO special was made based on the books. In April 2002, O'Donnell released Find Me, a combination of memoir, mystery and detective story with an underlying interest in reuniting birth mothers with their children. In addition to cataloging her childhood and early adulthood, the book delved into O'Donnell's relationship with a woman with dissociative identity disorder who posed as an under-aged teen who had become pregnant by rape. The book reached number two on The New York Times bestseller list.

In October 2007, she released Celebrity Detox, her second memoir which focuses on the struggles with leaving fame behind, noting her exits from The Rosie O'Donnell Show and The View.

R Family Vacations
In 2003, O'Donnell and Carpenter partnered with travel entrepreneur Gregg Kaminsky to launch R Family Vacations catering to LGBT families, "the very first all gay and lesbian family vacation packages" where "gays and lesbians can bring their kids, their friends, and their parents." Although O'Donnell is not involved on a day-to-day basis, she does contribute to the creative aspects of "advertising and marketing materials" and initiated the idea for the company when she filled in as a last-minute replacement headliner on one of Kaminsky's Atlantis Events gay cruises and also came up with the name "R Family Vacations". On July 11, 2004, the first cruise was held with 1600 passengers including 600 children. In addition to traditional entertainment and recreational activities, the company partnered with Provincetown's Family Pride, a 25-year-old Washington, D.C.-based organization that advocates for LGBT families to host discussions on "adoption, insemination, surrogacy, and everything else that would be helpful to gay parenting." All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise, a documentary film about the trip debuted on HBO on April 6, 2006, and was nominated for three Emmy Awards. Of the experience, O'Donnell stated "we didn't really realize the magic that was going to take place. People who had never met another gay family met other families and it was powerful."

Taboo
In late 2003, O'Donnell brought the musical Taboo to Broadway. She hired Charles Busch to re-write the book, and the story became "bitchier" and more focused on the rise to fame of the character based on Boy George. It closed on February 8, 2004, after about 100 performances and "mostly bad" reviews. O'Donnell described the show's production as "by far the most fulfilling experience of my career". She has stated that she intends to bring the show back to Broadway, although Scott Miller writes that people are hesitant to get involved after the "train wreck" of the original production.

Charitable work
Over her career, O'Donnell has developed a reputation for raising funds and her own philanthropy to charitable causes. In May 1996, Warner Books advanced O'Donnell $3 million to write a memoir. She used the money to seed her For All Kids Foundation to help institute national standards for day care across the country.

Since 1997, Rosie's For All Kids Foundation, overseen by Elizabeth Birch, has awarded more than $22 million in Early Childhood Care and Education program grants to over 900 nonprofit organizations. On October 30, 2006, she was honored by the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. "It's our privilege to be honoring and hosting Rosie," said NYSPCC president David Stack in a statement. "Her Rosie's for All Kids Foundation has awarded more than $22 million in grants to over 1,400 child-related organizations, and that's just one of her many impressive activities on behalf of children." In November 2006, Nightline aired a video report about the opening of The Children's Plaza and Family Center in Renaissance Village, a FEMA trailer park in Louisiana. This was an emergency response initiative of Rosie's For All Kids Foundation with the help of many local nonprofit organizations and for-profit businesses, all efforts were to assist the families displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

San Francisco public relations firm Fineman Associates awarded top prize to Procter & Gamble's designation of O'Donnell as "unkissable" in a promotion for Scope mouthwash on the 1997 annual list of the nation's worst public relations blunders. In response to the promotion, O'Donnell partnered with Warner–Lambert's competitor Listerine, who donated bottles of mouthwash to the studio audience and donated $1,000 to charity every time a hosted guest would kiss her in exchange for O'Donnell promoting their product. On occasion, the guests would offer multiple kisses, and People reported O'Donnell "smooched her way to more than $350,000."

In 2003, O'Donnell and Kelli O'Donnell collaborated with Artistic Director Lori Klinger to create Rosie's Broadway Kids, dedicated to providing free instruction in music and dance to New York City public schools or students. Rosie's Broadway Kids serves more than 4,500 teachers, students, and their family members at 21 schools. Currently, programs are in Harlem, Midtown West, Chelsea, Lower East Side, East Village, and Chinatown. All net profits from O'Donnell's 2007 book Celebrity Detox are also being donated to Rosie's Broadway Kids.

In December 2006, at a one-night charity event on the Norwegian Pearl cruise ship, Elizabeth Birch, executive director for the Rosie's For All Kids Foundation, confirmed that $50 million from O'Donnell's five-year contract were donated in an irrevocable trust to charity. She is also reported to have contributed several hundred thousand dollars for rehabilitation therapies for war veterans who have lost limbs in Iraq and Afghanistan wars. On The Tyra Banks Show, Banks brought up to O'Donnell that people don't realize that O'Donnell has given more than $100 million to charity. In May 2007, O'Donnell and Pogo.com announced a joint effort to raise money for Rosie's All Kids Foundation. EA, which owns Pogo.com, committed $30,000 and more money can be raised based on the amount of playing time people spend on certain games. They also held a sweepstakes in which winners get to fly to New York and meet O'Donnell and attend a charity function as her guest.

During the summer of 2007, O'Donnell was a guest on the multi-artist True Colors Tour, which traveled through 15 cities in the United States and Canada. The tour, sponsored by the gay cable channel Logo, began on June 8, 2007. Hosted by comedian Margaret Cho and headlined by Cyndi Lauper, the tour also included Debbie Harry, Erasure, The Gossip, Rufus Wainwright, The Dresden Dolls, The MisShapes, Indigo Girls, The Cliks, and other special guests. Profits from the tour helped to benefit the Human Rights Campaign as well as P-FLAG and The Matthew Shepard Foundation. She appeared again on True Colors Tour 2008.

Personal life
O'Donnell was a resident of Nyack, New York, after the purchase in 1996 of "Pretty Penny", a Victorian river home that had previously served as the home of Helen Hayes. O'Donnell sold the home to businessman Edward M. Kopko in 2000. She has lived in South Nyack, New York, and owns a home in West Palm Beach, Florida. O’Donnell relocated to the West Coast in the early 2020s.

O'Donnell is a Democrat. She has contributed funds to multiple political campaigns, including to the campaign to elect Senator Doug Jones of Alabama.

On numerous occasions, O'Donnell has been outspoken about controversial topics. In 2007, she announced her opinion concerning the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, in which she questioned the NIST conclusions, and alleged the U.S. government's involvement in the event.

Sexual orientation
In her January 31, 2002, appearance on the sitcom Will & Grace, she played a lesbian mom. A month later as part of her act at the Ovarian Cancer Research benefit at Caroline's Comedy Club O'Donnell came out as a lesbian, announcing "I'm a dyke! ... I don't know why people make such a big deal about the gay thing. ... People are confused, they're shocked, like this is a big revelation to somebody." The announcement came two months before the end of her talk show. Although she also cited the need to put a face to gays and lesbians, her primary reason was to bring attention to LGBTQ adoption issues. O'Donnell is a foster and adoptive mother. She protested against adoption agencies, particularly in Florida, that refused adoptive rights to gay and lesbian parents.

Diane Sawyer interviewed O'Donnell in a March 14, 2002, episode of PrimeTime Thursday. O'Donnell told USA Today that she chose to talk to Sawyer because she wanted an investigative piece on Florida's ban on gay adoption. She told Sawyer if that was done, "I would like to talk about my life and how (the case) pertains to me." She spoke about two gay men in Florida who faced having a foster child they raised removed from their home. State law wouldn't let them adopt because Florida banned gay or bisexual couples from adopting. O'Donnell's coming out drew criticism from some LGBTQ activists who cited her repeated references to being enamored of Tom Cruise on The Rosie O'Donnell Show as deceptive. She responded in her act stating, "I said I wanted him to mow my lawn and bring me a lemonade. I never said I wanted to blow him." After leaving her show and coming out, O'Donnell returned to stand-up comedy and cut her hair. O'Donnell told the press that her haircut was meant to mimic the haircut of former Culture Club backup singer Helen Terry.

O'Donnell was named 2002's Person of the Year by The Advocate, and in May 2003 she became a regular columnist for the magazine. The magazine's editor-in-chief, Judy Wieder, stated, "Today, Rosie's long and brave journey has led her not only to the cover of The Advocate – Rosie was honored with the magazine's Person of the Year Award for 2002 – but now to its chorus of voices, as a columnist."

Marriages and children
O'Donnell adopted her first child, Parker Jaren O'Donnell, as an infant in 1995. Later, Kelli Carpenter also adopted Parker. Parker is an aficionado of military history and in 2011 successfully lobbied his mother to send him to Valley Forge Military Academy.

On February 26, 2004, O'Donnell married Carpenter, a former Nickelodeon marketing executive, in San Francisco two weeks after Mayor Gavin Newsom authorized the granting of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Her decision to go to San Francisco to marry Carpenter was seen as a show of defiance against then-President George W. Bush over his support for the Federal Marriage Amendment. She said in 2004, "We were both inspired to come here after the sitting President made the vile and hateful comments he made ... [O]ne thought ran through my mind on the plane out here – with Liberty and Social justice for all." The couple was married by San Francisco Treasurer Susan Leal, one of the city's highest ranking lesbian officials, and serenaded by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. O'Donnell said during the trial over Rosie magazine she had decided to marry Carpenter, in part because even though they acted as spouses they legally were no closer than friends: "We applied for spousal privilege and were denied it by the state. As a result, everything that I said to Kelli, every letter that I wrote her, every e-mail, every correspondence and conversation was entered into the record ... I am now and will forever be a total proponent of gay marriage."

Carpenter and O'Donnell have four children together. In 2000, the family took in a foster child Mia (born in 1997), and announced intentions to adopt her. In 2001, the state of Florida removed Mia from their home, and O'Donnell has since worked extensively to bring an end to the Florida law prohibiting same-sex family adoption.

In mid-November 2009, O'Donnell disclosed that Carpenter had moved out of their home in 2007. Their marriage had ended in August 2004 when it was among the thousands voided by the California Supreme Court.

O'Donnell began dating 40-year-old executive-search consultant Michelle Rounds in mid-2011. On December 5, 2011, during a break in the taping of The Rosie Show, O'Donnell announced to her studio audience that she and Rounds were engaged. The two married in a private ceremony in New York on June 9, 2012. On January 9, 2013, the couple announced they had adopted a baby girl. In February 2015, O'Donnell filed for divorce from Rounds after two years of marriage. Their divorce was settled in October 2015. O'Donnell was awarded full custody of the child. Rounds died by suicide on September 15, 2017.

In August 2015, O'Donnell tweeted that her 17-year-old daughter, Chelsea, had gone missing from their Nyack, New York, home along with her therapy dog. Chelsea was found a week later in Barnegat, New Jersey.

Health
In the summer of 2000, O'Donnell suffered a staph infection after she accidentally cut the middle finger of her left hand with a knife while cutting a price tag off a fishing pole. The infection incapacitated her for weeks and nearly resulted in doctors amputating her hand. She later quipped that George W. Bush was to blame for the infection, saying that she was preparing to go on a fishing trip at the time to avoid seeing Bush on television during the then-ongoing 2000 Republican National Convention. O'Donnell has acknowledged her struggles with recurrent major depressive episodes during the fall and winter months consistent with seasonal affective disorder.

O'Donnell suffered a heart attack in mid-August 2012. She said an artery was 99 percent blocked and a stent was inserted. She later revealed on Twitter that to reverse her heart disease, she would espouse the whole-foods, plant-based diet promoted by Caldwell Esselstyn.

Awards and nominations

 * Daytime Emmy Awards
 * 1997 Outstanding Talk Show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show nominated
 * 1997 Outstanding Talk/Service Show Host, The Rosie O'Donnell Show won
 * 1998 Outstanding Talk Show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show won
 * 1998 Outstanding Talk/Service Show Host, The Rosie O'Donnell Show won (tied with Oprah Winfrey)
 * 1998 Outstanding Writing – Special Class, The Rosie O'Donnell Show nominated
 * 1999 Outstanding Talk Show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show won
 * 1999 Outstanding Talk Show Host, The Rosie O'Donnell Show won
 * 1999 Outstanding Writing – Special Class, The Rosie O'Donnell Show nominated
 * 2000 Outstanding Talk Show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show won
 * 2000 Outstanding Talk Show Host, The Rosie O'Donnell Show won
 * 2001 Outstanding Talk Show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show won
 * 2001 Outstanding Talk Show Host, The Rosie O'Donnell Show won (tied with Regis Philbin)
 * 2002 Outstanding Talk Show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show won
 * 2002 Outstanding Talk Show Host, The Rosie O'Donnell Show won
 * 2007 Outstanding Talk Show Host, Rosie O'Donnell, Barbara Walters, Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck, The View nominated

 * Emmy Awards
 * 1995 Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, Rosie O'Donnell (stand-up comedy special) nominated
 * 1996 Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, The Larry Sanders Show nominated
 * 1999 Outstanding Children's Program, Kids Are Punny nominated
 * 1999 Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special, 52nd Annual Tony Awards won
 * 2006 Outstanding Nonfiction Special, All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise nominated

 * Kids' Choice Awards
 * 1995 Favorite Movie Actress, The Flintstones won
 * 2000 Hall of Fame Award

 * Tony Award
 * 2014 Isabelle Stevenson Award "for her commitment to arts education for New York City's public school children."

 * Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards
 * 2002 Lucy Award in recognition of her excellence and innovation in her creative works that have enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television.

 * Queerty Awards
 * 2024 Icon Award in recognition of her work.

Award ceremonies

 * Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards (Host) (1996–2003)
 * 54th Annual Tony Awards (Host) (2000)
 * 41st Annual Grammy Awards (Host) (1999)
 * 42nd Annual Grammy Awards (Host) (2000)

Radio

 * Rosie Radio SIRIUS XM (2009–11)

Theater

 * Grease (1994) as Betty Rizzo at the Eugene O'Neill Theater
 * Seussical (2001) as the Cat in the Hat (replacement for David Shiner)
 * Pippin (2004) (World AIDS Day benefit concert)
 * Fiddler on the Roof (2004) (replacement for Andrea Martin in 2005) as Golde
 * No, No, Nanette (2008) (for Encores!)
 * Love, Loss, and What I Wore (2009)
 * Good for Otto by David Rabe (Off-Broadway, 2018), left production prior to opening due to illness
 * The Music Man (the Kennedy Center, 2019) as Mrs. Paroo

Children's books

 * Kids are Punny: Jokes Sent by Kids to the Rosie O'Donnell Show (1997)
 * Kids are Punny 2: More Jokes Sent by Kids to the Rosie O'Donnell Show (1998)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Rosie O'Donnell


text:
François Villon

François Villon ( Modern French:, ; c. 1431 – after 1463) is the best known French poet of the Late Middle Ages. He was involved in criminal behavior and had multiple encounters with law enforcement authorities. Villon wrote about some of these experiences in his poems.

Birth
Villon was born in Paris in 1431. One source gives the date as.

Early life
Villon's real name may have been François de Montcorbier or François des Loges: both of these names appear in official documents drawn up in Villon's lifetime. In his own work, however, Villon is the only name the poet used, and he mentions it frequently in his work. His two collections of poems, especially "Le Testament" (also known as "Le grand testament"), have traditionally been read as if they were autobiographical. Other details of his life are known from court or other civil documents.

From what the sources tell us, it appears that Villon was born in poverty and raised by a foster father, but that his mother was still living when her son was thirty years old. The surname "Villon," the poet tells us, is the name he adopted from his foster father, Guillaume de Villon, chaplain in the collegiate church of Saint-Benoît-le-Bétourné and a professor of canon law, who took Villon into his house. François describes Guillaume de Villon as "more than a father to me".

Student life
Villon became a student in arts, perhaps at about twelve years of age. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Paris in 1449 and a master's degree in 1452. Between this year and 1455, nothing is known of his activities. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) says "Attempts have been made, in the usual fashion of conjectural biography, to fill up the gap with what a young graduate of Bohemian tendencies would, could, or might have done, but they are mainly futile."

Alleged criminal activities
On 5 June 1455, the first major recorded incident of his life occurred. While in the Rue Saint-Jacques in the company of a priest named Giles and a girl named Isabeau, he met a Breton named Jean le Hardi, a Master of Arts, who was also with a priest, Philippe Chermoye (or Sermoise or Sermaise). A scuffle broke out and daggers were drawn. Sermaise, who is accused of having threatened and attacked Villon and drawn the first blood, not only received a dagger-thrust in return, but a blow from a stone, which struck him down. He died of his wounds. Villon fled, and was sentenced to banishment – a sentence which was remitted in January 1456 by a pardon from King Charles VII after he received the second of two petitions which made the claim that Sermaise had forgiven Villon before he died. Two different versions of the formal pardon exist; in one, the culprit is identified as "François des Loges, autrement dit Villon" ("François des Loges, otherwise called Villon"), in the other as "François de Montcorbier." He is also said to have named himself to the barber-surgeon who dressed his wounds as "Michel Mouton." The documents of this affair at least confirm the date of his birth, by presenting him as twenty-six years old or thereabouts.

Around Christmas 1456, the chapel of the Collège de Navarre was broken open and five hundred gold crowns stolen. Villon was involved in the robbery. Many scholars believe that he fled from Paris soon afterward and that this is when he composed what is now known as the Le Petit Testament ("The Smaller Testament") or Le Lais ("Legacy" or "Bequests"). The robbery was not discovered until March of the next year, and it was not until May that the police came on the track of a gang of student-robbers, owing to the indiscretion of one of them, Guy Tabarie. A year more passed, when Tabarie, after being arrested, turned king's evidence and accused the absent Villon of being the ringleader, and of having gone to Angers, partly at least, to arrange similar burglaries there. Villon, for either this or another crime, was sentenced to banishment; he did not attempt to return to Paris. For four years, he was a wanderer. He may have been, as his friends Regnier de Montigny and Colin des Cayeux were, a member of a wandering gang of thieves.

Le Testament, 1461
The next date for which there are recorded whereabouts for Villon is the summer of 1461; Villon wrote that he spent that summer in the bishop's prison at Meung-sur-Loire. His crime is not known, but in Le Testament ("The Testament") dated that year he inveighs bitterly against Bishop Thibault d'Aussigny, who held the See of Orléans. Villon may have been released as part of a general jail-delivery at the accession of King Louis XI and became a free man again on 2 October 1461.

In 1461, he wrote his most famous work, Le Testament (or Le Grand Testament, as it is also known).

In the autumn of 1462, he was once more living in the cloisters of Saint-Benoît.

Banishment and disappearance
In November 1462, Villon was imprisoned for theft. He was taken to the Grand Châtelet fortress that stood at what is now Place du Châtelet in Paris. In default of evidence, the old charge of burgling the College of Navarre was revived. No royal pardon arrived to counter the demand for restitution, but bail was accepted and Villon was released. However, he fell promptly into a street quarrel. He was arrested, tortured and condemned to be hanged ("pendu et étranglé"), although the sentence was commuted to banishment by the parlement on 5 January 1463.

Villon's fate after January 1463 is unknown. Rabelais retells two stories about him which are usually dismissed as without any basis in fact. Anthony Bonner speculated that the poet, as he left Paris, was "broken in health and spirit." Bonner writes further:

"He might have died on a mat of straw in some cheap tavern, or in a cold, dank cell; or in a fight in some dark street with another French coquillard; or perhaps, as he always feared, on a gallows in a little town in France. We will probably never know."

Works

Le Petit Testament, also known as Le Lais, was written in late 1456. The work is an ironic, comic poem that serves as Villon's will, listing bequests to his friends and acquaintances.

In 1461, at the age of thirty, Villon composed the longer work which came to be known as Le grand testament (1461–1462). This has generally been judged Villon's greatest work, and there is evidence in the work itself that Villon felt the same.

Besides Le Lais and Le grand testament, Villon's surviving works include multiple poems. Sixteen of these shorter poems vary from the serious to the light-hearted. An additional eleven poems in thieves' jargon were attributed to Villon from a very early time, but many scholars now believe them to be the work of other poets imitating Villon.

Discussion

Villon was a great innovator in terms of the themes of poetry and, through these themes, a great renovator of the forms. He understood perfectly the medieval courtly ideal, but he often chose to write against the grain, reversing the values and celebrating the lowlifes destined for the gallows, falling happily into parody or lewd jokes, and constantly innovating in his diction and vocabulary; a few minor poems make extensive use of Parisian thieves' slang. Still Villon's verse is mostly about his own life, a record of poverty, trouble, and trial which was certainly shared by his poems' intended audience.

Villon's poems are sprinkled with mysteries and hidden jokes. They are peppered with the slang of the time and the underworld subculture in which Villon moved. His works are also replete with private jokes and full of the names of real people – rich men, royal officials, lawyers, prostitutes, and policemen – from medieval Paris.

Complete works
George Heyer (1869–1925; father of novelist Georgette Heyer) published a translation in 1924. Oxford University Press brought out The Retrospect of Francois Villon: being a Rendering into English Verse of huitains I TO XLI. Of Le Testament and of the three Ballades to which they lead, transl. George Heyer (London, 1924). On 25 December 1924 it was reviewed in The Times Literary Supplement, p. 886 and the review began "It is a little unfortunate that this translation of Villon should appear only a few months after the excellent rendering made by Mr. J. Heron Lepper. Mr. Heyer's work is very nearly as good, however: he makes happy use of quaint words and archaic idioms, and preserves with admirable skill the lyrical vigour of Villon's huitains. It is interesting to compare his version with Mr. Lepper's: both maintain a scholarly fidelity to the original, but one notes with a certain degree of surprise the extraordinary difference which they yet show." George Heyer was a fluent and idiomatic French speaker and the French and English are printed on opposite pages. The book also contains a number of historical and literary notes.

published a translation in 1924. Another translation is one by Anthony Bonner, published in 1960. One drawback common to these English older translations is that they are all based on old editions of Villon's texts: that is, the French text that they translate (the Longnon-Foulet edition of 1932) is a text established by scholars some 80 years ago.

A translation by the American poet Galway Kinnell (1965) contains most of Villon's works but lacks six shorter poems of disputed provenance. Peter Dale's verse translation (1974) follows the poet's rhyme scheme.

Barbara Sargent-Baur's complete works translation (1994) includes 11 poems long attributed to Villon but possibly the work of a medieval imitator.

A new English translation by David Georgi came out in 2013. The book also includes Villon's French, printed across from the English. Notes in the back provide a wealth of information about the poems and about medieval Paris. "More than any translation, Georgi's emphasizes Villon's famous gallows humor...his word play, jokes, and puns".

Selections
Translations of three Villon poems were made in 1867 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. These three poems were "central texts" to Rossetti's 1870 book of Poems, which explored themes from the far past, mid-past, and modern time. Rossetti used "The Ballad of Dead Ladies"; "To Death, of his Lady"; and "His Mother's Service to Our Lady".

W.E. Henley, while editing Slang and its analogues translated two ballades into English criminal slang as "Villon's Straight Tip to All Cross Coves" and "Villon’s Good-Night".

American poet Richard Wilbur, whose translations from French poetry and plays were widely acclaimed, also translated many of Villon's most famous ballades in Collected Poems: 1943–2004.

Where are the snows of yesteryear?
The phrase "Where are the snows of yester-year?" is one of the most famous lines of translated poetry in the English-speaking world. It is the refrain in The Ballad of Dead Ladies, Dante Gabriel Rossetti's translation of Villon's 1461 Ballade des dames du temps jadis. In the original the line is: "Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?" ["But where are the snows of yesteryear?"].

Richard Wilbur published his translation of the same poem, which he titled "Ballade of the Ladies of Time Past", in his Collected Poems: 1943–2004. In his translation, the refrain is rendered as "But where shall last year's snow be found?"

Critical views
Villon's poems enjoyed substantial popularity in the decades after they were written. In 1489, a printed volume of his poems was published by Pierre Levet. This edition was almost immediately followed by several others. In 1533, poet and humanist scholar Clément Marot published an important edition, in which he recognized Villon as one of the most significant poets in French literature and sought to correct mistakes that had been introduced to the poetry by earlier and less careful printers.

Stage

 * Justin Huntly McCarthy's 1901 play and novel, If I Were King, presented a romanticized view of Villon, using the “King for a Day” theme and giving the poet a happy ending with a beautiful noblewoman.
 * The Vagabond King is a 1925 operetta by Rudolf Friml. Based on McCarthy's play, it was eventually made into two films. (See below.)
 * Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera), from 1928, by Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht, contains several songs that are loosely based on poems by Villon. These poems include "Les Contredits de Franc Gontier", "La Ballade de la Grosse Margot", and "L'Epitaphe Villon". Brecht used German translations of Villon's poems that had been prepared by (Karl Anton Klammer), although Klammer was uncredited.
 * wrote a play in Czech that focused on Villon's trial called Hodina mezi psem a vlkem—which translates to "Dog and Wolf" but literally translates as "The Hour Between Dog and Wolf". The Juilliard School in New York City mounted a 1994 production of the play, directed by Michael Mayer with music by Michael Philip Ward.

Film and television

 * McCarthy's play served as the basis for If I Were King, a 1920 silent film starring William Farnum, and for the 1938 version, adapted by Preston Sturges, directed by Frank Lloyd, and starring Ronald Colman as François Villon, Basil Rathbone as Louis XI and Frances Dee as Katherine.
 * Rudolf Friml's operetta, The Vagabond King, was adapted to film in 1930 in a two-strip Technicolor film starring Dennis King and Jeanette MacDonald, and in 1956, to a film starring Oreste Kirkop and Kathryn Grayson.
 * McCarthy's play was adapted again in 1945 for François Villon, a French historical drama film directed by André Zwoboda and starring Serge Reggiani, Jean-Roger Caussimon, and Henri Crémieux.
 * The television biography François Villon was made in 1981 in West Germany, with Jörg Pleva in the title role.
 * On the big screen there was a large co-production France-Germany-Romania made in 1987, a 195 minutes movie Francois Villon - poetul vagabond, directed by renowned Romanian director Sergiu Nicolaescu.
 * The Beloved Rogue is a 1927 American silent romantic adventure film starring John Barrymore, Conrad Veidt and Marceline Day, loosely based on Villon's life.
 * Villon's work figures in the 1936 movie The Petrified Forest. The main character, Gabby, a roadside diner waitress played by Bette Davis, longs for expanded horizons; she reads Villon and also recites one of his poems to a wandering hobo "intellectual" played by Leslie Howard.

Publications

 * Villon's poem "Tout aux tavernes et aux filles" was translated into English by 19th-century poet William Ernest Henley as "Villon’s Straight Tip To All Cross Coves". Another of Henley's attributed poems – written in thieves' slang – is "Villon’s Good-Night".
 * The Archy and Mehitabel poems of Don Marquis include a poem by a cat who is Villon reincarnated.
 * In Ursula K. Le Guin's short story “April in Paris” (published in 1962), an American professor of medieval French is in Paris researching the unsolved question of how Villon died when he unexpectedly travels in time back to the late 1400s and gets his answer.
 * The author Doris Leslie wrote an historical novel, I Return: The Story of François Villon published in 1962.
 * In Antonio Skármeta's novel, El cartero de Neruda, Villon is mentioned as having been hanged for crimes much less serious than seducing the daughter of the local bar owner.
 * Valentyn Sokolovsky's poem "The night in the city of cherries or Waiting for François" reflects François Villon's life. It takes the form of a person's memories who knew the poet and whose name one can find in the lines of The Testament.
 * Italian author Luigi Critone wrote and illustrated a graphic novel based on Villon's life and works. The 2017 book was entitled Je, François Villon [I, François Villon].
 * Robert Louis Stevenson's short story "A Lodging for the Night: A Story of Francis Villon" follows the poet into a web of crime and desperation on a snowy November night.
 * Hunter Thompson's book on American motorcycle gangs, Hell's Angels (1966) starts with a quote:  "I am strong but have no power. I win all yet remain a loser. At break of day I say goodnight. When I lie down I have great fear of falling," which he attributes to Villon.

Music

 * His poem Der Erdbeermund was an 1989 single for Culture Beat
 * The Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe composed Poème No. 5, "Les neiges d'antan", Op.23, for violin and orchestra, in 1911.
 * Claude Debussy set three of Villon's poems to music for solo voice and piano
 * French singer Georges Brassens included his own setting of Ballade des dames du temps jadis in his album Le Mauvaise Reputation.
 * The Swiss composer Frank Martin's Poèmes de la Mort [Poems of Death] (1969–71) is based on three Villon poems. The work is for the unusual combination of three tenors and three electric guitars.
 * Villon was an influence on American musician Bob Dylan.
 * Russian singer and songwriter Bulat Okudzhava, composed Prayer for Francois Villon, a very popular song.
 * Bulgarian metal band Epizod were inspired by Francois Villon, and based their lyrics on his poems during their early career.

title: François Villon


text:
The Life of Emile Zola

The Life of Emile Zola is a 1937 American biographical film about the 19th-century French author Émile Zola starring Paul Muni and directed by William Dieterle.

It premiered at the Los Angeles Carthay Circle Theatre to great critical and financial success. Contemporary reviews ranked it as the greatest biographical film made up to that time.

In 2000, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Produced during the Great Depression and after the Nazi Party had taken power in Germany, the film failed to explore the key issue of antisemitic injustice in France in the late 19th century, when Zola became involved in the Dreyfus affair and worked to gain the officer's release. Some recent studies have noted the film as an example of Hollywood's timidity at the time: antisemitism was not mentioned in the film, nor was "Jew" said in dialogue. Some explicitly anti-Nazi films were canceled in this period, and other content was modified. This was also the period when Hollywood had established the Production Code, establishing an internal censor, in response to perceived threats of external censorship.

The Life of Emile Zola became the second biographical film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Plot
Set in the mid through late 19th century, the film depicts Émile Zola's early friendship with Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne and his rise to fame through his prolific writing. It also explores his involvement late in the Dreyfus affair.

In 1862 Paris, struggling writer Zola shares a drafty Paris attic with Cézanne. His fiancée Alexandrine procures him a desk clerk job at a bookshop, but he is soon fired after he arouses the ire of his employer and an agent of police with his provocative novel The Confessions of Claude. He then witnesses many injustices in French society, such as a crowded river slum, unlawful mining conditions and corruption in the army and government. Finally, a chance encounter with a street prostitute hiding from a police raid inspires his first bestseller, Nana, an exposé of the steamy underside of Parisian life.

Despite the chief censor's pleading, Zola writes other successful books such as The Downfall, a scathing denunciation of the French commanders' blunders and disunity that led to a disastrous defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. He becomes rich and famous, marries Alexandrine and settles down to a comfortable life in his mansion. One day, his old friend Cézanne, still poor and unknown, visits him before leaving the city. He accuses Zola of having become complacent because of his success and terminates their friendship.

An intercepted letter for the German embassy confirms that there is a spy within the French general staff. With little thought, the army commanders decide that Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, is the traitor. He is court-martialed, publicly degraded and imprisoned on Devil's Island in French Guiana.

Later, Colonel Picquart, the new chief of intelligence, discovers evidence implicating Major Walsin-Esterhazy, an infantry officer of Hungarian descent, as the actual spy. However, Picquart is ordered by his superiors to remain silent to avert official embarrassment, and is quickly reassigned to a remote post.

Four years have passed since Dreyfus's degradation. His loyal wife Lucie pleads with Zola to take up her husband's cause. Zola is reluctant to surrender his comfortable life, but Lucie brings forth new evidence to pique his curiosity. He publishes an open letter known as "J'accuse" in the newspaper L'Aurore accusing the high command of covering up the monstrous injustice, and it causes a firestorm throughout Paris. Zola barely escapes from an angry mob incited by military agents provocateurs as riots erupt in the city streets.

As expected, Zola is charged with libel. His attorney Maitre Labori does his best against the presiding judge's refusal to allow him to introduce evidence about the Dreyfus affair and the perjury and biased testimony committed by all the military witnesses, except for Picquart. Zola is found guilty and sentenced to a year in prison and a 3,000-franc fine. He reluctantly accepts his friends' advice flee to London in order to continue the campaign on behalf of Dreyfus.

With the demand for justice reaching a worldwide level, a new French administration finally proclaims that Dreyfus is innocent, and those responsible for the coverup are dismissed or commit suicide. Walsin-Esterhazy flees the country in disgrace. After his return to Paris, Zola dies of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a faulty stove the night before the public ceremony in which Dreyfus is exonerated and inducted into the Legion of Honor. His body is buried in the Panthéon in Paris and he is given the farewell of a hero and warrior.

Cast

 * Paul Muni as Émile Zola
 * Gloria Holden as Alexandrine Zola
 * Gale Sondergaard as Lucie Dreyfus
 * Joseph Schildkraut as Captain Alfred Dreyfus
 * Donald Crisp as Maitre Labori
 * Erin O'Brien-Moore as Nana
 * John Litel as Charpentier
 * Henry O'Neill as Colonel Picquart
 * Morris Carnovsky as Anatole France, Zola's friend and supporter
 * Louis Calhern as Major Dort
 * Ralph Morgan as Commander of Paris
 * Robert Barrat as Major Walsin-Esterhazy
 * Vladimir Sokoloff as Paul Cézanne
 * Grant Mitchell as Georges Clemenceau
 * Harry Davenport as Chief of Staff
 * Robert Warwick as Major Henry
 * Charles Richman as M. Delagorgue
 * Gilbert Emery as Minister of War
 * Walter Kingsford as Colonel Sandherr
 * Paul Everton as Assistant Chief of Staff
 * Montagu Love as M. Cavaignac
 * Frank Sheridan as M. Van Cassell
 * Lumsden Hare as Mr. Richards
 * Marcia Mae Jones as Helen Richards
 * Florence Roberts as Madame Zola, Zola's mother
 * Dickie Moore as Pierre Dreyfus, Captain Dreyfus's son
 * Rolla Gourvitch as Jeanne Dreyfus, Dreyfus's daughter

Production
In 1936, literary agent Heinz Herald first proposed the story to producer Henry Blanke, and Hal B. Wallis, Warner Bros.' executive producer for biographical pictures, assigned Herald and Geza Herczeg to develop the script. Their first treatment, titled Emile Zola: The Conscience of Humanity, centered around the Dreyfus affair, with Zola's literary career merely a background plot. Herald and Herczeg saw Zola's struggles to be similar to those faced by Louis Pasteur in The Story of Louis Pasteur, and their script ended with Zola triumphantly speaking out as a voice of truth as a parallel for the incipient turmoil taking place in Europe. Their 200-page script draft was submitted in November 1936, which staff writer Norman Reilly Raine was assigned to revise. Blanke supervised the creation of the final script, which included further contributions by Herald, Herczeg and Raine but also those from star Paul Muni, director William Dieterle and Wallis. The final script was ready by February 1937, and an initial budget of $699,000 was allocated to the production of the film.

Wallis and Blanke's relationship during production of the film was contentious; while Wallis wished to follow the successful formula established by The Story of Louis Pasteur, Blanke fought for the integrity of the project. The two men clashed over nearly every aspect of production, including the casting of the female lead; Wallis wished to cast Josephine Hutchinson, who had played Pasteur's wife, but Blanke disagreed and a compromise was reached in the casting of Gloria Holden. Blanke was determined to imbue the picture with authenticity and argued that Muni's appearance should differ starkly from that of the Pasteur picture, but Wallis, concerned with Muni's box-office appeal, overruled Blanke and instructed the makeup artist to maintain Muni's recognizable features above all else. Blanke threatened to leave the project following a bitter dispute over the hiring of a costumer, but Wallis relented.

Filming began in March 1937 and was scheduled for 42 days. Muni's climactic courtroom speech was filmed in one six-minute take, but Wallis requested that Blanke and Dieterle intersperse the scene with crowd shots. At the time, it was the longest continuous courtroom scene. Wallis and Blanke also argued over the quality of actor Ben Welden's performance as Paul Cézanne, and actor Vladimir Sokoloff was brought in to reshoot Welden's scenes. The reshoots caused the production of the film to extend ten days over schedule, and filming was completed on May 10.

Wallis and Blanke also fought over the film's title. While Wallis favored The Story of Emile Zola, Blanke suggested alternatives such as The Truth Is on the March, I Accuse and Destiny before The Life of Emile Zola was chosen, though the film does not actually depict much of Zola's life.

Muni was paid $50,000 for his performance.

Reception and interpretation
Following a successful preview screening that did not yet include Max Steiner's musical score, The Life of Emile Zola premiered on August 11, 1937, and became an immediate sensation. Soon after, Warner Bros. placed full-page advertisements in several Los Angeles newspapers congratulating the cast and crew.

Contemporary reviews were nearly unanimous in their praise. Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times wrote: "'Rich, dignified, honest, and strong, it is at once the finest historical film ever made and the greatest screen biography, greater even than The Story of Louis Pasteur with which the Warners squared their conscience last year ... Paul Muni's portrayal of Zola is, without doubt, the best thing he has done.'"

Variety wrote that the film was "a vibrant, tense and emotional story ... It is finely made and merits high rating as cinema art and significant recognition as major showmanship." Harrison's Reports described it as "A dignified, powerful, and at times stirring historical drama, brilliantly directed, and superbly acted by Paul Muni, as Zola, the great French writer."

John Mosher of The New Yorker praised the film as "a picture of considerable distinction" with "no nonsense."

Writing for Night and Day, Graham Greene offered a neutral review, noting that despite its inaccuracies, "truth to the film mind is the word you see on news-posters." Greene commented that appearances from seemingly significant characters such as Cézanne were largely irrelevant to the plot and that all of the events in the film happen suddenly.

The Life of Emile Zola topped Film Daily's year-end poll of 531 critics as the best film of 1937.

Certain scenes were interpreted at the time as "indirect attacks on Nazi Germany." As David Denby writes about the movie in 2013, "At the end, in an outpouring of the progressive rhetoric that was typical of the thirties, Zola makes a grandiloquent speech on behalf of justice and truth and against nationalist war frenzy." However, the film is silent about the fact that Dreyfus was Jewish and the victim of French antisemitism.

The French government allegedly banned the movie in 1939, possibly because of the sensitivity of the Dreyfus affair.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a score of 92% from 72 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Urgently relevant in an era of escalating bigotry and fascism, The Life of Emile Zola is a respectful and staid tribute to the French novelist, enlivened by Paul Muni's chameleonic prowess."

Academy Award wins and nominations
At the 10th Academy Awards, the film received ten nominations (and thereby became the first film in Academy Award history to reach double digits for nominations) and won three awards.

Controversy
In his 2013 book titled The Collaboration: Hollywood's Pact with Hitler, Ben Urwand wrote that Hollywood producers made a pact to avoid antagonizing Adolf Hitler and aided the Nazis by suppressing films that portrayed the Nazis' brutality: "The studios cancelled several explicitly anti-Nazi films planned for production, and deleted from several other movies anything that could be construed as critical of the Nazis, along with anything that might be seen as favorable to the Jews—or even a simple acknowledgment that they existed."

Urwand wrote that Jewish studio head Jack L. Warner ordered the word "Jew" to be excised from the script and that Georg Gyssling, the Nazi consul to the United States in Los Angeles, was occasionally allowed to review and provide recommendations on films before they were released, with changes sometimes made based on his comments. However, Urwand's thesis that Warner was collaborating with the Nazis has been strongly disputed by Warner's family members, especially Alicia Meyer.

In his study Hollywood and Hitler, 1933–1939, Thomas Doherty also analyzed the topic. David Denby, who wrote a long overview article about the issue in The New Yorker, points out that while Doherty supports some of Urwand's thesis, Doherty provides more context for the studios' behavior, setting it against the political culture of the period. The studios were under social pressure during the Great Depression to produce films that helped the United States weather the crisis. There were fears of political radicalism in the U.S. while European movements, from the Nazis to communism in the Soviet Union, were considered threats. Denby believes that the predominantly Jewish studio heads were timid and overly cautious, appearing to be fearful of their place in American society.

title: The Life of Emile Zola


text:
Shale

Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2Si2O5(OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. Shale is characterized by its tendency to split into thin layers (laminae) less than one centimeter in thickness. This property is called fissility. Shale is the most common sedimentary rock.

The term shale is sometimes applied more broadly, as essentially a synonym for mudrock, rather than in the narrower sense of clay-rich fissile mudrock.

Texture
Shale typically exhibits varying degrees of fissility. Because of the parallel orientation of clay mineral flakes in shale, it breaks into thin layers, often splintery and usually parallel to the otherwise indistinguishable bedding planes. Non-fissile rocks of similar composition and particle size (less than 0.0625 mm) are described as mudstones (1/3 to 2/3 silt particles) or claystones (less than 1/3 silt). Rocks with similar particle sizes but with less clay (greater than 2/3 silt) and therefore grittier are siltstones.

Composition and color
Shales are typically gray in color and are composed of clay minerals and quartz grains. The addition of variable amounts of minor constituents alters the color of the rock. Red, brown and green colors are indicative of ferric oxide (hematite – reds), iron hydroxide (goethite – browns and limonite – yellow), or micaceous minerals (chlorite, biotite and illite – greens). The color shifts from reddish to greenish as iron in the oxidized (ferric) state is converted to iron in the reduced (ferrous) state. Black shale results from the presence of greater than one percent carbonaceous material and indicates a reducing environment. Pale blue to blue-green shales typically are rich in carbonate minerals.

Clays are the major constituent of shales and other mudrocks. The clay minerals represented are largely kaolinite, montmorillonite and illite. Clay minerals of Late Tertiary mudstones are expandable smectites, whereas in older rocks (especially in mid-to early Paleozoic shales) illites predominate. The transformation of smectite to illite produces silica, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron and water. These released elements form authigenic quartz, chert, calcite, dolomite, ankerite, hematite and albite, all trace to minor (except quartz) minerals found in shales and other mudrocks. A typical shale is composed of about 58% clay minerals, 28% quartz, 6% feldspar, 5% carbonate minerals, and 2% iron oxides. Most of the quartz is detrital (part of the original sediments that formed the shale) rather than authigenic (crystallized within the shale after deposition).

Shales and other mudrocks contain roughly 95 percent of the organic matter in all sedimentary rocks. However, this amounts to less than one percent by mass in an average shale. Black shales, which form in anoxic conditions, contain reduced free carbon along with ferrous iron (Fe2+) and sulfur (S2−). Amorphous iron sulfide, along with carbon, produce the black coloration. Because amorphous iron sulfide gradually converts to pyrite, which is not an important pigment, young shales may be quite dark from their iron sulfide content, in spite of a modest carbon content (less than 1%), while a black color in an ancient shale indicates a high carbon content.

Most shales are marine in origin, and the groundwater in shale formations is often highly saline. There is evidence that shale acts as a semipermeable medium, allowing water to pass through while retaining dissolved salts.

Formation
The fine particles that compose shale can remain suspended in water long after the larger particles of sand have been deposited. As a result, shales are typically deposited in very slow moving water and are often found in lakes and lagoonal deposits, in river deltas, on floodplains and offshore below the wave base. Thick deposits of shale are found near ancient continental margins and foreland basins. Some of the most widespread shale formations were deposited by epicontinental seas. Black shales are common in Cretaceous strata on the margins of the Atlantic Ocean, where they were deposited in fault-bounded silled basins associated with the opening of the Atlantic during the breakup of Pangaea. These basins were anoxic, in part because of restricted circulation in the narrow Atlantic, and in part because the very warm Cretaceous seas lacked the circulation of cold bottom water that oxygenates the deep oceans today.

Most clay must be deposited as aggregates and floccules, since the settling rate of individual clay particles is extremely slow. Flocculation is very rapid once the clay encounters highly saline sea water. Whereas individual clay particles are less than 4 microns in size, the clumps of clay particles produced by flocculation vary in size from a few tens of microns to over 700 microns in diameter. The floccules start out water-rich, but much of the water is expelled from the floccules as the clay minerals bind more tightly together over time (a process called syneresis). Clay pelletization by organisms that filter feed is important where flocculation is inhibited. Filter feeders produce an estimated 12 metric tons of clay pellets per square kilometer per year along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

As sediments continue to accumulate, the older, more deeply buried sediments begin to undergo diagenesis. This mostly consists of compaction and lithification of the clay and silt particles. Early stages of diagenesis, described as eogenesis, take place at shallow depths (a few tens of meters) and are characterized by bioturbation and mineralogical changes in the sediments, with only slight compaction. Pyrite may be formed in anoxic mud at this stage of diagenesis.

Deeper burial is accompanied by mesogenesis, during which most of the compaction and lithification takes place. As the sediments come under increasing pressure from overlying sediments, sediment grains move into more compact arrangements, ductile grains (such as clay mineral grains) are deformed, and pore space is reduced. In addition to this physical compaction, chemical compaction may take place via pressure solution. Points of contact between grains are under the greatest strain, and the strained mineral is more soluble than the rest of the grain. As a result, the contact points are dissolved away, allowing the grains to come into closer contact.

It is during compaction that shale develops its fissility, likely through mechanical compaction of the original open framework of clay particles. The particles become strongly oriented into parallel layers that give the shale its distinctive fabric. Fissility likely develops early in the compaction process, at relatively shallow depth, since fissility does not seem to vary with depth in thick formations. Kaolinite flakes have less tendency to align in parallel layers than other clays, so kaolinite-rich clay is more likely to form nonfissile mudstone than shale. On the other hand, black shales often have very pronounced fissility (paper shales) due to binding of hydrocarbon molecules to the faces of the clay particles, which weakens the binding between particles.

Lithification follows closely on compaction, as increased temperatures at depth hasten deposition of cement that binds the grains together. Pressure solution contributes to cementing, as the mineral dissolved from strained contact points is redeposited in the unstrained pore spaces. The clay minerals may be altered as well. For example, smectite is altered to illite at temperatures of about 55 to 200 C, releasing water in the process. Other alteration reactions include the alteration of smectite to chlorite and of kaolinite to illite at temperatures between 120 and 150 C. Because of these reactions, illite composes 80% of Precambrian shales, versus about 25% of young shales.

Unroofing of buried shale is accompanied by telogenesis, the third and final stage of diagenesis. As erosion reduces the depth of burial, renewed exposure to meteoric water produces additional changes to the shale, such as dissolution of some of the cement to produce secondary porosity. Pyrite may be oxidized to produce gypsum.

Black shales are dark, as a result of being especially rich in unoxidized carbon. Common in some Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata, black shales were deposited in anoxic, reducing environments, such as in stagnant water columns. Some black shales contain abundant heavy metals such as molybdenum, uranium, vanadium, and zinc. The enriched values are of controversial origin, having been alternatively attributed to input from hydrothermal fluids during or after sedimentation or to slow accumulation from sea water over long periods of sedimentation.

Fossils, animal tracks or burrows and even raindrop impressions are sometimes preserved on shale bedding surfaces. Shales may also contain concretions consisting of pyrite, apatite, or various carbonate minerals.

Shales that are subject to heat and pressure of metamorphism alter into a hard, fissile, metamorphic rock known as slate. With continued increase in metamorphic grade the sequence is phyllite, then schist and finally gneiss.

As hydrocarbon source rock
Shale is the most common source rock for hydrocarbons (natural gas and petroleum). The lack of coarse sediments in most shale beds reflects the absence of strong currents in the waters of the depositional basin. These might have oxygenated the waters and destroyed organic matter before it could accumulate. The absence of carbonate rock in shale beds reflects the absence of organisms that might have secreted carbonate skeletons, also likely due to an anoxic environment. As a result, about 95% of organic matter in sedimentary rocks is found in shales and other mudrocks. Individual shale beds typically have an organic matter content of about 1%, but the richest source rocks may contain as much as 40% organic matter.

The organic matter in shale is converted over time from the original proteins, polysaccharides, lipids, and other organic molecules to kerogen, which at the higher temperatures found at greater depths of burial is further converted to graphite and petroleum.

Historical mining terminology
Before the mid-19th century, the terms slate, shale and schist were not sharply distinguished. In the context of underground coal mining, shale was frequently referred to as slate well into the 20th century. Black shale associated with coal seams is called black metal.

title: Shale


text:
Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of choice and agency. Dreiser's best known novels include Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925).

Early life
Dreiser was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, to John Paul Dreiser and Sarah Maria (née Schanab). John Dreiser was a German immigrant from Mayen in the Rhine Province of Prussia, and Sarah was from the Mennonite farming community near Dayton, Ohio. Her family disowned her for converting to Roman Catholicism in order to marry John Dreiser. Theodore was the twelfth of thirteen children (the ninth of the ten surviving). Paul Dresser (1857–1906) was one of his older brothers; Paul changed the spelling of his name as he became a popular songwriter. They were raised as Catholics.

According to Daniels, Dreiser's childhood was characterized by severe poverty, and his father could be harsh. His later fiction reflects these experiences.

After graduating from high school in Warsaw, Indiana, Dreiser attended Indiana University in 1889–1890 without taking a degree.

Journalism
In 1892, Dreiser started work as a reporter and drama critic for newspapers in Chicago, St. Louis, Toledo, Pittsburgh and New York. During this period he published his first work of fiction, The Return of Genius, which appeared in the Chicago Daily Globe under the name Carl Dreiser. By 1895 he was writing articles for magazines. He authored articles on writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Dean Howells, Israel Zangwill, and John Burroughs and interviewed public figures such as Andrew Carnegie, Marshall Field, Thomas Edison, and Theodore Thomas. His other interviewees included Lillian Nordica, Emilia E. Barr, Philip Armour, and Alfred Stieglitz.

In 1895, Dreiser convinced business associates of his songwriter brother Paul to give him the editorship of a magazine called Ev'ry Month, in which he published his first story, "Forgotten" a tale based on a song of his brother's titled "The Letter That Never Came". Dreiser continued editing magazines, becoming editor of the women's magazine The Delineator in June 1907. As Daniels noted, he thereby began to achieve financial independence.

Literary career
During 1899, Dreiser and his first wife Sara stayed with Arthur Henry and his wife Maude Wood Henry at the House of Four Pillars, an 1830s Greek Revival house in Maumee, Ohio. There Dreiser began work on his first novel, Sister Carrie, published in 1900. Unknown to Maude, Arthur sold a half-interest in the house to Dreiser to finance a move to New York without her.

In Sister Carrie, Dreiser portrayed a changing society, writing about a young woman who flees rural life for the city (Chicago), fails to find work that pays a living wage, falls prey to several men, and ultimately achieves fame as an actress. The novel sold poorly and was considered controversial because it featured a country girl who pursues her dreams of fame and fortune through relationships with men. The book has acquired a considerable reputation. It has been called by Donald L. Miller the "greatest of all American urban novels."

In 1901 Dreiser's short story "Nigger Jeff" was published in Ainslee's Magazine. It was based on a lynching he witnessed in 1893.

His second novel Jennie Gerhardt was published in 1911. Dreiser's portrayals of young women as protagonists dramatized the social changes of urbanization, as young people moved from rural villages to cities.

Dreiser's first commercial success was An American Tragedy, published in 1925. From 1892, when Dreiser began work as a newspaperman, he had begun

"to observe a certain type of crime in the United States that proved very common. It seemed to spring from the fact that almost every young person was possessed of an ingrown ambition to be somebody financially and socially. Fortune hunting became a disease with the frequent result of a peculiarly American kind of crime, a form of 'murder for money', when 'the young ambitious lover of some poorer girl' found 'a more attractive girl with money or position' but could not get rid of the first girl, usually because of pregnancy."

Dreiser claimed to have collected such stories every year between 1895 and 1935. He based his novel on details and the setting of the 1906 murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in upstate New York, a crime that attracted widespread attention from newspapers. While the novel sold well, it also was criticized for its portrayal of a man without morals who commits a sordid murder.

Though known primarily as a novelist, Dreiser also wrote short stories, publishing his first collection of 11, entitled, Free and Other Stories in 1918.

His story "My Brother Paul" was a biography of his older brother Paul Dresser, who became a famous songwriter in the 1890s. This story formed the basis for the 1942 romantic movie My Gal Sal.

Dreiser also wrote poetry. His poem "The Aspirant" (1929) continues his theme of poverty and ambition: a young man in a shabbily furnished room describes his own and the other tenants' dreams, and asks "why? why?" The poem appeared in The Poetry Quartos, collected and printed by Paul Johnston, and published by Random House in 1929.

Other works include Trilogy of Desire, based on the life of Charles Tyson Yerkes (1837–1905), who became a Chicago streetcar tycoon. It is composed of The Financier (1912), The Titan (1914), and The Stoic. The last was published posthumously in 1947.

Dreiser often was forced to battle against censorship because his depiction of some aspects of life, such as sexual promiscuity, offended authorities and challenged popular standards of acceptable opinion. In 1930 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature by Swedish author Anders Österling, but was passed over by the Nobel Committee in favor of Sinclair Lewis.

Political commitment
Politically, Dreiser was involved in several campaigns defending radicals he believed victims of social injustice. These included the lynching of Frank Little, one of the leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World, the Sacco and Vanzetti case, the deportation of Emma Goldman, and the conviction of the trade union leader Thomas Mooney. In November 1931, Dreiser led the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP) to the coalfields of southeastern Kentucky to take testimony from miners in Pineville and Harlan on the pattern of violence against the miners and their unions by the coal operators. The pattern of violence was known as the Harlan County War.

Dreiser was a committed socialist and wrote several nonfiction books on political issues. These included Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928), the result of his 1927 trip to the Soviet Union, and two books presenting a critical perspective on capitalist America, Tragic America (1931) and America Is Worth Saving (1941). He praised the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin during the Great Terror and the non-aggression pact with Adolf Hitler. Dreiser joined the Communist Party USA in August 1945 and later became the honorary president of the League of American Writers. Although less politically radical friends, such as H. L. Mencken, spoke of Dreiser's relationship with communism as an "unimportant detail in his life", Dreiser's biographer Jerome Loving notes that his political activities since the early 1930s had "clearly been in concert with ostensible communist aims with regard to the working class."

Personal life
Dreiser's appearance and personality were described by Edgar Lee Masters in a poem, Theodore Dreiser: A Portrait, published in The New York Times Review of Books.

While working as a newspaperman in St. Louis, Dreiser met schoolteacher Sara Osborne White. They became engaged in 1893 and married on December 28, 1898. They separated in 1909, partly due to Dreiser's infatuation with Thelma Cudlipp, the teenage daughter of a colleague, but were never formally divorced.

In 1913, he began a romantic relationship with the actress and painter Kyra Markham. In 1919, Dreiser met his cousin Helen Patges Richardson (1894–1955) with whom he began an affair. Through the following decades, she remained the constant woman in his life, even through many more temporary love affairs (such as one with his secretary Clara Jaeger in the 1930s). Helen tolerated Dreiser's affairs, and they remained together until his death. Dreiser and Helen married on June 13, 1944, his first wife Sara having died in 1942.

Dreiser planned to return from his first European vacation on the Titanic, but was talked out of it by an English publisher who recommended he board a cheaper ship.

Dreiser was an atheist.

Literature
Dreiser had an enormous influence on the generation that followed his. In his tribute "Dreiser" from Horses and Men (1923), Sherwood Anderson writes (almost repeated 1916 article ):

"Heavy, heavy, the feet of Theodore. How easy to pick some of his books to pieces, to laugh at him for so much of his heavy prose ... [T]he fellows of the ink-pots, the prose writers in America who follow Dreiser, will have much to do that he has never done. Their road is long but, because of him, those who follow will never have to face the road through the wilderness of Puritan denial, the road that Dreiser faced alone."

Alfred Kazin characterized Dreiser as "stronger than all the others of his time, and at the same time more poignant; greater than the world he has described, but as significant as the people in it," while Larzer Ziff (UC Berkeley) remarked that Dreiser "succeeded beyond any of his predecessors or successors in producing a great American business novel."

Renowned mid-century literary critic Irving Howe spoke of Dreiser as ranking "among the American giants, the very few American giants we have had." A British view of Dreiser came from the publisher Rupert Hart-Davis: "Theodore Dreiser's books are enough to stop me in my tracks, never mind his letters—that slovenly turgid style describing endless business deals, with a seduction every hundred pages as light relief. If he's the great American novelist, give me the Marx Brothers every time." The literary scholar F. R. Leavis wrote that Dreiser "seems as though he learned English from a newspaper. He gives the feeling that he doesn't have any native language".

One of Dreiser's strongest champions during his lifetime, H. L. Mencken, declared "that he is a great artist, and that no other American of his generation left so wide and handsome a mark upon the national letters. American writing, before and after his time, differed almost as much as biology before and after Darwin. He was a man of large originality, of profound feeling, and of unshakable courage. All of us who write are better off because he lived, worked, and hoped."

Dreiser's great theme was the tremendous tensions that can arise among ambition, desire, and social mores.

Academia
Dreiser Hall, erected 1950 on the Indiana State University campus in Terre Haute, Indiana, houses the University's Communications Programs, Student Media (WISU), Sycamore Video and "The Sycamore" (annual yearbook), classroom and lecture space as well as a 255-seat proscenium theater. It was named for Dreiser in 1966.

Dreiser College, at Stony Brook University located in Stony Brook, New York, is also named after him.

In 2011, Dreiser was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.

Fiction

 * Sister Carrie (1900)
 * Jennie Gerhardt (1911)
 * The Financier (1912)
 * The Titan (1914)
 * The "Genius" (1915)
 * Free and Other Stories (1918)
 * An American Tragedy (1925)
 * Chains: Lesser Novels and Stories (1927)
 * The Total Stranger (abt. 1944)
 * The Bulwark (1946)
 * The Stoic (1947)

Drama

 * Plays of the Natural and the Supernatural (1916)
 * The Hand of the Potter (1918), first produced 1921

Poetry

 * Moods: Cadenced and Declaimed (New York: Boni & Liveright, 1926), 127 poems in a strictly limited edition of 550 numbered copies signed by the author, of which 535 were for sale; revised and enlarged as Moods: Philosophical and Emotional (Cadenced and Declaimed) (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1935)

Nonfiction

 * The Camera Club of New York. Ainslee's. Vol. 4, pp. 325–335  (1899)
 * A Traveler at Forty (1913)
 * A Hoosier Holiday (New York: John Lane Company, 1916)
 * Twelve Men (New York: Boni & Liveright, 1919)
 * Hey Rub-a-Dub-Dub: A Book of the Mystery and Wonder and Terror of Life (New York: Boni & Liveright, 1920)
 * A Book About Myself (1922); republished (unexpurgated) as Newspaper Days (New York: Horace Liveright, 1931)
 * The Color of a Great City (New York: Boni & Liveright, 1923)
 * Dreiser Looks at Russia (New York: Horace Liveright, 1928)
 * My City (1929)
 * A Gallery of Women (1929)
 * Tragic America (New York: Horace Liveright, 1931)
 * Dawn (New York: Horace Liveright, 1931)
 * America Is Worth Saving (New York: Modern Age Books, 1941)
 * Notes on Life, edited by Marguerite Tjader and John J. McAleer (University of Alabama Press; 1974)
 * An Amateur Laborer, edited with an Introduction by Richard W. Dowell (University of Pennsylvania Press; 1983) 207 pages
 * Theodore Dreiser: Political Writings, edited by Jude Davies (University of Illinois Press; 2011) 321 pages

Additional reading

 * Cassuto, Leonard and Clare Virginia Eby, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Theodore Dreiser. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
 * Loving, Jerome. The Last Titan: A Life of Theodore Dreiser. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
 * Riggio Tom and Morgan, Speer, The Total Stranger. The Missouri Review 10.3 (1987): 97–107.

title: Theodore Dreiser