Washington Irving

Washington Irving was born in New York City, New York on April 3, 1783.  He was a well know writer. He had 11 siblings and was named after George Washington. He was educated privately and he studied law. One of his early careers was writing essays for periodicals. He then went to Europe for a short while and then returned to New York and practiced law. He was a horrible student and barely passed.

In 1815 Irving went to England to work for his brother. That didn't work out so he made a bunch of stories and essays. This became known as "The Sketch Book" and included "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle". These are two of his most famous works. He was a U.S ambasodor. He continued to write some biographies and other works. One of his famous quotes is,"Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them." He meas that great minds don't care about misfortune and bad things, they are mentally strong and learn from them. Little minds get down on themselves and don;t learn from it. Overall Washington Irving was a very good writer and is remembered today.

 

http://www.biography.com/people/washington-irving-9350087

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 in Virginia. His family lived on a farm in Virginia. He had lots of accomplishments throughtout his life. One of the most famous ones that most everybody knows is he wrote the Declaration of Independence. Another common one is he was the third president of the United States of America. He also was the president that bought the Louisiana Purchase, and initiated the Lewis and Clark expidition.

He had many occupations throughout his life. Obviously one of these was being the president. Other than that he was an inventer, writer, architect, and lawyer. He was also the secretary of state under Washington, and the vice president  under Adams. He was a quiet person. He was also a terrible public speaker. He only gave two speaches in his presidential career. His face is also on 2 dollar bills. He was also a very smart man and took his job very seriously.

Thomas Jefferson was a very interesting man. He had 9 siblings, and he was the third one born. He was part of the Democratic-Republican party. Another interseting fact about him is that he loved to fox hunt. One of his quotes is," Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will dilineate and define you". When he says this he means that actions make a person who they are, not the words they speak. Overall I think Thomas Jefferson was a great leader of our country and a very good person overall.

















http://www.google.com/images

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_jefferson.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0768854.html

http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/facts-on-thomas-jefferson.html


http://www.psea.org/uploadedFiles/TeachingandLearning/Special_and_Gifted_Ed/ThomasJefferson.pdf