Famous People of Delaware

In this elegant and insightful biography, historian Newman (The Transformation of American Abolitionism) offers a vivid portrait of Bishop Richard Allen (17601831), a tireless preacher committed to ending slavery and fostering equality for blacks in postrevolutionary America. Born a slave in Philadelphia, Allen converted to Methodism when he was 17 during a revival held at his master's house. After obtaining his freedom, Allen helped to establish two of the most important black-led organizations in early America: the Free African Society, a benevolent organization, and Bethel Church, the birthplace of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, one of the most powerful African-American denominations in the United States. Although Allen is best remembered for his religious leadership, his work moved far beyond these circles. According to Newman, his ability to create independent black organizations as well as initiate a published discourse among free blacks established him as one of the nation's founding leaders. Newman's beautifully written study is not only a first-rate social history of the early Republic. Richard Allen Books

In 1828, Bird's play Pelopidas won a $1000 prize offered by the actor Edwin Forrest, but was never produced. Instead, Bird wrote another play for Forrest, The Gladiator, which was produced in 1831. Bird wrote several other plays for Forrest. Forrest had promised to pay Bird more for these plays if they proved successful. Though they were, Forrest refused to give Bird additional money; Bird's frustration with Forrest pushed him into writing novels.These include Calavar (1834), The Infidel (1835), The Hawks Of Hawk Hollow (1835), Sheppard Lee (1836), Nick of the Woods (1837), and The adventures of Robin Day (1839). Robert Montgomery Bird Books

Canby was born in Wilmington, Delaware and attended Wilmington Friends School. He graduatd from Yale in 1899, then taught at the university until becoming a professor in 1922.

Following a four year stint as the editor of the Literary Review of the New York Evening Post, Canby became one of the founders and editors of the Saturday Review of Literature, serving as the last until 1936. Henry S. Canby Books

The daughter of shipbuilder and state senator Wilson Lee Cannon and his second wife, Mary Elizabeth Jump, Annie grew up in Dover, Delaware. Annie's mother had a childhood interest in star-gazing, and she passed that interest along to her daughter. She had four older step-siblings from her father's first marriage, as well as two brothers, Robert and Wilson. Annie never married but was happy to be an aunt to her brother's children. Annie Jump Cannon Books

Darley was born in 1821 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a self-taught and prolific artist who started out as a staff artist for a Philadelphia publishing company where he was given a wide variety of assignments. After moving to New York, his work began to appear in magazines such as Harper's Weekly and in books by various publishers. Darley made 500 drawings for Lossing's History of the United States. Among his lithographic illustrations are those for Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", and some scenes in Indian life. The swing and vigor of his style, his facility, and versatility and the high average merit of his numerous works, make him one of the most noteworthy of American illustrators. Felix Darley Books

Anne Phillips, mother of John and Edward, was the sister of John Milton, the poet. In 1652, John Phillips published a Latin reply to the anonymous attack on Milton entitled Pro Rege et populo anglicano. He appears to have acted as unofficial secretary to Milton, but, unable to obtain regular political employment, and (like his brother) chafing against the discipline he was under, he published in 1655 a bitter attack on Puritanism entitled a Satyr against Hypocrites (1655). In 1656 he was summoned before the privy council for his share in a book of licentious poems, Sportive Wit, which was suppressed by the authorities but almost immediately replaced by a similar collection, Wit and Drollery.

In Montelion (1660) he ridiculed the astrological almanacs of William Lilly. Two other skits of this name, in 1661 and 1662, also full of course royalist wit, were probably by another hand. In 1678 he supported the agitation of Titus Oates, writing on his behalf, says Anthony Wood, many lies and villanies. Dr Oates's Narrative of the Popish Plot indicated was the first of these tracts. John Phillips Books

In 1894 he began teaching illustration at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry (now Drexel University), and after 1900 he founded his own school of art and illustration called the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art. The term the Brandywine School was later applied to the illustration artists and Wyeth family artists of the Brandywine region by Pitz (later called the Brandywine School).

Some of his more famous students were Olive Rush, N. C. Wyeth, Frank Schoonover, Elenore Abbott, Ellen Bernard Thompson Pyle, and Jessie Willcox Smith. His 1883 classic The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood remains in print to this day, and his other books, frequently with medieval European settings, include a four-volume set on King Arthur that cemented his reputation. Howard Pyle Books

Read was then elected to the first Legislative Council of the Delaware General Assembly and was selected as the Speaker in both the 1776/77 and 1777/78 sessions. At the time of the capture of President John McKinly, Read was in Philadelphia attending Congress, and after narrowly escaping capture himself while returning home, he became President on October 20, 1777, serving until March 31, 1778. During these months the British occupied Philadelphia and were in control of the Delaware River. George Read Books

Shue grew up in Bergen and Essex counties in New Jersey. Her parents divorced while she was in the fourth grade. Shue graduated from Columbia High School, in Maplewood, New Jersey, and attended Wellesley College and Harvard University, from which she withdrew to pursue her acting career. She returned to Harvard to finish her degree in Government in 2000. Shue was awarded entrance into Columbia High School's Wall of Fame in 1994, along with her brother, the actor Andrew Shue Elisabeth Shue Books Elisabeth Shue Movies