Authors, Poets & Novelists Posters & Prints: “Com...-Con...-”
for literature & language arts classrooms, homeschoolers, and scholars.

John Amos Comenius
b. 3-28-1592; Moravia (Czech Republic)
d. 11-4-1670

John Amos Comenius, Bishop of the Unity of the Brethren (the Hussites, followers of Jan Hus) and one of the first advocates of universal education, is called the “Father of Modern Education”. Comenius is considered to have authored the first textbook, a picture book, for children.

One of UNESCO’s most prestigious awards, The Comenius Medal honoring outstanding achievements in the fields of education research and innovation, is named after him.

• theology posters
• John Comenius: The Labyrinth of the World and The Paradise of the Heart (Classics of Western Spirituality)

Henry Steele Commager
b. 10-25-1902; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
d. 3-3-1998

Henry Steele Commager was a noted educator, historian and author. He was a defender of civil liberties, opposed McCarthyism, and the Vietnam War.

• The Spirit of Seventy-Six: The Story of the American Revolution as told by Participants, ed. Henry Steele Commager
• peace posters

William Congreve
b. 1-24-1670; Bardsey, England
d. 1-19-1729; London

William Congreve was a playwright and poet during the Restoration period, specializing in satire and “comedy of manners”. Congreve was contemporaneous with Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope.

William Congreve quotes ~
The Way of the World (1700) -
• “Say what you will, 'tis better to be left than never to have been loved.”
• “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.” ~ Love for Love (1695)
• “Grief walks upon the heels of pleasure; married in haste, we repent at leisure.” ~ The Mourning Bride (1697)
• “Music hath charms to soothe a savage beast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.”
• “Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing.”

• The Way of the World and Other Plays

Joseph Conrad
née Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski
b. 12-3-1857; Berdichev, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire
d. 8-3-1924; England (heart attack)

Joseph Conrad is considered as one of the greatest novelists in English, though English was not his first language.

Conrad was orphaned by age eleven and eventually became a merchant seaman where he had the opportunity to learn English. By age 32 he became the captain of a Congo River steamboat and used the experiences as inspiration for his most acclaimed work, Heart of Darkness (1902).

Conrad was one of the notable expatriate Poles that included Frederic Chopin, Marie Curie (1867-1934), and Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918).

Joseph Conrad quotes ~
• “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.” The Heart of Darkness (1902)
• “All creative art is magic, is evocation of the unseen in forms persuasive, enlightening, familiar and surprising, for the edification of mankind, pinned down by the conditions of its existence to the earnest consideration of the most insignificant tides of reality.” Henry James - An Appreciation (1905)
• “The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.” Under Western Eyes (1911)

• The Portable Conrad, Joseph Conrad

FYI ~ The 1979 movie Apoclypse Now was adapted from Heart of Darkness, and also draws on the film Dispatches, which is based on Lord Jim.