A Comparison of Nature in Romantic Poetry - 1097 Words

A Comparison of Nature in Romantic Poetry Wordsworth poetry derives its strength from the passion with which he views nature. Wordsworth has grown tired of the world mankind has created, and turns to nature for contentment. In his poems, Wordsworth associates freedom of emotions with natural things. Each aspect of nature holds a different meaning for Wordsworth. The beauty of morning; silent, bare, excerpt from Composed on Westminster Bridge. A main source of interest for Wordsworth is the absence of an unnatural presence, such as a city. In his sonnet, Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802, Wordsworth views London at the break of dawn, admiring the serenity and artistic impact of the scenery. A sight so touching†¦show more content†¦After a minute, he forgets about the nightingale. In lines five through twenty-five he is he joyous the nightingales ability to sing about summer. From the nightingales singing, the narrator becomes too happy because the nightingale can express its happiness that summe r has arrived. The narrator says that he wants to have a drink, cool and tasting, like flowers. He would forget the world and fade away with the nightingale into the forest. To create this Romantic image and convey his feelings towards nature, Keats compares the nightingale to a light-winged Dryad and refers to the tasting of flora and Provelcal Song. Keats feels that nature has both extreme beauty and a harsh reality that he could lose himself. In the poem, Frost at Midnight, Samuel Coleridge uses his creative imagery and fascination with nature to create a beautiful picture of the gifts God has given him and us. He uses a style of prose, which has no particular rhyme or meter. This could be used to help convey his meaning in a more story like way. The poem is broken down into four paragraphs of varying length and all, primarily, deal with nature. The poem starts out in a slow and somber mood as he talks about the peacefulness and beauty of nature. He uses many words and phrases to emphasize this particular mood, such as, peacefully, inaudible as dreams, Tis calm indeed, and my low-burnt fire. In this first paragraph, Coleridge is talkingShow MoreRelatedThe Nature of Emotions1244 Words   |  5 Pagesdescribed poetry as a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings (Cooksey). Both Wordsworth and Coleridge were pioneers of the Romantic Movement which stressed the importance of expressing emotions, particularly through po etry. Nature was a key element for the Romantic movement. Romanticism encouraged exploration of feelings and many poets used nature as an inspiration for their thoughts. Another important aspect was the idea of intuition over reason. Many artists during the Romantic period soughtRead MoreEssay about Romanticism674 Words   |  3 PagesRomanticism When we think of romance or romantic we often associate the term with love. People talk about how they want their significant others to be more ‘romantic’. But what does the term ‘romantic’ really mean. Does it mean giving flowers, spending an evening alone by candlelight, bringing home extravagant gifts, or reciting beautiful poetry. Within today’s society it can mean any one of those things and many more. But in the late eighteenth, early nineteenthRead MoreThe Wind As A Powerful Force Of Nature By Percy Bysshe Shelley1502 Words   |  7 Pagesthings which man comes to envy. In the Romantic poem Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley, this idea of wind as a powerful force of nature portrays itself as a link to the speaker’s emotions as well as his yearnings. The speaker implores the abilities of the West Wind as a comparison to his poetry, linking the natural world with the world inside of a poet’s mind. The vivid imagery throughout the poem illustrates Shelley’s fascination with this force of nature, which serves as an inspiration toRead MoreFlowered Memories: an Analysis of Ted Hughes Daffodils1319 Words   |  6 Pages‘Imagine what you are writing about. See it and live it. Ââ€"Ted Hughes, Poetry in the Making Edward James Hughes was English Poet Laureate from 1984 to his death in 1998. Famous for his violent poems about the innocent savagery of animals, Ted Hughes was born on Mytholmroyd, in the West Riding district of Yorkshire, which became the psychological terrain of his later poetry (The Literary Encyclopedia). He was married to the famous Sylvia Plath from 1956 up to her controversial suicide in 1956Read MoreWordsworth And Shelley s On Powers And Illusions Of The Inner Imaginative Life1350 Words   |  6 Pages The Romantic period, a time that writers such as Wordsworth and Shelley focused their writing in the centre of life and social importance. An important aspect of Romanticism: its emphasis upon the power and terrors of the inner imaginative life (Watson, 2012, p. 1). The Prelude celebrates Wordsworth s life retained through memories and with the act of remembering, depicting emotions and experiences. Whereas, Shelley and the Ode to the West Wind engaged his audience with inner and outerRead MoreRomanticism In William Blakes London722 Words   |  3 PagesRomanticism challenges and exploits the realities of life utilizing subjective comparison between opposites, religious nature, and idealism. Although William Blake is considered to be one of the founders of Romantic poetry, pieces such as â€Å"London† deviate from the conventional characteristics associated with this genre. Ironic to generic Romanticism, London hardly idealizes the horrific truth of society in industriali zed urban life. However, Blake’s lack of rhapsody does manifest the social and politicalRead More Comparison of the Portrayal of Nature in Blake and Wordsworth1518 Words   |  7 PagesComparison of the Portrayal of Nature in Blake and Wordsworth One of the most popular themes for Romantic poetry in England was nature and an appreciation for natural beauty. The English Romantic poets were generally concerned with the human imagination as a counter to the rise of science. The growing intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries placed scientific thought in the forefront of all knowledge, basing reality in material objects. The Romantics found this form of world viewRead MoreThe Romantic Poets By William Wordsworth1513 Words   |  7 PagesThe world of the Romantic poets is so much different today than it was in the time of the Romantics, which ranged from 1760 to 1830. Known to a friend as a â€Å"delicate adolescent† John Keats was a studious young man who was destined to become a doctor before he discovered his passion for poetry. While Keats was admiring nature and imagining how to help others find true joy in the natural world as a young man, students today are much more interested in supplementing their im agination through video gamesRead MoreRomantic Love : My Mistress Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun ``1204 Words   |  5 Pagesthem is romantic love. Romantic love is defined in several ways based on the social and cultural contexts. However, it is conventionally defined as â€Å"a powerful feeling of emotional infatuation and attachment between intimate partners† (Diamond, 117). Although, there are still debates and researches going on to find a more precise idea of it. Regardless of this ambiguity, in interpretation, the prevalence of romantic love in literature is quite evident. It has been a part of lyric poetry for a longRead MoreMany Of The Main Ideas Behind The Literary Movement Of1603 Words   |  7 PagesSamuel Taylor Coleridge, Mary Shelley was a contemporary of the romantic poets. Despite this apparent difference, Mary Shelley was deeply influenced by the romantics, and the reader of Frankenstein can certainly identify a number of characteristics of romanticism in this novel. Some critics have argued that Frankenstein is actually more sophisticated than the prose of other romantic writers, as this novel â€Å"initiates a rethinking of romantic rhetoric (Guyer 77). This rethinking is achieved by Shelley’s

Manifest Destiny Essay - 935 Words

Manifest Destiny is A term used in the 19th century to describe the early American settlers’ belief that expansion was unavoidable, and destined to happen. The idea led to settlers migrating westward with the notions that whatever acts they committed were justified. The belief that the circumstances warranted their behaviors. This mindset led to the Indian Removal Act, the Mexican-American War, the California Goldrush, and eventually the development of railroads across the continent which helped shape Americas revolution. Mexican-American War (1846-1848) A dispute over Texas being considered American soil. The discord ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. American ultimately gained Texas, California, Nevada, Utah,†¦show more content†¦While America was known at the time as a place for accepting immigrants, this was not the case for most Irish immigrants. Irish Catholics were targeted on the grounds that Catholics could not be trusted to remain loyal to anyone but the Pope, if another war were to arise. However, the Irish remained strong willed and assimilated into American society by working as farmers and building machines. Germans immigrated to America in search of political and religious freedom. They also came of hopes of better economic opportunities while escaping their own economic hardships. German immigrants settled across America working as farmers, improving their education, and working to develop modern operations. Disputed broke out over the Irish and German immigrants but an increase and economic growth and the need for laborers helped reduce the conflict. (ushistory.org, 2017) The Gilded Age After the Civil War (1861-1865), agriculture was no longer the main base of Americas economy. The factories that the Union built were repurposed for more profitable intentions. Because of this and the ambition of a few powerful men, America took a swift turn to becoming more industrialized. While the nation was growing, so were the railroads and small businesses. Americans no longer worked for themselves but for an employer. If a business couldn’t provide the best product at the cheapest prices they went bankrupt and wereShow MoreRelatedThe Manifest Destiny Essay1076 Words   |  5 Pagesfull swing by the 1840s. Which evidenced that the continued expansion of the states was an issue and the idea of a Manifest Destiny was of major importance. John L. O’Sullivan once stated, â€Å"Our Manifest Destiny is to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions† (America: A Narrative History). The idea of a Man ifest Destiny originated in the 1840s by the Anglo-Saxon Colonists to expand their ideal civilization and institutions across NorthRead MoreEssay On Manifest Destiny1709 Words   |  7 Pagesone of many seminal events in the history of the United States. However, it began the debt we are still in today; the Louisiana Purchase gave us the land that began the Manifest Destiny. â€Å"The term Manifest Destiny originated in the 1840’s when John L. O’Sullivan said in an article that it was the American colonist’s Manifest Destiny to spread over the continent and that God had given them the land for the sole purpose of multiplying and free development.† (History.com staff). It was this philosophyRead MoreManifest Destiny: Term or Reality Essay1315 Words   |  6 PagesThe three authors that describe Manifest destiny have very different beliefs but all use one person with vastly different views on Manifest Destiny and his beliefs on the term. The person that first used the term in any form of writing was John O’ Sullivan and is accredited with coining the phrase but much of this time had this strong belief in expanding the territory and states of the United States. Their views on this term were different because some believed that the United States should expandRead MoreInsight about the Mexican War and the Manifest Destiny Essay1046 Words   |  5 Pagesthe Mexican War and how did it begin? or What is Manifest Destiny and who came up with it? Those are all very good questions, so let me take the time to give you some insight about the Mexican war and Manifest Destiny. The Manifest Destiny was the belief that the United States was destined to expand from coast to coast. It was the concept that which heavily influenced American policy in the 1800s. Americans supported the manifest destiny because the Southerners wanted more land and NorthernersRead MoreEssay On Manifest Destiny1432 Words   |  6 Pages Manifest Destiny has many topics to choose from, the Annexation and war with Mexico being one of them. Annexation is the action of invading, most times it was about invading land. There were more Americans living in Texas then there were Mexicans. Eventually Texas became an independent republic in 1836, this simply added to the events leading up to the war with Mexico. The purpose of this essay is to understand the Annexation of Texas, how the war with Mexico began, what happened in the MexicanRead MoreManifest Destiny Essay802 Words   |  4 Pages Manifest destiny was the belief that God wanted the United States to own all of North Amer ica (Hall 301). But John O’Sullivan really only envisioned that white men were the only ones privileged enough to receive liberty (Hal 301). The Manifest Destiny was caused by the American people it gave them a sense of superiority over the other peoples who lived in North America. The declaration of the Manifest destiny wanted to expand the U.S. territory over the whole of North America and to extend andRead MoreThe Manifest Destiny Essay884 Words   |  4 Pages The Manifest Destiny is the idea of continental expansion by the United States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans, which naturally occurred out of a deep want and need to explore and conquer new lands and establish new borders. This idea contributed to several wars, including the US-Mexican War. Mexico and the United States had its share of territorial issues. With only four more days of his presidency, on March 1, 1845, President John Tyler signed the Texas annexation bill. When the UnitedRead MoreManifest Destiny Essay989 Words   |  4 Pages Manifest Destiny(1830s-1840s) The ideal of Manifest Destiny has shaped the American society during the 1830s to 1840s by establishing the innovation of manufacture, the expansion of territorial, transportation, and communication. Though it is one of the greatest period of the westward territorial expansions, it caused a massive conflict of social interaction, political, religious and automatically divided the gender roles in the community. During the nineteenth century, American had expandedRead MoreManifest Destiny Essay1433 Words   |  6 PagesManifest Destiny Westward expansion was a key component that shaped the United States not only geographically, but economically as well. The first sign of any expansion West from the original states was when Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803. The country was in need of new land in order to accommodate for the expanding population. Once the country started to expand, its power soon followed. The nation had a struggle with expanding because of the Native AmericansRead MoreManifest Destiny Essay1119 Words   |  5 Pagesstagnation. The landmass of the Thirteen Colonies was enough to rival that of the Mother country from which they separated. The forefathers believed that it was the manifest destiny of this nation to eventually claim the expansion from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. By 1890, nearly a hundred years following the original claim of Manifest Destiny, the land that was once open, was now under American control. But no sooner was the Great American Fronti er closed, than was the door to East Asian expansion

Kant on the Nature of Genius Free Essays

string(33) " will of the person creating it\." Kant was an 18th century German philosopher whose work initiated dramatic changes in the fields of epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, and teleology. Like many Enlightenment thinkers, he held our mental faculty of reason invests the world we experience with structure. In his works on aesthetics and teleology, he argued that it is our faculty of judgment that enables us to have experience of beauty and grasp those experiences as part of an ordered, natural world with purpose. We will write a custom essay sample on Kant on the Nature of Genius or any similar topic only for you Order Now In the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, genius is the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person. An essential character of â€Å"genius† for Kant is originality, or a talent for producing ideas which can be described as non-imitative. In the Critique of Judgment (1790) Kant defines genius as an artist capable of articulating truths or understanding in an imaginative, and uniquely creative way [1]. The articulation of the truths or understanding involves both a judgment by a viewer and the methodology by which it is created, and that specific criteria for both must be present for the designation of â€Å"genius†.   Kant assumes that the cognition involved in judging art is similar to the cognition involved in judging natural beauty. Thus, while two objects may have aesthetic beauty but the way they are created imparts the object with â€Å"soul†.   Kant argues that art can be tasteful (that is, agree with aesthetic judgment) and yet be ‘soulless’ – lacking that certain something that would make it more than just an artificial version of a beautiful natural object.   He further claims that what provides soul in fine art is an aesthetic idea that unlike rational ideas can’t be adequately exhibited sensibly. A genius generates aesthetic ideas, exhibits them tastefully, in a way that is universal and capable of being shared. While observing the work of art the viewer should experience the same state of mind the artist had while creating it. â€Å"The power of communicating one’s state of mind, even though only in respect of the cognitive faculties, carries a pleasure with it, as we can easily show from the natural propension of man towards sociability (empirical and psychological). But this is not enough for our design. The pleasure that we feel is, in a judgement of taste, necessarily imputed by us to every one else; as if, when we call a thing beautiful, it is to be regarded as a characteristic of the object which is determined in it according to concepts; though beauty, without a reference to the feeling of the subject, is nothing by itself.† (Kant Section 9, pp 1) One analogy that has been made is that to make a chair, one must know, in advance what a chair is, and create it with the intention of creating it.   In this respect Kant assumes that the creation of art is an exercise of will.   This is a convenient definition because it allows him to also distinguish art from nature because he assumes there is no prior notion or will behind the activity nature. This leads to a dilemma in whether one can call some forms of modern art a reflection of genius, if those works are created randomly, or allowed to self shape based on the physical properties of matter such as glass or ceramics. Another dilemma it raises stems from our definition of who has will or intention. For humans it is clear that the intention to express a thought or feeling through the creation of a physical art is an act of will, but do other animals have will is a matter of metaphysics rather than philosophy. According to Kant’s definition it would be difficult to know for sure if art painted by cats [2] or other non-mammals [3] would qualify, since for Kant non humans are part of the natural world and not endowed with will. Yet, as all of us know who own pets, animals have both distinct personalities and wills. For Kant, art also means something different from science, since it is a skill or practical ability that is more than just an understanding of awareness of something.   He also distinguishes from a labor or craft which has a vested interest or purpose in having the product itself. This also limits who can be a genius since any art that has a function separate from the function of being observed and understood for the idea it expresses, must not be real art, and its creator not a genius but a craftsman. This definition seems anachronistic since in many fine art museum there are displayed fragments of pottery or metalwork that are considered art today yet when they were produced, were produced by craftsman so that they could be used by ordinary people who were not concerned with the deeper meaning of what that plate may have represented. It would seem that the ability of the craftsman to mix metals or use new firing techniques to achieve a texture or impression of strength not found when traditional materials were used is expressing a form of genius. His idea was to create an object, regardless of its popular usage, that was different from the ones before that, when viewed by the recipient or purchaser gave them the impression that this new object, such as a sword, was better, stronger, more reliable or more facile. Thus according to Kan’s first definition of art, the expression of a concept by exercise of will is fulfilled. It would seem then that the use of the object later has no relevance on whether or not the object is art, and as a consequence no bearing on whether its producer is a genius. Kant spends much effort to categories arts into mechanical and aesthetic, agreeable and fine art. What it is defines the state of mind of the creator when producing it, and therefore creates the criteria of whether the final product actually reflects the thought or will of the person creating it. You read "Kant on the Nature of Genius" in category "Essay examples"   Kant introduces yet another rule to this confusing definition by stating that it should not be obvious (which would be in poor taste) what the intentions actually were.   Thus it would seem that for an art to be truly genius it should convey a message of concept, somewhat unclearly so that no one is 100% sure what the creator’s intentions were.   Thus the less obvious a message (though no message is also bad) the more likely the creator is to be a genius. According to Kant genius is the talent (natural endowment) that makes it possible to produce art which is an object that has no predefined definite rules or concepts for producing or judging it in a way that satisfies aesthetic judgment that is more than a functional object, or a representation of something natural. To make things art must have elements of originality for it to be a characteristic of genius. This means also that fine art properly is never an imitation of previous art or nature, though it may ‘follow’ or be ‘inspired by’ previous art and nature. To be radically original is difficult, because all human production is in some form an imitation or a trained action through other artistic influences, schools, and culture. Kant’s approach to art emphasizes our interest in it rather than the artwork in itself. The artwork is beautiful insofar as it instigates an intellectual activity termed reflective judgment. For Kant, the viewing of art rouses us to an intellectual involvement with the world in which the very sense of order by which the whole world can be articulated as a whole and be kept in balance is brought to light.   Reflective judgment does not determine whether something exists or not. It also does not determine what specific qualities a particular object might actually possess. Such judgments are cognitive and belong to the field of science. Reflective judgment judges whether something is beautiful. Beauty is never experienced as a determinate thing. We do not experience beauty directly, although it is always implicated in our experiences of the world. Beauty is a feeling induced by our sense of an ordering, a valuing, at work in the world that lies beyond any explicit demonstration .   The ability of the artist to generate such thought in the observer is thus deemed genius. There is a dilemma with this point of view, since what generates such thoughts for an individual is that individual’s experience. So one is left to wonder is the genius in the artist who created an object that could elicit that experience, or is it in the observer who is open to allowing that experience to occur in themselves? Thus if I look at a painting such as American Cubist Stuart Davis (1894-1964), Report from Rockport, 1940, and feel no understanding or connection, is it my lack of genius or his? If I feel a negative response is that a sufficient criteria of genius? Kant indirectly makes the artificial requirement that for something to reflect genius, it must be liked by the observer, not disliked. This is evident in his effort to define taste as involving the judgment that a thing is beautiful. Taste is a subjective judgment in which an object is referred by our imagination to our subjective selves, to the feeling of pleasure or displeasure that the object arouses in us. The representation of the object rather than the object itself is what is at issue in this judgment–not the building itself but its manner of being formed would be the matter of an aesthetic judgment. Though perception is always colored by experience, and is necessarily subjective, it is commonly taken that that which is not aesthetically satisfying in some fashion cannot be art. However, â€Å"good† art is not always or even regularly aesthetically appealing to a majority of viewers. In other words, an artist’s prime motivation need not be the pursuit of the aesthetic. Also, art often depicts terrible images made for social, moral, or thought-provoking reasons. For example, Francisco Goya’s painting depicting the Spanish shootings of 3rd of May 1808, is a graphic depiction of a firing squad executing several pleading civilians. Yet at the same time, the horrific imagery demonstrates Goya’s keen artistic ability in composition and execution and his fitting social and political outrage. Kant defines several aspects that lead to the formation of an individual’s taste. The first is quality which is supposed to be an objective evaluation of the object being considered. This means that a science of art appreciation has to be developed to define good from bad art in a way that is agreeable to everyone since it follows some pre-set rules, as w ell as generating a psychologically positive impact. â€Å"†¦ when [a man] puts a thing on a pedestal and calls it beautiful, he demands the same delight from others. He judges not merely for himself, but for all men, and then speaks of beauty as if it were a property of things. Thus he says that the thing is beautiful; and it is not as if he counts on others agreeing with him in his judgment of liking owing to his having found them in such agreement on a number of occasions, but he demands this agreement of them. He blames them if they judge differently, and denies them taste, which he still requires of them as something they ought to have; and to this extent it is not open to men to say: Every one has his own taste. This would be equivalent to saying that there is no such thing as taste, i.e. no aesthetic judgment capable of making a rightful claim upon the assent of all men.† (Kant, p. 52; see also pp. 136-139.) Another aspect of taste is quantity of positive appreciation (which means many people have to agree).   This judgment cannot, however, be proven. We can only ask others to look again with more attention to some aspects in hopes that can be induced to see something that eluded them in the first place. Thus genius of the artist grows with the contemplation of the observers, again indicating that it is as much attributable to the viewer as it is to the producer. A third criteria of taste is the purposeness of an object, or that it should have a reason for being there, greater than just the artists desired to memorialize the object.   Finally the last aspect of taste is the feeling of satisfaction in the object by the observer. To summarize, according to Kant, art encourages an intuitive understanding, was created with the intention of evoking such an understanding or an attempt at such an understanding in the audience, has no other purpose or function, may communicate on many different levels of appreciation, leads to many different interpretations, or reflections, demonstrates a high level of ability or fluency, and creates an appealing or aesthetically satisfying structures or forms upon an original set of unrelated, passive constituents.   This definition leads to a vagueness and subjectivity to art appreciation that varies from person to person, and an uncertainty who is most responsible the artist or the observer. Despite the attempt to attribute genius to the creator of the artistic object, all the definitions suggested to help the observed form a value judgment externally define what is artistic, or beautiful. Thus it would seem that for an artist to be truly appreciated and considered, he has to conform to the opinions of non artists, and tailor his work to stimulate their positive responses within the rule network they created.   This is undoubtedly responsible for statements like â€Å" he was ahead of his time† and why truly innovative artists are seldom appreciated during their lifetime.   [1] Critique of Judgment. Trans., James Creed Meredith. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1988) [2] Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics Heather Busch, Burton Silver, Ten Speed Press, Berkeley CA, 1994. [3] Museum of Non-Primate Art. http://www.monpa.com How to cite Kant on the Nature of Genius, Essay examples

George Herman Babe Ruth, b. Baltimore, Md., Feb. Essay Example For Students

George Herman Babe Ruth, b. Baltimore, Md., Feb. Essay George Herman Babe Ruth, b. Baltimore, Md., Feb. 6, 1895, d. Aug. 16, 1948, was one of professional baseballs greatest sluggers and probably the best-known player of the 1920s and early 1930s. As a New York Yankee, Ruth took the game out of the dead-ball era, saved it from the Black Sox scandal of 1919, and single-handedly revitalized the sport as the countrys national pastime. He teamed with Lou Gehrig to form what became the greatest one-two hitting punch in baseball and was the heart of the 1927 Yankees, a team regarded by some baseball experts as the best in baseball history. Nicknamed the Sultan of Swat, Ruth started his major league career as a left-handed pitcher with the Boston Red Sox in 1914. In 158 games for Boston he compiled a pitching record of 89 victories and 46 losses, including two 20-win seasons23 wins in 1916 and 24 wins in 1917. He eventually added 5 more wins as a Yankee hurler and ended his pitching career with a 2.28 earned run average; he also had 3 wins agai nst no losses in World Series competition, including one stretch of 292/3 consecutive scoreless innings. It is for his prowess at bat, not at the mound, however, that Ruth is remembered today. He was sold to New York by Boston following the 1919 season and after a permanent shift to the outfield responded by smashing a record 54 home runs while compiling a .376 batting average. In 22 seasons with the Red Sox, Yankees, and Boston Braves, Ruth led the league in home runs a record 12 timesincluding 59 in 1921 and a then-record 60 in 1927. He retired in 1935 with 714 career home runs, a record not surpassed until Hank Aarons performance in 1974. Ruth was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936 as one of the first five charter members. Bibliography:Creamer, Robert, Babe (1974); Ruth, Claire M., with Bill Slocum, The Babe and I (1959); Ruth, George H., with Bob Considine, The Babe Ruth Story (1948); Smelser, Marshall, The Life That Ruth Built: A Biography (1975); Wagenheim, Kal, Babe Ruth (1974). Babe Ruth (1895-1948) remains perhaps the most famous baseball player in history despite the fact that most of his batting records have been eclipsed. Before joining the New York Yankees, Ruth had been an outstanding pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees converted him into an outfielder, and Ruth led the team to four world championships (1923, 1927-28, 1932). (The Bettmann Archive)