Hernan Contreras was born in Rio Grande City, in Starr County, TX. He was the only child of Abundio Contreras and Mary Howard Contreras. His father, Abundio, was the postmaster of Rio Grande City from 1898 to 1922. Hernan attended Texas A&M University, graduating in 1923, with an Engineering degree. He married Estela Perez (1910-1992), daughter of Casimiro Perez Alvarez (1869-1936) and Silvestra Perez Alvarez in the November of 1938. They settled in the Contreras family home in the 1940s, raising two children, both sons. After Hernan’s death, Estela Contreras continued to live there, until her own death in 1992.

Edward Thomas was an English author and poet in the early part of the 20th Century. He was born on March 3, 1878, in Lambeth, London, and educated at Battersea Grammar School, St Paul's School and Lincoln College, Oxford. Initially working as a book reviewer and literary critic, he became a writer himself. While he is known for his poetry, he also wrote a novel, a children's book, and several non-fiction books. He became a poet full-time just after the outbreak of World War I.

Thomas enlisted into the military in July 1915 with the Artists' Rifles, promoted to Corporal, and commissioned to the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1916. He was killed in action at Arras on April 9, 1917, shortly after arriving in France.

The Santa Rosa Ranch Papers (1890-1910) take the researcher into a time in Texas history when acres of land, head of cattle, and sums of money were counted in minimum denominations of thousands. Furthermore, it was a time when fortunes were made, lost and regained in often very short spans of time by men and women whose formidable legacies remain quite visible in the twenty-first century.

The story of the Santa Rosa Ranch begins with a pioneering trail-driver named Dillard Rucker Fant, born 27 July 1842, in South Carolina, son of W. N. Fant and Mary Burriss Fant. When D. R. Fant was 11 years old, his family moved to Goliad, Texas where his father set up a merchant enterprise and eventually served as county judge.

D. R. Fant began his career freighting with ox teams in South Texas and, during the Civil War, enlisted in Col. George Washington Carver's 21st Texas Cavalry, seeing duty in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, and eventually achieving the rank of orderly sergeant. After the war "Colonel" Fant returned to Goliad, where he married Lucy A. Hodges on 15 October 1865, and became a farmer and rancher.

Fant soon began driving cattle to Rockport, Texas and selling them to packing houses (1867-1869). Learning that some North Texas cattlemen drove small herds of cattle through Indian Territory to Kansas at good profit, Fant decided in 1869 to redouble the effort by taking a large herd from Southwest Texas to Kansas. So successful was this adventure, that others eagerly followed Fant's lead.

In 1874, Fant began improving his own cattle stock with Durham and Hereford breeds. For fourteen years he held government contracts to supply thousands of beeves to various military posts and agencies in Dakota and Indian Territory, and wintered herds on pastures in Nebraska, Wyoming, and Idaho. During the fifteen years he was in business, Fant herded between 175,000 and 200,000 cattle up the trail, reportedly never losing more than three percent.

So extensive were D. R. Fant's operations that he had several tremendous herds on the trail in a single season. In 1884, he employed 200 cowboys to drive one of the largest herds on record—42,000 cattle, requiring 1,200 saddle horses to keep the cowboys in mounts—to Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming, selling them for almost $1 million. D. R. Fant was still driving cattle as late as 1889, long after rail service has been extended northward from the Texas interior.

Fant is credited with extending the Chisholm Trail to Corpus Christi, Tex. and financing the construction of Texas public schools and railroads. By the 1890s he was regarded as one of the barons of the Texas cattle industry, and his extensive ranch holdings totaled more than 700,000 acres, including the 225,000 acre Santa Rosa Ranch in Hidalgo county.

D. R. Fant died 15 January 1908 and his widow, Lucy Fant, died soon afterwards in March 1909. The Fants are buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Goliad, Texas.

The Office of Continuing Education open December 1973 to assist the academic colleges of Texas A&M University coordinates of their continuing education activities. The first annual report is a summary of the information reported to this office about activities conducted from September 1, 1973 through August 31, 1974.

Charles Goodnight was born 5 March 1836, in Macoupin County, Illinois. He moved with his family to near Nashville-on-the-Brazos, Milam County, Texas, in 1845. In 1857, Goodnight and his step-brother, John Wesley Sheek trailed a herd of cattle up the Brazos River to the Keechi valley, in Palo Pinto County, Texas. During this time, Goodnight became acquainted with Oliver Loving, who was also running cattle. Goodnight joined Capt. Jack Cureton's rangers, with whom he served as a scout and guide, participating in the raid on 18 December 1860 in which Cynthia Ann Parker was recaptured from the Comanche Indians. In the spring of 1866, Goodnight and Loving organized a cattle drive from Fort Belknap, Texas to the Pecos River, and up to Fort Sumner, New Mexico. This route became known as the "Goodnight-Loving Trail."

In 1869 Goodnight established his Rock Canon Ranch on the Arkansas River, west of Pueblo, Colorado, and married Molly Dyer on 26 July 1870. Goodnight eventually settled in Armstrong County, Texas, where he built a ranch house he dubbed the Home Ranch. After borrowing $30,000 from John G. Adair, Goodnight and Adair launched the JA Ranch, with Goodnight as resident manager. By Adair's death in 1885, the JA Ranch owned 1,325,000 acres, on which grazed more than 100,000 head of carefully bred cattle. As an early believer in improvement through breeding, Goodnight developed one of the nation's finest herds through the introduction of Hereford bulls. With his wife's encouragement, he also started a domestic buffalo herd, sired by a bull he named "Old Sikes," from which he developed the "cattalo" by crossing bison with Angus cattle.

In 1887, Goodnight sold his interest in the JA Ranch, and bought 160 sections in Armstrong County, Texas. He built a ranch house near Goodnight, Texas, into which he and his wife moved on 27 December 1887. He relocated his buffalo herd of 250 head to this ranch, which was organized as the Goodnight-Thayer Cattle Co. After selling his interest in the Goodnight-Thayer Co. in 1900, Goodnight limited his ranching activities to sixty sections surrounding his house. There he continued his experiments with buffalo, and also kept elk, antelope, and various other animals. Goodnight's wildlife preservation efforts gained the attention of such naturalists as Edmund Seymour, and American Bison Society member Martin S. Garretson. Goodnight also grew Armstrong County's first wheat crop, and conducted various agricultural experiments.

The Goodnights had no children. After his wife's death in April 1926, Goodnight became ill, and was nursed back to health by Corinne Goodnight, a young nurse from Butte, Montana. On March 5, 1927, Goodnight married the twenty-six year old Corinne. Shortly afterward they sold the ranch and bought a summer house in Clarendon. Goodnight died on December 12, 1929, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Charles P. Crawford, lawyer, Confederate officer; son of Joel Crawford. Charles P. Crawford served in the Confederate Army and entered the service of the State of Georgia on July 6, 1861, in Company A Battalion 11 as a fourth sergeant. He was promoted to the rank of Captain of Company B Battalion 11 on April 16, 1862.

On January 8, 1855, Crawford married his first wife, Martha "Mattie" Williamson, the daughter of Capt. W. T. Williamson of Milledgeville. She was born at McIntosh Reserve, Coweta County, GA on January 8, 1836. On May 4, 1880, Crawford married again to Anna Ripley Orme, the daughter of Richard M. Orme publisher of the Southern Recorder & Milledgeville Mayor.

Captain Crawford died at his home on Liberty Street in Milledgeville, Georgia, January 1900. According to the news article "Captain Crawford was one of the best-posted lawyers of this section, and leaves a wife, one son and three daughters and hosts of friends all over the state to mourn his death."

Joel Crawford, a U.S. Congressman, 1817-1821 is the brother of George Walker Crawford. He served as Representative from Georgia; born in Columbia County, GA on June 15, 1783; completed preparatory studies; studied law at the Litchfield Law School; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Sparta in 1808; moved to Milledgeville, GA in 1811; served in the war against the Creek Indians as second lieutenant and aide-de-camp to Brigadier General Floyd in 1813 and 1814; resumed the practice of law in Milledgeville; member of the State house of representatives 1814-1817; elected as a Republican to the Fifteenth Congress and reelected to the Sixteenth Congress ( March 4, 1817-March 3, 1821); returned to Sparta, Hancock County, in 1828; member of the State senate in 1827 and 1828; appointed a commissioner to run the boundary line between Alabama and Georgia in 1826; unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Georgia in 1828 and 1831; delegate to the International Improvement Convention in 1831; elected in 1837 a State commissioner to locate and construct the Western & Atlantic Railroad; died near Blakely, Early County, GA, April 5, 1858; interment in the family burying ground on his plantation in Early County, GA.

Joel Crawford was a slaveholder of over 100 slaves in Hancock County, Georgia.

Biography information available via the Biographical Directory of the US Congress website: http://bioguide.congress.gov/

James Earl Rudder was born on May 6, 1910, in Eden, Texas. After graduating from high school in 1927, Rudder attended John Tarleton Agricultural College. In 1930 he transferred to Texas A & M College, graduating in 1932 with a B.S. in Industrial Education. Upon his graduation he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Infantry of the U. S. Army Reserves. Rudder served as a football coach and teacher for the high school in Brady, Tex., from 1933 to 1938. In 1937, he married Margaret Exa Williamson, who was also a teacher at the Brady High School. He coached football for John Tarleton College from 1938 until 1941, when he was called to active duty in the United States Army as a 1st Lieutenant.

During World War II, Rudder was stationed initially with the 2nd Infantry Division at Ft. Sam Houston, and later became a Battalion Executive Officer with the 83rd Infantry Division. In the summer of 1943, he organized the 2nd Ranger Battalion. On June 6, 1944, the Rangers landed at Pointe du Hoc, on the shore of Normandy, as a part of the Allied invasion of Europe, and scaled its 100-foot cliff.

After the war, Rudder returned to Brady where he became a rancher and businessman. Elected mayor of Brady in 1946, he held the post until 1952. Rudder later served as Vice President, Public and Labor Relations Counselor at Brady Aviation Corporation from 1952 to 1955.

During his tenure as mayor, Rudder developed important political connections in Texas, most notably with Governor Allan Shivers and then-State Senator Lyndon B. Johnson. In January 1955, Rudder became the Commissioner of the General Land Office of the State of Texas and Chairman of the Veterans Land Board, to finish out a predecessor’s unfinished term. Rudder won popular election to the post in 1956; he remained in office as Commissioner until he was appointed Vice President of Texas A&M on February 1, 1958. He became President of the university on July 1, 1959. Rudder's position as President was combined with the position of Chancellor for the Texas A&M University System on September 1, 1965. Rudder served as both President of Texas A&M University and the University System until his death.

James Earl Rudder died 23 Mar. 1970 and is buried in College Station, TX.

Robert Cherry was born in 1914, attended Sam Houston State University for his bachelor's degree in business administration, the University of Wyoming for his master's in educational administration and commerce, and North Carolina State College for his doctorate.

Robert G. Cherry first joined the Texas A&M University System in 1943, as an assistant registrar, later moving on to become a member of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Sociology. He was appointed extension economist in 1956, and in 1959 went to Europe to study agricultural markets for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He was appointed an assistant to President James Earl Rudder in 1962, and began working in 1975 as an assistant to the Chancellor, and also was appointed the secretary of the Board of Regents during this time. He was known as "Mr. Texas A&M," and served as the main lobbyist for the University's interests in Austin with the state government. He was later promoted to Vice-Chancellor, and retired in 1984 to part-time, retiring fully in 1989.

He never married, but due to his interests in education, Cherry was known for his annual donations to the Agricultural Economics department for scholarships for students and was a benefactor for the Girl Scouts of America and to the Bryan Independent School District.

Robert Cherry died in 2005, at St. Joseph Rehabilitation Center, at the age of 91.

Poul Anderson was born November 25, 1926, in Bristol, PA. He lived in Port Arthur, Texas for a decade, then in Denmark, Maryland, and finally Minnesota. He attended the University of Minnesota, earning a bachelor’s degree in Physics, and selling his first science fiction story in 1947 while still an undergraduate. By 1948, he was a full-time freelance writer, his profession for the rest of his life. Anderson was highly regarded in science fiction and fantasy. He was honored with seven Hugo Awards, three Nebula Awards, a variety of other awards, and was named “Grand Master” of the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1997/1998. A 1981 entry in the Dictionary of Literary Biography called him “one of the five or six most important writers to appear during the science-fiction publishing boom of the decade following the end of World War II.” Anderson used his scientific training to write technically accurate science fiction, to project plausible future technologies, and to be regarded as an outstanding “hard science fiction” writer. He also wrote highly regarded fantasies, and viewed much of his own work more in the realm of magical realism than anything else. Anderson died in 2001 at age 74.

Robert Bloch was born on April 4, 1917, in Chicago, Illinois. He wrote from the 1940s through the 1990s, publishing science fiction, fantasy, and horror, with a significant career in radio and television scriptwriting supplementing his fiction. Bloch is perhaps best-known for his horror fiction. He was honored as the guest of honor as several conventions. He was awarded the Hugo award, the E. E. Evans Memorial Award, a Screen Guild award, and numerous other awards in several fields. Bloch passed away on September 9, 1994, in Los Angeles, California.

Tom Godwin is the author of three novels and about 30 science fiction stories, including what is arguably the most discussed story in the field, "The Cold Equations". The short story manuscript in this collection was published in Fantastic Universe in 1955.

Murray Leinster was born William Fitzgerald Jenkins on June 16, 1896, in Norfolk, Virginia. He was an intensely prolific writer, starting with his first story, "The Foreigner" (which appeared in the May 1916 issue of H.L. Mencken's The Smart Set), he was responsible for some 1,000 published short stories and numerous novels and essays, many under a variety of pseudonyms. Leinster's first science fiction story "The Runaway Skyscraper" appeared in the February 22, 1919 issue of Argosy, and was reprinted in the June 1926 issue of Amazing Stories.

Although his fame derived mostly from his science fiction writing, Leinster published in various popular genres, including romance, mystery, adventure, westerns, and general interest, in various magazines throughout his life. His science fiction is particularly notable during the pulp period for stories of scientists, both mad and heroic; time travel and alternate universe stories; and stories of military invasions of the United States (usually the invading country is never named) using futuristic and seemingly insurmountable weapons. Among his most famous stories are "Sidewise in Time" ( Astounding, June 1934), which is generally credited with not only introducing the concept of parallel universes to the pulps but also is considered the first alternate history story depicting a victorious Confederacy in the American Civil War; his 1945 novella "First Contact" which debuted the concept of the 'universal translator'; and "A Logic Named Joe" ( Astounding, March 1946), about a computer repairman who inadvertently helps an artificial intelligence to threaten civilization with an overload of personal information. It is the first stories in the genre to describe networked personal computers and their potential threats to security and privacy.

Leinster died on June 8, 1975. He won the 1956 Hugo Award for Best Novelette for "Exploration Team", the 1969 First Fandom Award, and a 1996 Retro Hugo for Best Novelette for "First Contact".

Ardath Mayhar was born February 20, 1930 in Timpson Texas. Mayhar has been a bookstore owner, proofreader, and chicken farmer before turning to full-time writing in 1980. She writes across many genres, but most of her work is in the science fiction and fantasy genre. Her work is well-regarded by both scholars and readers.

Karl T. Pflock was an author of fiction and nonfiction, best known for his book Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe, on the Roswell, NM, flying saucer controversy. He published five stories in the SF magazines. Pflock served in a number of government jobs, returning to full time writing in 1992. Pflock died June 5, 2006.

Karl Tomlinson Plfock (1943-2006) was a science fiction writer, born in San Diego, CA, who was even more well-known as an investigator and authority on UFOs (unidentified flying objects). From 1985-1989 he was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Deputy Director) for Operational Test and Evaluation, where he guided development and implementation of Department of Defense policy governing weapons systems and equipment testing. Before that, from 1983-1985 Pflock was Special Assistant for Defense, Space, and Science and Technology to Congressman Ken Kramer, and from 1981-1983 served as a senior staff member for the U.S. House Republican Conference under Congressman Jack Kemp.

As Senior Strategic Planner with BDM International (1989-92), Mr. Pflock led the contractor team providing comprehensive planning and technical support for development of the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons complex environmental restoration and waste management strategic plan and the department-wide plan for waste minimization. He also provided strategic planning and international market analysis services to the chief executive officer and senior management of Ford Motor Company and conducted strategic analyses for several leading aerospace firms. Pflock graduated in 1964 from San Jose State University with a B.A. in philosophy and political science. From 1966-1972 he was an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency. In addition to his small group of science fiction stories, Pflock also published, in 2001, a nonfiction book, Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will To Believe, the culmination of his decades-long work studying the UFO "incident" at Roswell in 1947, which he concluded was part of a secret US military program to detect atomic bomb testing by the Soviet Union.

Laura J, Mixon was born in New Mexico on December 8, 1957. She is trained as a chemical and environmental engineer, and in the 1980s served a stint in the U.S. Peace Corps in East Africa.

Mixon's first published work was the SF novel Astropilots(1987) written for the young-adult series 'Omni Odysseys'. She has also written the Avatars Dance series of novels, which include Glass Houses(1992), Proxies(1998), and Burning The Ice(1992). In 1997 she co-wrote the novel _Greenwar_with her husband, fellow SF writer Steven Gould. In 2011, Mixon published the first of a new series, Wave, under the pseudonym M.J. Locke _._The first book in the series is entitled Up Against It.

Mixon has also written several short stories, including two - "The Lamia's Tale" and "A Dose of Reality" (with Melinda M. Snodgrass) for the George R.R. Martin-edited _Wild Cards_shared universe of novels and stories.

_Up Against It_was nominated for the 2012 James Tiptree Award for Gender-Bending SF. Mixon won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer for her online essay "A Report on Damage Done by One Individual Under Several Names ".

Liebig's Extract of Meat Co. Ltd. was founded in London in 1856 by Baron Justus von Liebig and Georg Christian Giebert with a share capital of £480,000. During the next century, there were several changes of name, and in 1971 the Company was acquired by Brooke Bond's and is now known as Brooke Bond (Liebig) Ltd. Baron Justus von Liebig, a chemist, produced a meat extract that was energetically marketed in jars, tubes, and packets under a variety of names, such as Liebig, Sapis and Oxo. The extract was so popular that many rivals attempted to pass off their products as those of Liebig; several legal cases followed, and after this time the celebrated signature in blue of the founder appeared on packets and cards. The company prospered to the extent that it had branches and subsidiaries in many countries, such as Italy, Germany, France, South Africa and the United States; at one stage they claimed to own supply branches in Africa and South America totaling nearly 10,000 square miles, and containing 500,000 cattle.

At a very early stage the Company discovered the value of advertising and began to issue series of cards in 1872; these continued, with two short breaks during the World Wars, until 1974. The first series were probably handed out to customers by retailers, and were confined to France; this followed the pattern of most early French 'trade cards', which were produced en masse by printers, and then sold to shops and manufacturers who then had their own names and advertising printed on the backs and fronts - hence many of the early Liebig series of cards which may well have assisted in the continued expansion of the Company. The method of distribution also changed, and customers were able to obtain complete sets of cards in exchange for coupons which appeared in, or on, the packets. Sets were soon prepared for distribution in several countries, and many occur in six or more different languages, including English, Russian and Swedish.

In addition to the regular card issues, the Liebig company was responsible for a wide variety of other card types. Of these the best known are the Menu Cards, Table Cards and Calendars. But they also issued such varied items as playing cards, postcards, cookery books and wallets. Indeed there are so many that they could in themselves form the subject of a large reference work.

J John Herbert Varley was born in Austin, TX on August 9, 1947. He attended Michigan State University, and has been a writer since 1973. Varley won a special Locus Award in 1976, and several other Locus Awards, a Nebula Award in 1978 and 1985, a Prix Apollo in 1978, and is a regular nominee for awards.

His first published work, the short story "Picnic on Nearside", was released in 1974 and was the first work in his "Eight Worlds" Series. This cycle of novels and stories, which include The Ophiuchi Hotline (1977), the collections The Persistence of Vision (1978) and Blue Champagne (1986), Steel Beach (1992), and The Golden Globe (1998), takes place in a future Solar System that has been colonized by human refugees fleeing an alien invasion of Earth.

He is also well known for his "Gaea" trilogy of novels: Titan (1979), Wizard (1980), and Demon (1984), which involve the human exploration of a massive artificial satellite orbiting Saturn that turns out to be controlled by Gaea, a living intelligence. Other novels of Varley include Red Thunder (2003), Mammoth (2005), and Slow Apocalypse (2012).

Varley has won the Hugo Award three times: in 1979 for Best Novella ("The Persistence of Vision"), in 1982 for Best Short Story ("The Pusher"), and in 1985 for Best Novella ("Press Enter"). In addition, "The Persistence of Vision" won the 1979 Nebula Award for Best Novella, and "Press Enter" won it in 1985. He has won the Locus Award ten times, and has also received the 1979 Analog Award for Best Serial Novel or Novella (Titan), the 1982 SF Chronicle Award for Best Novella ("Press Enter"), the 1999 Prometheus Award for Best Libertarian SF Novel ( The Golden Globe), the 2004 Endeavor Award for Distinguished Novel or Collection (Red Thunder), and the 2004 Asimov's Readers Poll Award for Best Novelette (The Bellman).

Timothy A. Weaver is a graduate student and artist studying Visualization Sciences at the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University. He has been a long time Star Trek fan and collector since childhood. The VHS collection was formerly his father's David J. Weaver.

George Alec Effinger was born in Cleveland Ohio January 10, 1947, and died April 27, 2002. His writing career started with attendance at the Clarion Workshop in 1970, and his first publication in 1971. His first novel was a Nebula award nominee. He received a Nebula Award and Hugo Award for best novelette, for "Schroedinger's Kitten". John K. Diomede was a pseudonym.

Alex Murray Palmer Haley was born August 11, 1921, in Ithaca, New York, and reared in the small town of Henning, Tennessee. He was the oldest of three sons born to Bertha George Palmer and Simon Alexander Haley. When he was born, both parents were in their first year of graduate school, Bertha at the Ithaca Conservatory of Music, and Simon at Cornell University. They took the young Alex to Henning, where he grew up under the influence of women who inspired his search for his past. He remembers listening for hours as his family reminisced about an African ancestor who refused to respond to the slave name "Toby." "They said anytime any of the other slaves called him that, he would strenuously rebuff them, declaring that his name was 'Kin-tay.'" These initial stories would serve as the basis from which the Roots saga grew.

Not a stellar student in high school, Haley graduated with a C average at the age of fifteen. He then entered Alcorn A & M College in Lorman, Mississippi. After a short period, he transferred to Elizabeth City State Teachers College in North Carolina, from which he withdrew at age seventeen.

His experiences after college contributed directly to his growth as a writer. In 1939 he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard as a mess boy. To alleviate the boredom he experienced while cruising in the southwestern Pacific aboard an ammunition ship, he began writing. His first venture included writing love letters for his shipmates. He expanded his range with articles that he submitted to several American magazines. A series of rejection slips followed before his first article was accepted for publication by This Week, a syndicated Sunday newspaper supplement.

When Haley retired from the coast guard at the age of thirty-seven, he had attained the position of the chief journalist. Although he had dutifully served twenty years in the coast guard, he was not permitted to collect his pension checks--those were given as child support to Nannie Branch, whom he had married in 1941. They had two children, William Alexander, and Lydia Ann. They were separated for several years before getting divorced in 1964, the year he married Juliette Collins, whom he subsequently divorced; they had one child, Cynthia Gertrude.

Determined to continue his avid interest in writing, Haley moved into a basement apartment in New York City's Greenwich Village where, as a freelance writer, he lived a penurious existence. He was in debt and saw no brightness in his immediate future: "I owed everyone. One day a friend called with a Civil Service job that paid $6000 per year. I turned it down. I wanted to make it writing. My friend banged the phone down. I owed him too. I took psychic inventory. I looked in the cupboard, and there were two cans of sardines, marked two for 21 cents. I had 18 cents in a sack and I said to myself that I'd keep them." As a reminder of what he had to endure to get to where he is today, Haley framed the coins and cans and displays them in his private library; he calls them a symbol of his "determination to be independent," and vows that they will always be on the wall.

Haley's life soon took a turn for the better. The day after taking inventory of his circumstances, Haley received a check for an article he had written. This small reward fell short of the recognition he desired, but it did presage the beginning of assignments from more and more magazines, one of which was Reader's Digest, where he later published the first excerpts from Roots.

From the Dictionary of Literary Biography-a Thompson/Gale Database

Eldridge Cleaver, born in Wabbaseka, Arkansas on August 31, 1935, was a founding member of the Black Panther Party, remains a controversial figure within the Black Power Movement of the 1960s-1970s. Cleaver was one of the leading spokesperson for the revolutionary organization. He traveled extensively, nationally and internationally, on behalf of the group as Minister of Information, including a long period of hiding in exile with his then wife, Kathleen Cleaver (married on December 27, 1967), to avoid a murder charge. He represents a powerful symbol, both negative and positive, within African American history.

Timeline:

• Convicted of rape and assault in 1958, he is sent to San Quentin Prison, transferred to Folsom Prison in 1964, transferred to Soledad Prison in 1965, and released on parole in December of 1966.
• In early 1967, Cleaver meets Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, founders of the Black Panther Party (BPP). Cleaver becomes Minister of Information.
• On December 27, 1967 Eldridge Cleaver and Kathleen Cleaver are married.
• In 1968, Soul on Ice is released.
• In April 1968, Cleaver is involved in a gun shoot-out with police in Oakland California. He flees the United States in November before his scheduled hearing.
• From 1968 to 1970, Cleaver travels to Cuba, USSR, North Korea, Vietnam, China, and Algiers. In September of 1970, he establishes the International Office for the BPP in Algiers.
• On February 26, 1971, Cleaver splits with Huey Newton and the BPP.
• In late 1972, Cleaver relocates to Paris.
• After eight years of living abroad, Cleaver returns to the United States and surrenders to the FBI in 1975, telling Reader's Digest that he'd "rather be in jail in America than free anywhere else." He makes a deal and by pleading guilty to assault charges, the attempted murder charges are dropped. He is sentenced to 1,200 hours of community service in 1980.
• During the 1980s to the end of his life, Cleaver is involved in many endeavors: he starts his own clothing line, joins the Mormon Church, establishes a recycling business, attends Harvard Law School, becomes a recovering drug addict, and has many unsuccessful runs for political office.
• In 1985, Eldridge Cleaver and Kathleen Cleaver divorce.
• On May 2, 1998, Eldridge Cleaver dies in Pomona, California.

John Powers, a native of Fort Worth obtained baccalaureate degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and its school of law before entering private law practice in Austin. After serving twenty-three years as a justice and senior justice, he retired from the Austin Court of Appeals in 2004. He continues to reside in Austin with his wife Deborah. Deborah Powers is also a University of Texas graduate and was a Certified Public Accountant. She worked for the State of Texas as the plan administrator for the state's two deferred compensation plans and as a supervising auditor. She was also a research analyst for the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

The Powers have two daughters, both graduates of Texas A & M University, and they currently reside in Austin and Bastrop.

Josephus Franklin Cavitt (1867-1952) was a member of the prominent Cavitt family. He was the grandson of Andrew Cavitt (1796-1836) and Ann Cavitt (1801-1882), who left Alabama and settled in Robertson County, TX, and were friends of Davy Crockett and Sam Houston.

Josephus F. Cavitt was also the cousin of William Richard Cavitt (1849-1924), who served as a member of the Board of Regents (1883-1896) of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas.

Lester Del Rey (1915-1993) was born Leonard Knapp in Saratoga, Minnesota in 1915. He published his first short story (under the name 'Lester Del Rey') in Astounding in 1938, "The Faithful", at the dawn of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. This was the beginning of Del Rey's career as one of the genre's most influential figures. His early career as a writer was marked by a number of short stories published in many of the pulps of the era, and Del Rey launched his novelist's career with the 1952 publication of Rocket Jockey.

Del Rey's influence as an editor and publisher was even greater than his literary legacy. This phase of his career started in 1946 when he became a reader and the office manager at the Scott Meredith Literary Agency. At various points in his career, he was an editor at Space Science Fiction, Science Fiction Adventures, Rocket Stories, and Worlds of Fantasy (as well as a book reviewer for Analog Science Fiction). From 1975-1988 Del Rey was the Fantasy editor at Ballantine Books and was vice-president of Ballantine from 1988-1993. In 1977 Del Rey and his wife Judy-Lynn Del Rey established Del Rey Books as an imprint of Ballantine, specializing in science fiction and fantasy; the imprint was the publisher for authors such as Terry Brooks, Anne McCaffrey, Alan Dean Foster, Arthur C. Clarke, Harry Turtledove, Robert Heinlein, Elizabeth Moon, and many others.

Del Rey received a number of award nominations during his life. He won the 1972 Skylark Award (Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction), as well as the 1985 Balrog Special Award. He was made a Grand Master of Science Fiction by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1991.

Lester Del Rey died on May 10, 1993.