The Vital Spark 101 Outstanding Lives Author:Lowell Thomas In The Vital Spark, Lowell Thomas has written the biographies of 101 people whose lives in his estimation have been the most significant in shaping the destiny of man and the history of the world. — Some of them were conquerors - military leaders who lived by the sword and usually perished by it, such as Attila the Hun, Caesar, Simon Bolivar, the... more » great South American liberator, and Bismarck, Germany's brilliant solder-statesman. Some were men of peace, like Buddha and Ghandi - and Jesus Christ, who revolutionized men's thinking and their concept of God.
Here are the lives of turbulent, tragic women like Joan of Arc and Mary Queen of Scots, and of peaceful rulers like Queen Victoria, whose name meant a way of life. here are men of evil like the Borgias; the adventurers who discovered the New World; and the men who forged that New World into nations. And here are writers and artists - Byron, Dumas, Michelangelo, and Cellini - whose flames still burn bright.
Arranged chronologically, this book will be of valuable service in historical reference. At the same time, it is lucid, fast-moving, and readable, written by a man whose expert eye for the fascinating brought about the best-selling Seven Wonders of the World. It is embellished with thirty-two magnificent portraits by the noted painter Louis Lupas. The Vital Spark is as exciting as the 101 lives it describes.« less