Reading List for Freshman Year
| Person | Nationality Date of Death | Specialties |
| Aeschylus | Greek, 456 BC | Playwright, wrote 60 plays, but only 7 still exist. |
| Archimedes | Greek, 212 BC | Scientist, mathematician. Proved a body in a fluid becomes lighter by the amount the fluid replaces, and yelled “Eureka!” Famous expression for – I found it. He did this to see if a gold crown was really made from gold or a cheaper metal for a king. (I think). |
| Aristophanes | Greek, 388 BC | Playwright, wrote 54 plays, only 11 extant. Wrote satire. |
| Aristotle | Greek, 322 BC | Philosopher, scientist, physician, tutor to Alexander the Great. First to write about logic. Made major contributions to the study of natural change, psychology, biology. |
| Cannizzaro | Italian, 1826 – 1910. | Chemist remembered for the Cannizzaro reaction regarding hydrogen and other chemicals, and for his role in the atomic-weight deliberations of the Karlsruhe Congress in 1860.[1] |
| Euclid | Greek 4-3rd century BC | Mathematician. |
| Euripides | Greek, 406 | Playwright, wrote 80 plays, 19 survive, famous tragedies such as Medea and Electra |
| Fahrenheit | Polish/German, 1736 | Physicist, invented alcohol thermometer in 1709, and then the mercury one in 1714. |
| Herodotus | Greek, 425 BC | Historian, travelled in Middle East, wrote about wars between Greek and Persians. His historical accounts of events are often quoted. (He may be fun to read in an English translation). |
| Homer | Greek, c 8th century BC | Wrote poetry, the Iliad (siege of Troy) and the Odyssey. (Also fun to read, but in a prose form, rather than the original epic poetry it was written). |
| Lavoisier | French, 1794 | Founder of modern chemistry, politically a liberal, but was guillotined during the French Revolution |
| Lucretius | Latin, 55 BC | Poet and philosopher |
| Plato | Greek, 347 C | Philosopher, student of Socrates. Taken as a whole, his philosophy has been enormously influential in Western culture. |
| Plutarch | Greek 120 AD | Historian, biographer, philosopher. Wrote essays on ethics, politics, religion, etc. Source of Shakespeare’s Roman plays. |
| Proust | French, 1922 | Novelist, Remembrance of Things Past, exploring the power of memory and the unconscious as well as the nature of writing itself. Very influential in literature. |
| Sophocles | Greek, 406 BC | Tragic playwright, 123 plays, 7 in extant. Wrote: Electra, Oedipus Rex, Antigone. |
| Thucydides | Greek, 400 BC | Historian of the Peloponnesian wars |
Alice Delaney Walker - Teacher, Writer, Traveller 