US culture

The United States is a multicultural nation, home to a wide variety of ethnic groups, traditions, and values. The culture held in common by most Americans is a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of European immigrants with influences from many other sources, such as traditions brought by slaves from Africa. The American middle and professional class has initiated many contemporary social trends such as modern feminism, environmentalism, and multiculturalism.

The United States is a great centre of culture. It has the world's greatest museums, theatres, concert halls and orchestras. A lot of people usually attend performances and exhibitions in spite of the high prices of the tickets. Though art and ''high'' culture are important in America, the most popular sources of entertainment and information are the press, radio, television, and movies.

LITERATURE. Jack London (1876-1916) was born in San Francisco, California. His family was very poor, so Jack had to leave school to make money. In 1887, he went to Alaska to find gold. Instead, he found ideas for his stories there. His writings were very popular and he became rich and famous before the age of 30.

Mark Twain (1835-1910). His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, but he is better known by his professional name, Mark Twain. Mark Twain was born in Missouri. He never finished elementary school. He got his education mainly from his observations of people. In 1871, he married and moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where he wrote his two masterpieces, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was born in Oak Park. He was one of the Hollywood’s favorite authors. His books, The Old Man and the Sea, The Sun Also Rises, and A Farewell to Arms were made into films. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)was one of the most widely read American poets of the 19th century. He became the first American to be honoured with a bust in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey, London.

Fennimore Cooper (1789-1851) is the first well-known American novelist. Readers everywhere in the world connect his name with his books about the Indians whom the writer describes with much warmth and understanding.

Ray Bradbury (b. 1920) is an American author of many imaginative science-fiction short stories and five novels. Some of his stories are important, because they discuss the hazards of runaway technology.

CELEBRITIES OF THE ARTS. Elvis Presley (1935-1977) was known as " The King of Rock'n'Roll''. Elvis brought together the musical sounds of the blacks in America and of country people. Elvis was the most popular performer of his day. Elvis’s songs are still popular today.

Louis Armstrong (1900-1971) was a singer and trumpet player. He introduced new ideas to jazz and was known as the “King of Jazz”. Louis Armstrong was the first jazz soloist to receive world-wide recognition.

Barbara Streisand (b.1942) is an American singer and actress. Her beautiful voice and outgoing personality have made her one of the most successfulperformers in contemporary times.

Stephen Spielberg (b.1947) is regarded as the most successful director in Hollywood today. He is well known for his imaginative movie making and has helped to create a new generation of filmmakers.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was an American artist and film producer, who was famous for his animated cartoons. He developed many new techniques in producing cartoons. His most famous characters are Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Pluto. In the 1950s and 1960s, Walt Disney began developing the family-entertainment parks, Disneyland and Disney World.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959) is the greatest American architect of all time. Wright introduced many new concepts to contemporary architecture. You can see his concept of 'space in motion’ in his design of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.