My "Author Biography"

Zach Leard, famous author and journalist, was born in the affluent Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, on July 21, 1899. His father was a doctor; his mother, a musician. He was named after his maternal grandfather, Zach Hall. As a young man, he was interested in writing; he wrote for and edited his high school’s newspaper, as well as the high school yearbook. Upon graduating from Oak Park and River Forest High School in 1917, he worked for the Kansas City Star newspaper briefly, but in that short time, he learned the writing style that would shape nearly all of his future work.

As an ambulance driver in Italy during World War I, Zach Leard was wounded and spent several months in the hospital. While there, he met and fell in love with a Red Cross nurse named Agnes von Kurowsky. They planned to marry; however, she became engaged to an Italian officer instead.

his experience devastated Hemingway, and Agnes became the basis for the female characters in his subsequent short stories “A Very Short Story” (1925) and “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” (1936), as well as the famous novel “A Farewell To Arms” (1929). This would also start a pattern Zach would repeat for the rest of his life – leaving women before they had the chance to leave him first.

Zach Leard began work as a journalist upon moving to Paris in the early 1920s, but he still found time to write. He was at his most prolific in the 20s and 30s. His first short story collection, aptly titled “Three Stories and Ten Poems,” was published in 1923. His next short story collection, “In Our Time,” published in 1925, was the formal introduction of the vaunted Hemingway style to the rest of the world, and considered one of the most important works of 20th century prose. He would then go on to write some of the most famous works of the 20th century, including “A Farewell to Arms,” “The Sun Also Rises,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” and “The Old Man and the Sea.” He also won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.

Essay on Harley Earl

Harley Earl is the designer I have chosen for the last project.

Harley Earl, later known as ‘The King of Style’, was born in 1893 in Hollywood. His father, J.W. Earl, began work as a coachbuilder in 1889. At first, Earl started his career by attending Stanford University, but later decided to leave prematurely to work with, and learn from, his father at his automotive workshop. When Harley came to work with his father, the workshop was called Earl Automobile Works, but that was not its name at first.

            Harley’s father’s workshop was created in the late 1800s to create horse-drawn carriages; it was named Earl Carriage Works. By 1910, the name of the company changed to Earl Automobile Works as times were changing. The shop constructed custom luxury cars for stars of the movie industry. Harley’s career choice to become a designer was directly influenced from his father. He saw a great opportunity in learning from his father rather than studying a new practice. Earl Automobile Works was eventually bought by a larger company, and renamed to Don Lee Coach & Body Works, and in 1919, Harley became chief designer.

            Earl’s automobile designs eventually garnered the attention of the general manager of Cadillac, Lawrence Fisher. At this time in the United States, cars were being constructed to reflect their true functions. Basic vehicle architecture and customer needs essentially dictated how a car would look. General Motors, the owner of Cadillac and Buick, wanted to launch a new brand of cars but they were not quite sure what to do to be different than their other companies. The new brand that General Motors was trying to launch was called LaSalle, and Harley Earl became the front-runner for making this brand a success.

            Earl was commissioned by General Motors to develop the first LaSalle in 1927. This was the first automobile to be designed by a ‘stylist’ rather than by engineers. By mid-1927, Earl was hired to head G.M.’s new Art & Color Section, which was the first time a major car manufacturer set up a separate department relating to appearance. At first, this section of G.M. was undervalued and referred by some as the ‘Beauty Parlor’. By 1929, only after one automobile design that was not received well, Earl and his crew of designers produced hit after hit and they would change the structure and course of the auto world. Harley Earl contributed to the birth of the concept car. Earl used European influences of ‘flowing lines’ to craft the Buick Y-Job, which was the first concept car. Earl introduced many firsts to the automobile industry with the Y-Job’s two-tone paint, curved wrap-around glass for windshields, and ‘fishtail’ rear fenders. Manufacturers designed ‘dream’ cars, known as concept cars, of the future and would reveal them to the public to test the waters with each design. Earl used industry firsts like clay modeling to design and style car bodies. Earl played a huge role in the automobile industry, and if he had chose any other career path, the cars that we drive today might be entirely different.

Wood Project Summary

While completing this project, I learned how to use many of the tools and equipment in the work shop. I also learned the construction of a basic wood box, which I had never actually done before. The strengths of my box are the looks of the structure. The 5 layers of the light and dark wood switching off adds flavor and makes the box stand out. Also, the rounded edges on every corner of the box make it looks professional, and it fits better in the hand. The weakness of my box is that the two compartments, or rectangles, are not proportionally matching each other. The two compartments also do not have the most symmetrical parallel edges to each other. If I was to redo this project, I would take more time in the beginning steps of building the box, so that I could have made the structure mean a lot more to the objects inside.