Category: Famous Friends

The 28-year-old Tesla work for the 37-year-old Edison’s Illuminating Company. After a year, they became rivals when Tesla left to start his own lighting company. Tesla promoted alternating current (AC) whereas Edison championed direct current (DC). Tesla won that battle. AC was more efficient and cheaper over longer distances than DC. Read The Sister Knot about two resilient women, orphaned in WW2, who defy fate to sustain a lifelong friendship. A compelling novel about the power of sisterhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Edison and Tesla: Powerful friends turned electric rivals

Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship

The women met in 1851 when Anthony traveled to an anti-slavery meeting in Seneca Falls, New York, where Stanton had organized the first national woman’s rights convention three years earlier. Amelia Bloomer introduced them on a street corner, sparking a friendship as co-leaders of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Read The Sister Knot about two resilient women, orphaned in WW2, who defy fate to sustain a lifelong friendship. A compelling novel about the power of sisterhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Anthony and Stanton: Two determined women, one powerful suffrage movement

Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship

In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockinbgbird, the friendship between a spunky young girl and her reclusive neighbor is marked by indirect contact but constant mutual awareness. Boo watches out for Scout like a guardian angel and his courage alters their lives. Read The Sister Knot about two resilient women, orphaned in WW2, who defy fate to sustain a lifelong friendship. A compelling novel about the power of sisterhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Scout and Boo: A memorable friendship between a spunky young girl and her reclusive neighbor

Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship

British poet T.S. Eliot and American comedian Groucho Marx became friends when Eliot wrote Marx saying he was a fan and asking for an autograph. Marx reciprocated. They corresponded for several years and finally met in 1964, when Marx came for dinner. Seeing pictures of Eliot’s esteemed friends on the wall, Marx requested that his be added too. Eliot agreed but never complied. The friendship morphed into a sniping rivalry. Nevertheless, when Eliot died a few months later, Marx wrote that they had in common an affection for good cigars and cats, and a weakness for making puns.” Read The Sister Knot about two resilient women, orphaned in WW2, who defy fate to sustain a lifelong friendship. A compelling novel about the power of sisterhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Eliot and Marx, poet and punster, had a friendly rivalry

Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship

In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick is more a sidelined narrator rather than a participating friend. Gatsby uses Nick, yet Nick vicariously relishes Gatsby’s romanticism. In the end, the relationship turns out badly for both. Read The Sister Knot about two resilient women, orphaned in WW2, who defy fate to sustain a lifelong friendship. A compelling novel about the power of sisterhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

The Great Gatsby ends badly for the title character & his sidekick friend

Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship

Gendelman was a Jewish American soldier captured in World War II; Kirschner a German pilot. Gendelman was imprisoned in a camp next to the family farm where Kirschner was recovering from a combat wound. Sneaking the prisoner through a hole in the fence, the men met to play chess and drink coffee. Kirschner eventually helped Gendelman escape. When the war ended, Gendelman helped Kirschner emigrate to the U.S. Gendelman said of the friendship, “We saw in each other an immediate connection, a brother.” Read The Sister Knot about two resilient women, orphaned in WW2, who defy fate to sustain a lifelong friendship. A compelling novel about the power of sisterhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Gendelman & Kirschner: Jewish American POW & German soldier unlikely friends

Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship

The Dassler brothers ran a German shoe company together for twenty-five years until they had a falling out, variously attributed to feuding wives or conflicting politics. In the late 1940s, they started separate companies. Adi founded Adidas and Rudi created Puma, rivals to this day. When the brothers died in the 1970s, they were buried at opposite ends of the cemetery. Read The Sister Knot about two resilient women, orphaned in WW2, who defy fate to sustain a lifelong friendship. A compelling novel about the power of sisterhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Dassler Brothers, Adi & Rudi, feuded, founded separate companies: Adidas & Puma

Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship

Clifford, the illustrated children’s book series by Norman Bridwell, proves that a dog is a child’s best friend. Book lovers young and old see the attachment between devoted Emily Elizabeth and exuberant Clifford grow as he develops from a tiny red puppy into an oversized pooch. Read The Sister Knot about two resilient women, orphaned in WW2, who defy fate to sustain a lifelong friendship. A compelling novel about the power of sisterhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Clifford & Emily Elizabeth: A big red dog is a little girl’s best friend

Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship

Comedian Hope entertained 11presidents but became friends only with Eisenhower. They hit it off in 1943 when Hope entertained the troops serving under then General Eisenhower in Algiers. When Eisenhower became President 10 years later, they continued to write and play golf. Their wives were also close. Of their wartime meeting, Hope said, “Meeting General Eisenhower in the midst of that deadly muddle was like a breath of fresh air. It quieted us, brought us back to our senses, and in every way paid us for the whole trip.” Read The Sister Knot about two resilient women, orphaned in WW2, who defy fate to sustain a lifelong friendship. A compelling novel about the power of sisterhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Eisenhower and Hope: The President and the comedian were friends in war and in peace

Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship

Irish playwright Samuel Beckett moved to a commune in France in 1953, the same year he published Waiting for Godot. Beckett befriended a local carpenter, Boris Roussimoff, whose son would one day become wrestler André the Giant. When the boy, age 12, grew too big for the school bus (he was already 6 feet tall and weighed 250 lbs.), Beckett drove him in his pick-up truck. During their rides, they talked about cricket. Read The Sister Knot about two resilient women, orphaned in WW2, who defy fate to sustain a lifelong friendship. A compelling novel about the power of sisterhood. Learn more about the book in NOVELS.

Beckett and Andre: The older literary and the younger physical giant were friends

Two resilient women, two separate journeys, one lasting friendship