Stories About People (Biographies)
Text & MP3 Files
There are 265 fifteen-minute MP3 files and 11 shorter MP3 files.
That is about 66 hours of listening.
Activists & People Important to Social Reform
Artists
Athletes (People Who Do Sports)
Business & Industry
Entertainers
- Annie Oakley - Sharp Shooter
- Billy Wilder - Movie Director
- Bob Hope - Comedian
- Charlton Heston - Actor
- Cliff Robertson - Actor, Writer, Producer and Director
- Eartha Kitt - Singer and Actress
- Edward R. Murrow - Radio and TV Broadcaster
- Elizabeth Taylor - Actress
- Fred Astaire - Dancer and Actor
- Gene Kelly - Dancer and Actor
- George Abbott - "Mr. Broadway"
- Harry Houdini - Magician
- Hollywood: Cecil B. DeMille, Samuel Goldwyn and Louis Mayer
- Jack Benny - Comedian
- James Stewart - Actor
- Jessica Tandy - Actress
- Katharine Hepburn - Actress
- Lucille Ball - Actress and Comedian
- Mae West - Actress
- Marilyn Monroe - Actress
- Marlon Brando - Actor
- Martha Graham - The Mother of Modern Dance
- The Marx Brothers - Actors and Comedians
- Milton Berle - Actor
- Patricia Neal - Actress
- Paul Newman - Actor
- Soupy Sales - Comedian
- Sydney Pollack - Movie Director And Producer
- Walt Disney
- Willis Conover - VOA Radio Program on Jazz
- Kennedy Center Honors of 2009 - Grace Bumbry, Robert De Niro, Mel Brooks, Dave Brubeck, and Bruce Springsteen
- Kennedy Center Honors of 2008 - Barbra Streisand, Morgan Freeman, George Jones, Twyla Tharp, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey
- Kennedy Center Honors of 2007 - Brian Wilson, Steve Martin, Leon Fleisher, Martin Scorsese, and Diana Ross
Health
Inventors, Designers, Developers, Explorers, ...
Journalists
Musicians
Native Americans / American Indians
- Cochise - Apache Chief
- Crazy Horse - A leader of the Lakota Indians
- Pocahontas - The First Native-American to Marry a White Person
- It is highly likely that there are other native Americans listed in other categories.
Old West
Pilots
- Alan Shepard - The First American to Travel into Space
- Amelia Earhart - The First Woman to Fly Alone Across the Atlantic
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh - Pilot & Writer
- Bessie Coleman
- Charles Lindbergh - The First Person to Fly Alone Across the Atlantic
- Jackie Cochran - Set Many Speed, Distance and Altitude Records
- Jimmy Doolittle
- Wiley Post - The First Pilot to Circle the World Alone
- Aviation Hall of Fame Members
Harriet Quimby, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Charles Lindbergh, Neil Armstrong, Edwin Link, John Montgomery, Giuseppe Bellanca, Charles E. Taylor, Calbraith Rodgers and Jacqueline Cochran
- Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)
Deanie Parrish, Jacqueline Cochran and others.
Politicians
Scientists
Teachers and Educators
Writers
- Ann Landers - Advice Columns
- Arthur Miller - Playwright
- Ayn Rand
- Barbara Cooney - Children's Books
- Charles Schulz - "Peanuts" Comic Strip
- Clare Booth Luce - News Reporter, Magazine Editor, Member of Congress and Ambassador
- Doctor Seuss - Children's Books
- Dorothy West
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Edith Wharton
- Emily Dickinson - Poet
- Ernest Hemingway - Part 1
- Ernest Hemingway - Part 2
- F. Scott Fitzgerald - Part 1
- F. Scott Fitzgerald - Part 2
- Flannery O'Connor
- Gwendolyn Brooks - Poet
- Helen Keller - Part 1
- Helen Keller - Part 2
- James Baldwin
- John Kenneth Galbraith - Economist, Liberal Thinker, Author, Professor, Presidential Advisor And Ambassador
- Kurt Vonnegut
- Langston Hughes - Part 1 - Poet
- Langston Hughes - Part 2
- Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Louisa May Alcott - Children's Books
- Lucille Clifton - Poet
- Mark Twain
- Maurice Sendak
- Pearl S. Buck
- Phillis Wheatley - Early African-American Poet
- Ralph Ellison
- Ralph Waldo Emerson - Philosopher and Writer
- Robert Frost - Part 1 - Poet
- Robert Frost - Part 2
- Shel Silverstein - Poet, Writer, Composer, Singer, Musician and Artist
- Stephen Vincent Benet - Part 1 - Popular Writer of the Early 1900s
- Stephen Vincent Benet - Part 2
- Susan Sontag
- Truman Capote
- Walt Whitman - Poet
- Willa Cather
- William Faulkner - Part 1
- William Faulkner - Part 2
- William Shakespeare - Part 1
- William Shakespeare - Part 2
- Zora Neale Hurston
Year-end Special Programs
- Some People Who Died in 2010
Elizabeth Edwards, Paul Miller, Dorothy Kamenshek, Leslie Nielsen, Louise Bourgeois & Jerry Bock
- Some People Who Died in 2009
John Updike, Frank McCourt, Farrah Fawcet, John Hope Franklin, Abe Pollin & Mary Travers
- Some People Who Died in 2008
David Foster Wallace, Odetta, Irvine Robbins, Cyd Charisse & George Carlin
- Some People Who Died in 2007
Brooke Astor, Evel Knievel, Leona Helmsley & Max Roach
- Some People Who Died in 2006
Robert Altma, Ann Richards, R.W. Apple, William Styron & Ruth Brown
- Some People Who Died in 2005
Johnny Carson, Gladys Tantaquidgeon, John H. Johnson, Anne Bancroft & Shelby Foote
- Some People Who Died in 2004
Christopher Reeve, Julia Child, Mattie Stepanek, Estee Lauder & Robert Merrill
More People
More Than One Person, Groups of People, ...
More People - Four-Minute Programs
More People - Excerpts
About
- These are good for people studying English because it is possible to read along while listening.
- These are in VOA's Special English.
- These will print very cleanly (without printing the MP3 player and menu.)
- The source of the original pre-edited material is http://voanews.com/specialenglish/.
- "All text, audio and video material produced exclusively by the Voice of America
is public domain. However, some images and graphics are licensed for use and
covered by all applicable copyright laws."
- Though the source material was in the public domain, I have done some editing. If you need the public domain version of any of these stories, please visit http://voanews.com/specialenglish/.
Other VOA Material on This Web Site
This page is part of Interesting Things for ESL Students.