5.T.S. Eliot's Biggest Fan
5.托马斯·斯特尔那斯·艾略特的死忠粉
Today, T.S. Eliot is one of the most famous poets of the 20th century, while Ezra Pound's works are only rarely read. But when the two met in 1914, Pound was far more popular and famous. Pound was a fan of Eliot's "The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock," which he described as "the best poem I have yet had or seen from an American." He soon took the younger man under his wing, forming one of the most unlikely friendships in literary history. Eliot was a somber and timid individual while Pound was an outrageously flamboyant troublemaker, an anti-Semite, and a fascist.
如今，艾略特已是20世纪最著名的一位诗人，而埃兹拉·庞德的著作却鲜有人读。但两人于1914年相遇时，庞德比现在有名多了。当时，庞德非常喜欢艾略特的《普鲁弗洛克的情歌》这首诗，他说，"这首诗太棒了，我在美国从来没有读过这样的诗。"后来，他很快将艾略特收归麾下，两人在文学史上也留下了一段看似不可能的伟大友谊。艾略特性格忧郁，胆小，而庞德则凶狠残暴，总是制造事端，而且还是位反犹太主义者，拥护法西斯主义。
But Pound played a key role in Eliot's development, editing his work masterfully and arranging for it to be published in influential magazines. Pound even broke the news to Eliot's parents that their son was abandoning his career to become a poet. Without Pound, Eliot's masterpiece "The Waste Land" might still be known as "He Do The Police In Different Voices."In fact, Pound had a habit of mentoring promising young authors who later became famous, helping to popularize everyone from Ernest Hemingway to James Joyce. Hemingway estimated that Pound spent only a fifth of his time on his own work, dedicating the rest to helping his friends: "He defends them when they are attacked, he gets them into magazines and out of jail. He loans them money. He sells their pictures. He writes articles about them. He introduces them to wealthy women. He gets publishers to take their books . . . And in the end a few of them refrain from knifing him at the first opportunity." Hemingway himself refrained from knifing Pound until the depths of his deranged anti-Semitism became clear during World War II, causing the author to declare his former friend "obviously crazy. He deserves punishment and disgrace but what he really deserves most is ridicule."
但是对于艾略特作品的发行，庞德也发挥了重大的作用：熟练地帮他编辑作品，联系有影响力的杂志社并安排出版。庞德甚至向艾略特的父母透露，艾略特打算辞职当诗人。如果没有庞德，艾略特的大作《荒原》可能只叫做He Do The Police In Different Voices 这样让你陌生的名字。事实上，庞德经常指导有前途的年轻作家，从欧内斯特·海明威到詹姆斯·乔伊斯，都曾在他的帮助下成名。海明威曾估计，庞德只将自己五分之一的精力用在自己的工作上，而其他时间都在帮助朋友。海明威说："在朋友受到攻击时，他挺身而出；他助其成名，免除牢狱之灾。不仅借钱给朋友，帮他们卖画，还为他们撰文。他还将他们介绍给贵妇，更是请出版商为他们出书……但是最后，却只有几个人选择不中伤他。"直到二战期间，庞德疯狂的反犹太人意识深入骨髓，表现得也愈加明显，海明威自己也不得不公开声称，他这位曾经的好友已经"明显就是疯了……他的作为让人感到羞耻，他就应该受到惩罚，而且最应该受到大家的奚落。"
4.Fitzgerald And Hemingway
4.菲茨杰拉德和海明威
Pound wasn't the only one to champion Hemingway during his early years. Arguably the greatest American writer in history might have remained completely unknown if not for the efforts of his friend and fellow author F. Scott Fitzgerald. The two first met in 1925, when Fitzgerald was already an acclaimed author and Hemingway was just a journalist with a handful of short stories and poems to his name. They quickly became close friends and Fitzgerald introduced Hemingway to his famous editor, Max Perkins.
海明威出名前，庞德并不是唯一一个支持他的人。这位历史上极富争议而又伟大的美国作家如果没有他的好友作家斯科特·菲茨杰拉德不遗余力的帮助，可能至今都默默无闻。两位作家于1925年初次相遇，当时菲茨杰拉德已经功成名就，而海明威还只是个记者，只创作了些短篇故事和诗作。他们的友情很快进入"蜜月期"，后来菲茨杰拉德把海明威介绍给了他那位著名的编辑——麦克斯·珀金斯。
The biggest help Fitzgerald offered Hemingway was editing his breakthrough work The Sun Also Rises, a novel about a dissolute group of American expatriates drifting from Paris to a bullfight in Spain. Perkins thought Hemingway's first draft was unpublishable and Fitzgerald agreed, writing a detailed 10-page critique of the book's "careless and ineffectual" aspects. He was particularly scathing about the opening chapter, declaring that "when so many people can write well [and] the competition is so heavy I can't imagine how you could have done these first 20 pages so casually." To his credit, Hemingway took the advice, cutting the first 16 pages of the book entirely and making substantial revisions elsewhere. However, he lied about the issue in his posthumously published memoir A Moveable Feast, which claims that Fitzgerald never saw the book until the final draft was with the publisher.
菲茨杰拉德对海明威最大的帮助就是为他编校了《太阳照常升起》，这部巨著讲述了一群放浪形骸的美国战后流亡青年从巴黎到西班牙参加斗牛节，之后引发了一系列爱恨纠葛的故事。珀金斯认为海明威的初稿不值得出版，菲茨杰拉德对此也无异议。菲茨杰拉德就此书写了一封非常详尽，长达10页的批判稿，批判了书中出现的冗杂无用之处。他尤其严肃认真地批判了这本小说的第一章，并说道："很多人都可以把这部分写得非常好，现在竞争如此激烈，我没想到你竟然如此敷衍地写完了前20页。"菲茨杰拉德的这种做法让海明威深感钦佩，他接受了建议，将书中的前16页内容全部删掉，在其他地方也做了大量的修改。然而在他死后出版的回忆录《流动的盛筵》中对于此事却撒谎，声称菲茨杰拉德从没看过这本书，直到最终版本给了出版商后，他才看到。
3.The American Who Fought For Castro
3.为卡斯特罗而战的美国人
Besides Che Guevara and the Castro brothers, we're largely unfamiliar with the people who fought against the brutal Cuban regime of Fulgencio Batista. Which is a shame, considering that we're missing out on such amazing figures as William Alexander Morgan, the American who fought with Castro.
除了切·格瓦拉和卡斯特罗兄弟，我们对于反对古巴富尔亨西奥·巴蒂斯塔独裁政权的其他勇士一无所知。多么遗憾！我们竟然忘记了一位非常出色的人物——威廉·亚历山大·摩根，这位与卡斯特罗一同战斗的美国人。
Born in 1928, Morgan left home as a teenager and joined the army at 18. After spending five years in jail for deserting, he got married and began running errands for the Mafia. In the 1950s, he became involved in smuggling guns to the revolutionaries fighting to overthrow Batista. Quickly becoming a believer in their cause, he joined their fight in 1957. Soon, Morgan rose through the ranks to become a comandante, a title only granted to one other foreigner, a certain Che Guevara.After the fall of Batista in 1959, Morgan arrived in Havana to chants of "Americano!" Although staunchly anti-Communist, he initially remained loyal to Fidel Castro, who was not openly Marxist at that time. When he was offered a million dollars to turn against Castro, he played along, broadcasting the sounds of a fake uprising to lure a squad of Dominican invaders into an ambush. But when Fidel began to display socialist leanings, he turned against him for real, arranging to smuggle weapons to a new rebel group opposing Castro. He was caught and executed in 1961.
摩根出生于1928年，少年时期便离家外出，18岁时参军。后来因为逃跑，被判坐牢5年。出狱后，他便成家，开始为黑手党跑腿。20世纪50年代时，他开始走私枪械，把枪械卖给要推翻巴蒂斯塔政权的武装革命分子。很快他也成了革命的忠实拥护者，1957年，他也加入了这场革命。摩根一步一步从最底层被提拔为指挥官，而这一头衔只授予过另一个外国人——切·格瓦拉。1959年，巴蒂斯塔政权被推翻以后，摩根曾到哈瓦那市欢颂"美国万岁"的口号。摩根是反共主义拥护者，而当时卡斯特罗并没有公开自己信奉马克思主义，所以他仍然效忠于卡斯特罗。多明尼反叛者曾经贿赂摩根一百万美元，让他背叛卡斯特罗，他佯装同意，广泛散播消息说他要起兵反抗，引诱这群反叛者陷入圈套。但是当卡斯特罗开始出现共产主义倾向时，摩根便真正与卡斯特罗背道而驰，他又开始走私枪支，卖给那些反对卡斯特罗的新武装叛变份子。1961年摩根被捕，处以极刑。
2.Winston Churchill's Father Figure
2.温斯顿·丘吉尔如父般的长辈
Born in Ireland, William Bourke Cockran came to the US at the age of 17. Settling in New York, he became an eminent attorney, served five terms in Congress, and was widely declared the greatest public speaker of his time. His skills as an orator were so good Churchill himself described him as the best speaker he had ever heard, declaring that he had "never seen his like, or in some respects his equal."
威廉·伯克·科克兰出生于爱尔兰，17岁时移民美国。在纽约定居后，他成为一名出色的律师，在国会任期五年，并被称为当时最伟大的演说家。他的演讲技巧非常高超，就连丘吉尔也称赞科克兰是他见过最棒的演说家，他说他"从未见过能与科克兰相比的人，或者某些方面能达到他的水平的人。"
Cockran apparently had a brief relationship with Churchill's mother after the death of her husband, and they remained close friends. When Churchill was a young man, he decided to visit the US and Cockran agreed to put him up in his luxurious New York townhouse. Cockran eventually became something of a father figure to Churchill, advising and mentoring him in the art of public speaking. Under Cockran's tutelage, Churchill began to take an interest in politics and began emulating Cockran's delivery pattern when addressing audiences. Churchill's early political and economic views were also modeled on Cockran's. Six years later, Churchill was elected to Parliament and became known for his own speaking skills.
科克兰显然在丘吉尔的父亲去世后与丘吉尔的母亲有过短暂的恋爱关系，在那之后，他们的关系仍然很亲密。丘吉尔年轻时，决定去美国走走，而科克兰则在他那所豪华的纽约市政厅内接待了丘吉尔。于丘吉尔而言，科克兰后来充当了他父亲的角色，为他的演说提供意见以及指导。在科克兰的指导和影响下，丘吉尔开始对政治感兴趣，并且在面对观众时开始模仿科克兰的讲演模式。丘吉尔早期的政治和经济见解都从科克兰那里有迹可循。六年之后，丘吉尔进入国会，开始以自己的演讲技巧而闻名。
1.另一位隐形股神
Regarded by many as the most successful investor of the 20th century, Warren Buffett, the "Oracle of Omaha," is regularly ranked among the richest people in the world. But a big part in Buffett's success story belongs to his little-known friend, Charlie Munger. The two have been friends for almost 60 years and Munger has served as Buffett's second-in-command for the last 37. In a neat twist, Munger's first job was actually working for Buffet's grandfather at $1.98 an hour, although he didn't meet the younger Warren until years later.
沃伦·巴菲特作为20世纪最成功的投资商，受到众人的膜拜，他被称为"奥马哈股神"，是世界富豪排行榜上的常客。但是巴菲特的成功很大一部分归因于一位不知名的朋友——查理·芒格。两位的友谊已经持续了将近60年，而芒格也当了巴菲特的副手37年。然而芒格的第一份工作其实是为巴菲特的爷爷打工，每小时只有1.98美元，工作了很多年后，他才认识了年轻时的巴菲特。
Before meeting Munger, Buffett followed the investing philosophy of his mentor, Benjamin Graham, who believed in buying underpriced assets and quickly selling them when their true value became apparent. This netted Buffett a huge fortune in his early years, but Munger wasn't convinced it was the best way forward. Instead, he argued in favor of paying a fair price for good companies and then holding on to them as they grew, trusting that the long-term yields would justify the initial investment. It required patience and good management, but Munger argued that over time the profit margins would be even greater than Graham's short-term buy-to-sell strategy. Buffet found Munger's ideas strange at first, but eventually came to embrace them, writing that "it took a powerful force to move me on from Graham's limiting views. It was the power of Charlie's mind. He expanded my horizons." Munger's philosophy eventually yielded huge results, helping to turn Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway into one of the largest conglomerates in the world.
认识芒格之前，巴菲特信奉的是他的导师——本杰明·格雷厄姆的投资哲学，格雷厄姆认为买进被低估的资产，然后在这些资产的价值初步展现时迅速卖出。这让巴菲特在早些年赚了很大一笔钱，但是芒格则不认为这种哲学可以一劳永逸。相反，他支持以平价买下一家前景不错的公司，然后等着这家公司发展，他相信长期的投资效益可以证明最初的投资是正确的。这虽然要求耐心以及良好的管理，但是芒格认为时间长了，获得的利润空间要比格雷厄姆理论获得的利润大得多。起初，巴菲特认为芒格的想法太奇怪了，但是最终还是接受了这些想法，他曾写道："把我从格雷厄姆那局限的理论中拉出来需要极其强大的力量，而这股力量就是查理的思想。他让我的眼界更开阔。"芒格的理论最终为巴菲特带来了巨大的好处，它使巴菲特的伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司成为世界上最大的一家企业集团。
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