The quintessential blues singer, she most famously sang songs of lament and longing for ordinary, feckless men that the heart had made into figures of cosmic importance. Today the correct attitude is — just-get-over-it. In the grip of hormones, roughly ages 15 – 55, “free will” takes some knocks. Billie got me through the worst of it.

The brilliant movie, “Yo, la peor de todas” (“I, the worst of all”) by the wonderful Argentinian film director Maria Luisa Bemberg gave me access to Sor Juana. Ms. Bemberg, incidentally, had been inspired by the equally ravishing and brilliant film “The Piano” by Australian director Jane Champion. Juana created astonishing poetry — until the church killjoys cracked down.

Here’s the history of Civilization as I learned it: pottery making by the Tigrus River, cities founded in Babylonia. Conquered; civilization moves to Egypt. Conquered. Greece — a Golden Age. Conquered. Rome. Its Glory. La dolce vita! Fall of Rome — Bad times. Each empire leaves only picturesque ruins, pottery shards and a few handsome women washing laundry by a stream. From Sammu-ramat, I learned a more complex understanding of history was necessary.

Rachel Carson’s voice for intelligent, socially-responsible stewardship of the fragile environment was the first that I heard championing for far-sighted decisions regarding our backyards and the planet. In “The Silent Spring”, she chronicled the devastating effects of the unchecked usage of DDT. “Give me spots on my apples But leave me the birds and the bees Please!” ~ Joni Mitchell .

My first Queen Elizabeth I was Bette Davis, followed by Glenda Jackson. Then, Judy Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Helen Mirren and Kate Blanchett — they’re all divine. The painted portraits done during Elizabeth’s lifetime are spectacularly engrossing images of beauty and power and for turning an individual into an icon. Hers was an extraordinary life — starting with her mother (Ann Boleyn) being beheaded by her father (Henry VIII).

The most famous, and important, female painter that no one has ever heard of. Russian born, she was inspired by traditional folk art, Orthodox Icons, Byzantine mosaics and cubism. Her color sense is joyous, phenomenal. The stage designs that Natalia did for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe bring together all of these factors. Died penniless in Paris.

Her name, for me, acts as an adjective — that’s so Diane Arbus. Her photographs of the marginalized question assumptions. Favorite Arbus quote: “Our whole guise is like giving a sign to the world to think of us in a certain way but there’s a point between what you want
people to know about you and what you can’t help people knowing about you.”

Oprah’s Book List took me to some unforgettable authors and novels. Remember the snooty male writer who looked down his nose at an invitation to her talk show? — don’t worry no one else does either. She has passed from media host to media mogul to something like American royalty. Her advice, to “live your best life” is an ongoing challenge for me.

The last monarch of Hawaii. She was a gentle, loyal, creative, spunky and generous woman. Queen Lili was tricked by the U.S. “Committee of Safety”, and lost her sovereignty. Remarkable how Big Interests label their predation as in the best interest of the party about to be disenfranchised.

Elsa’s best-known novel, “La Storia” (“History”) follows characters who are poor or socially maladapted and buffeted by WWII’s impact in Italy. Most chroniclers of history would find them invisible. Elsa shows what war does, the vast unreported consequences for the overwhelmed and unlucky. All of her works merit translation into English, they are masterpieces of Italian literature.

The frisson of encountering a wild creature in a deep woods that approaches you, quite sweet and tame — every early performance of hers on film still gives me that sense. The only possible reaction to the ending of the movie “Roman Holiday” is a prolonged happy-anguished strangled sob. Audrey was, in her later years, the face and voice of UNICEF.

As Lady-in-Waiting at an Imperial Court, Murasaki wrote “A Tale of Genji” at spare moments. Her themes were the irrational and transporting exigencies of romantic love, the poignancy of being excluded, and the hierarchy of power and self-display within the pursuit of love. The fleeting episodes are framed by nature’s ephemeral, consoling and transporting exquisiteness.

Anna Sewell, “Black Beauty”; Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House series; Lucy Maud Montgomery, “Anne of Green Gables” series; Beatrix Potter, “Tailor of Gloucester”; Margaret Wise Brown, “Goodnight Moon”, author of “Little Bear” and many beloved Golden books; Madame d’Aulnoy — Fairy Tales (“Les Contes de Fes”); Dare Wright, “The Lonely Doll”. These authors most surely took me “from crayons to perfume”. Search on YouTube.com for Lulu singing the theme from To Sir with Love.