Joel Roberts Poinsett

Joel Roberts Poinsett , 1779-1851, American diplomat and politician, b. Charleston, S.C. In 1810 he was sent as a special commissioner to South America to investigate political conditions of the countries struggling for independence. He served in the South Carolina legislature, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1821-25), and later was minister (1825-29) to Mexico. A strong opponent of nullification , he was Secretary of War (1837-41) under Martin Van Buren. He introduced the flowering plant called the poinsettia (named after him) into the United States.

Bibliography: See biography by J. F. Rippy (1935, repr. 1972).

Kipphardt, Heinar (1922–82), German dramatist, whose first plays were produced in East Berlin; in 1959 he moved to the Federal Republic, where he became the leading exponent of documentary theatre. The first of his works to attract attention, Der Hund des Generals (1962), was based on one of his own short stories, and is a bitter satire on war. He achieved international fame with In der Sache J. Robert Oppenheimer (1964), which deals with the trial of the well-known American nuclear physicist for suspected treason. As In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer it was seen in London in 1966 (NY, 1969). A further documentary, Joel Brand (1965), recalls the offer of the Nazis during the Second World War to spare the lives of a million Jews in exchange for 10,000 lorries. In all these plays, depicting the anguish of minority groups caught between contending world powers, Kipphardt showed remarkable skill in turning documented fact into effective theatre. A later comedy, Die Nacht, in der Chef geschlachtet wurde (The Night the Boss was Slaughtered, 1967), portrayed the technologically advanced society of the West as a nightmare.