The Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy defines friendship as “a distinct personal relationship, involving a degree of intimacy, in which both parties wish each other well and good.” In Book VIII of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle talks about three types of friendship: friendship of pleasure, friendship of utility, and friendship of virtue. In modern times, friendships are often categorized as acquaintances, social friends, close friends, and of course, BFFs. (Also read: International Tiger Day: Stripes and Claws in Fashion)
US President John F. Kennedy and music legend Frank Sinatra were best friends. {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
On International Friendship Day, let’s take a look at some of the best best friends in history.
Frank Sinatra and John F. Kennedy
Frank Sinatra and John F. Kennedy pictured together. Get tax implications, key announcements, sectoral analysis and more from the Federal Budget 2024 only on HT. Read now.
He was a glamorous president of the United States, and a singer with a sweet voice and a huge fan base. And the two were best friends. John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) and Frank Sinatra (1915-1998) were such good friends that, as Steven Watts writes in JFK and the Masculine Mystique: Sex and Power on the New Frontier, the joke was that Kennedy wanted to be Sinatra and Sinatra wanted to be Kennedy. “We are indebted to our great friend Frank Sinatra,” Kennedy said on the eve of the U.S. presidential inauguration. It was Sinatra who introduced Kennedy to Marilyn Monroe and put up a sign in the room of his house where Kennedy slept that read, “JFK Slept Here.” The friendship didn’t last long, but Sinatra is said to have cried for days after JFK was assassinated.
Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim
{{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} Queen Victoria and ‘Munshi’ Abdul. Read more about Union Budget 2024 tax impact, key announcements, sectoral analysis and more, only on HT. Read now.
Abdul Karim arrived as a “gift from India” when Queen Victoria hosted a lavish banquet for foreign royals and dignitaries to celebrate her golden jubilee in 1887. The queen and her servants developed a friendship that surprised her modest subjects. Karim was the queen’s beloved munshi, who taught her Urdu, educated her on Indian affairs, and introduced her to curry. The queen lavished Karim with gifts, titles, and honors, which infuriated the royal family. In her diary, the queen recorded her first impression of Karim as “a tall, fine, and serious-looking man” and, as her final request, asked that Karim be one of the guests of honour at her funeral, an honour reserved for only the queen’s closest friends and family.
Ravi Shankar & George Harrison
{{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} George Harrison and Pandit Ravi Shankar.
“My friendship with George began in 1966, when I met him along with three others. George was very special from the beginning. There was something about us that clicked…” sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar (1920-2012) wrote about George Harrison (1943-2001), one of the founding members of The Beatles. “I remember wanting to meet someone who could really move me, and then I met Ravi. The funny thing is, he was just a little guy playing an obscure instrument, but he took me to a deep place,” George Harrison wrote. This personal and musical friendship had a profound impact on the music of the late 1960s. The two also organized the famous Concert for Bangladesh in 1971.
Thomas Edison and Henry Ford
{{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} Henry Ford and Thomas Edison.
Henry Ford (1863-1947) attended the Edison Illuminating Company Association convention at the Oriental Hotel in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, New York, in 1896. At the banquet, Ford met his boyhood idol, Thomas Edison (1847-1931), and they became lifelong friends. Edison and Ford owned a vacation home near Fort Myers, Florida, and, calling themselves “vagrants,” went on annual camping trips between 1916 and 1924 with Harvey Firestone and naturalist John Burroughs. When Ford introduced the Model A, his first new car in 19 years, he gave the first one to Thomas Edison. When Edison became wheelchair-bound, Ford bought his own wheelchair to empathize (and compete) with his friend.
{{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
Catherine the Great and Voltaire
Voltaire and Queen Catherine developed a friendship.
In 2006, 26 handwritten letters sold at auction at Sotheby’s in Paris for the staggering price of £400,000, setting a new record for 18th-century correspondence. But these were no ordinary letters. They were between Russia’s most famous female ruler, Catherine the Great, and one of the greatest thinkers of the French Enlightenment, Voltaire. Though the two never met, they corresponded for 15 years, until Voltaire’s death. Voltaire called Catherine his “North Star” and was happy to have her on his side in what they both saw as feudal backwardness.
{{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini.
In 1920, two great men met: the man who created the unforgettable Sherlock Holmes, the other a magician, escape artist and the highest-paid entertainer of his time. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) and Harry Houdini (1874-1926) bonded over their shared interest in spiritualism. Doyle had become a fervent believer in an afterlife after the death of his son, while Houdini longed to be able to communicate with his deceased mother. Their friendship, and the bitter rift that followed, is immortalized in the 2016 British television miniseries Houdini & Doyle.
Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla
{{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
Inventor Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) read Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain, 1835-1910) long before he met him. As a child, he struggled with illness and found solace in Twain’s stories during his sick days. Twain was interested in inventions, and the two met and became friends in the early 1800s. Twain was often involved in Tesla’s experiments (Tesla invented the Tesla coil and alternating current (AC) electricity) and appears in photographs taken at his laboratory in New York.
Get daily updates on fashion, Taylor Swift, health, festivals, travel, love, recipes and other latest lifestyle news on Hindustan Times website and app.
Source link
