Lenny Bruce Lenny Bruce Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), better known by his stage name Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-style and critical form of comedy which integrated satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon, the first in the history of New York state, by then-Governor George Pataki in 2003. Bruce is renowned for paving the way for future outspoken counterculture-era comedians, and his trial for obscenity is seen as a landmark for
Herbert Schneider Herbert Schneider Herbert Wallace Schneider (March 16, 1892 – October 15, 1984) was a German American professor of philosophy and a religious studies scholar long associated with Columbia University. Born in Berea, Ohio, Schneider completed his undergraduate and graduate education at Columbia, going on to teach at that school for many years. An early student of John Dewey, he studied pragmatism, ontology, social philosophy, and fascism, and is best remembered for his works "The Puritan Mind" (1930) and "A History of American Philosophy" (1946). The Herbert Schneider Award, an annual presentation of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy,