Anthony Burgess

Anthony Burgess (1917-1993)

English Novelist and Critic

A writer with incredible intellect, Anthony Burgess is best known for his novel, A Clockwork Orange, that portrays a disturbed youth who is violent and feels rejected by society.

Early Life of Anthony Burgess

Anthony Burgess was born into a Catholic family on February 25, 1917 in Manchester, U.K. His father was a pianist, and his mother was a musical comedy performer who died when Burgess was only a year old.

Read more — Anthony Burgess Brief Biography

Kingsley Amis

Kingsley Amis (1922-1925)

English Novelist, Poet, Teacher and Critic

The group of British writers called the “Angry Young Men” included Kingsley Amis, John Osborne and Alan Sillitoe, among others. This was in the 1950s when these writers shocked readers with their rejection of middle-class values. Amis, famous for the novel,Lucky Jim, is known for his satires on the class system.

Early Years of Kingsley Amis

Kingsley Amis was born on April 16, 1922 in London. When he was 19, he won a scholarship at Oxford University where he studied English.

Read more — Kingsley Amis Brief Biography

 

Robert Graves

Robert Graves (1895-1985)

English Poet, Novelist, Critic 

English poet, novelist and critic Robert Graves is regarded the best writer of love poetry in his time. He is best known for his autobiography Goodbye to All That and historical novel I, Claudius.

His love poetry is both gloomy and romantically passionate. Although extremely personal, his work has universal appeal.

Read more… Robert Graves Biography

Books by Robert Graves

• Poetic Unreason and Other Studies, 1925
• Goodbye to All That, 1929
• I, Claudius, 1934
• Claudius the God, 1934
• The Story of Marie Powell, Wife to Mr. Milton, 1943
• Hercules, My Shipmate, 1944
• King Jesus, 1946
• The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth, 1948
• The Greek Myths, 1955
• Collected Poems, 1959

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

English Poet and Critic, Famous for Rime of the Ancient Mariner

 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet and critic, is best remembered for his poems “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” “Kubla Khan” and “Christabel.” He was a pioneer of the Romantic movement in English poetry.

A son of a clergyman, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in Devonshire on October 21, 1772, in the rural southwest of England. At school in London he made friends with Charles Lamb. His early years were not happy. At Cambridge University he met the poet Robert Southey, with whom he planned to establish an ideal community in Pennsylvania.

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T.S. Eliot

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

American-British Poet, Critic and Playwright

T.S. Eliot was one of the most important figures in 20th century literature. Famous for his poem The Waste Land, he revolutionized the way poetry was written.

Thomas Stearns Eliot (September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1964) was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the youngest of seven children raised as a Unitarian. He studied at Harvard University where he was recognized as a brilliant student

Read more… T.S. Eliot Brief Biography

Books by T.S. Eliot

• Prufrock, and Other Observations (1917, poetry)
• Three Critical Essays (1920, essays)
• Ara vos Prec (1920, poetry)
• The Sacred Wood (1920, essays)
• The Waste Land (1922, poetry)
• Homage to Dryden (1924, essays)
• Poems, 1909-1925 (1925, poetry)
• For Lancelot Andrewes (1928, essays)
• Ash Wednesday (1930, poetry)
• Thoughts After Lambeth (1931, essays)
• The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism (1933, essays)
• After Strange Gods (1933, essays)
• Elizabethan Essays (1934, essays)
• The Rock (1934, religious play)
• Murder in the Cathedral (1935, play)
• Collected Poems: 1909-1935 (1936, poetry)
• Essays Ancient and Modern (1936, essays)
• Family Reunion (1939, play)
• The Dry Salvages (1941, poetry)
• Four Quartets (1944, poetry)
• The Cocktail Party (1950, play)
• On Poetry and Poets (1957, essays)

Ezra Pound

Ezra Pound (1885-1972)

American Poet, Critic and Translator

American poet and writer Ezra Pound had a great influence on the development of poetry in the 20th century. One of the driving forces of the Modernism movement, in particular, Imagism and Vorticism. He did not only write poems to be admired for their originality, but he also encouraged the careers of other authors, including literary greats T.S. Eliot, James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway.

Read more… Ezra Pound, Life and Works

Works by Ezra Pound

• A Lume Spento, 1908
• Exultations, 1909
• The Spirit of Romance, Book of critical essays, 1910
• Ripostes, 1912
• Cathay, 1915
• Homage to Sextus Propertius, 1917
• The Cantos, 19917-1968 (unfinished)
• Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, 1920
• Personae, 1926, shorter poems of Ezra Pound
• ‘If This be Treason…”, 1948
• The Pisan Cantos, 1948

Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann (1875-1955)

German Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist, Philanthropist

Thomas Mann became one of the leading novelists of 20th century Germany at the young age of 25. He was also a short story writer, essayist, social critic, and a philanthropist. A 1929 Nobel Prize winner in literature, he is famous for his novels The Magic Mountain, Joseph and His Brothers, and Doktor Faustus, among others.

One of his legacies is a famous institution in Budapest named in his honour, the Thomas Mann Gymnasium.

Read more… Thomas Mann, Author and Critic

Works by Thomas Mann

• Buddenbrooks, 1901
• Tonio Krüger, 1903
• Royal Highness, 1909
• Death in Venice, 1912
• The Magic Mountain, 1924
• Joseph and His Brothers, 1933-43
• Lotte in Weimar, 1939
• Doktor Faustus, 1947
• Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man, 1954

Bernard Shaw

Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

Anglo-Irish Playwright, Critic and Essayist

George Bernard Shaw is probably Ireland’s most famous playwright whose masterpiece is Saint Joan but is best-known for Pygmalion, musical My Fair Lady. During his long life he wrote numerous plays; over 50 of them. A powerful public speaker with great wit, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.

G.B. Shaw (1856-1950) was born in Dublin, Ireland, on July 26, and died at the age of 94. Shaw had a troubled childhood. His father drank heavily, eventually forcing his mother to leave the family to teach music in London.

Read more… George Bernard Shaw Biography

Works by Bernard Shaw:

• The Quintessence of Ibsenism, 1891

• Widower’s Houses, 1892

• Arms and the Man, 1894

• Mrs. Warren’s Profession, 1902

• Man and Superman, 1903

• Major Barbara, 1905

• Pygmalion, 1912, became the musical “My Fair Lady”

• Androcles and the Lion, 1913

• Heartbreak House, 1919

• Back to Methuselah, 1921

• Saint Joan, 1923