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.

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Marguerite Duras

Marguerite Duras (1914-1996)

French Novelist, Screenwriter and Playwright 

French writer Marguerite Duras wrote more than numerous novels, screenplays and plays. She is best-known for her prize-winning novel, The Lover, and her experimental works that place great emphasis on innovations regarding style. Her theme mainly explores the challenges of love in a world that affects it.

Early Life of Marguerite Duras

Duras was born Marguerite Donnadieu on April 4, 1914 in Giadinh, French Indochina, now Vietnam. Her father died when she was four, and her mother, a teacher, struggled to bring up three children.

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James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)

American Novelist

James Fenimore Cooper is regarded as America’s first major novelist. Famous with his classic book, The Last of the Mohicans, he is best known for his sea adventure stories and the American frontier type of novels.

Early Life of James F. Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper was born on September 15, 1789 in New Jersey, the son of a wealthy businessman and politician, grew up in Cooperstown, New York, a frontier town his father had founded. He was expelled from Yale University and went to sea before becoming a gentleman farmer.

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George Sand

George Sand (1804-1876)

French Novelist and Playwright

 

George Sand was the most celebrated female French novelist of the 19th century, also famous as an early feminist and for her many love affairs.

Early life of George Sand

French writer George Sand was born Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, in Paris on July 1, 1804. She grew in Nohant, in a family estate there. It was a small village in central France. She married when she was 18 but grew bored with her husband. At 27-years-old, she went to live in Paris with her two children.

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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.

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E.T.A. Hoffmann

E.T.A. Hoffman (1776-1822)

German Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Composer, Music Critic, Jurist

E.T.A. Hoffmann was one of Germany’s most important authors belonging to the romantic literary movement. He wrote fantasy and horror and was best-known for Nighttime Tales.

Jacques Offenbach’s brilliant fictional opera The Tales of Hoffmann, made him very famous. In it, he was portrayed as a dreamy character.

Biography of E.T.A. Hoffmann in a Nutshell

E.T.A. Hoffmann was born Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, on January 24, 1776, in Königsberg, East Prussia. He came from a family of jurists, with his father, Christoph Ludwig Hoffman, being a barrister.

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Works by E.T.A. Hoffmann:

• The Golden Pot, 1814
• On Beethoven’s Instrumental Music, 1813
• Fantasies, 1814-1815
• The Devil’s Elixir, 1815-1816
• Nighttime Tales, 1817
• Strange Sufferings of a Theatre Director, 1818
• Opinions of the Tomcat Murr, 1819-1821
• Little Sachs, called Cinnaber, 1819
• The Serapion Brothers, 1819-1821

André Breton

André Breton (1896 – 1966)

French Poet and Novelist, Dadaist, Surrealist

André Breton was a French poet who helped found Surrealism, which became one of the most influential artistic movements of the 20th century. As one of the first organizers of the group, he fully articulated the theory of Surrealism and to put it into literary practice.

André Breton and Early Influences

André Breton was born on February 18, 1896, in Tinchebray, France.

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Works by André Breton

• Magnetic Fields, 1921
• Light of the Earth, 1923
• Manifesto of Surrealism, 1924
• Nadja, 1928
• The Community Vessels, 1932
• What is Surrealism?, 1934
• Mad Love, 1937
• Ode to Charles Fourier, 1947
• Poems, 1948
• Constellations, 1959
• Selected Poems, 1969 (Published after he died)
• Poems of André Breton (Published after he died)

Jack London

Jack London (1876-1916)

American Novelist and Short-Story Writer

Jack London, American novelist, short-story writer and realist, portrays in his novels the heroic struggle of men and animals against a hostile environment. He is best known for his books Call of the Wild, Sea Wolf and White Fang.

Life of Jack London in a Nutshell

Jack London (January 12, 1876-November 22, 1916) was born in San Francisco, London, but was raised in Oakland, California.

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Books by Jack London

• The Son of the Wolf, 1900
• Cruise of the Dazzler, 1902
• Call of the Wild, 1903
• The People of the Abyss, 1903
• The Sea Wolf, 1904
• Tales of the Fish Patrol, 1905
• White Fang, 1906
• The Road, 1907
• Iron Heel, 1908
• Martin Eden, 1909
• Burning Daylight, 1910