This site continues to “Shelf Life”

Dear valued friends & visitors,

To consolidate efforts and time, “Authors Brief Biographies” blog has been merged with Books Shelf Life. New posts will be populated at Life Shelf.  This existing blog site, however, will remain available.

Thank you very much for understanding.

Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400)

English Poet

Chaucer was the greatest poet of the Middle Ages, and best remembered as the author of The Canterbury Tales, one of the most important books in the history of English literature.

Life of Geoffrey Chaucer in a Nutshell

Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London c. 1343 into a prosperous wine merchant family. At the age of 16, he took part in a military expedition to France, a part of the Hundred Years’ War. He was held prisoner, captured by the French. The English king and Chaucer’s friends paid the ransom for his release.

Read more … Geoffrey Chaucer Brief Biography and Works

Lope de Vega

Lope de Vega (1562-1635)

Spanish Writer – Playwright, Author and Poet

Lope de Vega, a Spanish playwright and poet, is regarded as the father of Spanish national theatre or “comedia.” He popularized this dramatic form, the three-act plays in verse, which appealed to the public despite the fact that they broke all the classical rules.

Read more … Biography of Spanish Writer Lope de Vega

 

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

 

Maurice Maeterlinck

Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949)

Belgian Playwright, Poet, Essayist

Maurice Maeterlinck was a Belgian playwright, poet and essayist who became involved with Symbolism, a French literary movement which uses symbols to represent ideas and emotions. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1911.

Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard, Count Maeterlinck, was born in Ghent, Belgium on August 29, 1862. He studied law at the University of Ghent where he was profoundly influenced by Symbolism. His early works were not in plays but poetry. He published his first poem, The Rushes, when he was a 21-year-old university student.

Read more…  Maurice Maeterlinck Brief Biography

 

Works by Maurice Maeterlinck

• The Rushes, 1883
• Hot Houses, 1889
• The Princess Maleine, 1889, play
• The Blind, 1891, play
• Pelléas and Mélisande, 1892, play
• Aglavaine and Selysette, 1896
• Ariadne and Bluebeard, 1901
• Sister Beatraice, 1902
• Monna Vanna, 1902, play
• The Blue Bird, 1908
• The Burgomaster of Stilmonde, 1918

Homer

Homer (lived in the 8th or 9th century BC)

Greek Poet

Famous for Iliad and Odyssey, Homer is the most mysterious and extraordinary of all the poets of ancient Greece. Nothing at all is known for certain about his life, and many scholars have argued that he never even existed.

Homer Profile

Homer may have lived c. 8th or 9th century BC. As no definite facts are known about him, by tradition he was blind, and that he wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey, c. 9th – 8th century BC. Seven towns claim to be his birthplace.

Admired by Aristotle for his writing, his two epic poems, Iliad and Odyssey, are regarded the finest ever written, with realistic and descriptive style.

Read more… Homer and his Two Epic Poems

John Milton

John Milton (1608-1674)

English Poet and Essayist

Best known for Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Lycidas, John Milton was one of the greatest English poets with huge influence on English poetry.

Milton’s Life in a Nutshell

John Milton was born on December 9, 1698 in London. His father was a successful lawyer and composer. They had a second house in the country where Milton spent six years in private study after finishing education in Cambridge University in 1632.

Read more …   John Milton Life and Works

Works by John Milton

•”On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity”, 1629
•”L’Allegro”, c. 1631
•”Il Penseroso”, c. 1631
•Comus, 1634
•Lycidas, 1637
•Areopagitica, 1644
•Poems, 1645
•Paradise Lost, 1667
•Paradise Regained, 1671
•Samson Agonistes, 1671

Robert Frost

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

American Poet

Considered as America’s Poet Laureate, American writer Robert Frost is one of the best of rural New England’s poets. He was best known for his collection New Hampshire and A Witness Tree, both Pulitzer Prize winners.

Early Life of Robert Frost

Robert Lee Frost was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, California. Following the death of his father, his family moved from San Francisco to Massachusetts when he was 11-years-old. He completed his education in New England, attending both Dartmouth College and Harvard University but without graduating.

Read more... Robert Frost Life and Works

Works by Robert Frost:

• A Boy’s Will, 1913
• North of Boston, 1914
• Mountain Interval, 1916
• New Hampshire, 1923
• West-Running Brook, 1928
• Collected Poems, 1930
• A Further Range, 1936
• A Witness Tree, 1942
• A Masque of Mercy, 1947
• Steeple Bush, 1947
• In the Clearing, 1962