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It is 125 years today since Yasunari Kawabata was born.
Yasunari Kawabata was a Japanese novelist and short story writer born in Osaka. He came from an educated, wealthy family, but he lost his parents at an early age and his only sibling, a sister, died when he was nine years old. These childhood traumas came to inform his writing. After growing up with his maternal grandfather in the countryside, Kawabata read English and Japanese literature at...
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It is 113 years today since Victor Canning was born.
Victor Canning was a British author of humorous adventure stories and thrillers. He was born in Plymouth, Devon. At the outbreak of the First World War, while his father was doing his military service, he went with his mother and siblings to live with his uncle in Calstock, a few miles north of Plymouth. This was where Canning fell in love with the English countryside, which features prominently...
Sample of Authors
Oe, Kenzaburo
1935 - 2023
Japanese author Kenzaburo Oe was born in the village of Ose on the island of Shikoku where his family has lived for...
Further reading
Spain, Jo
1979 -
The Irish author Joanne ‘Jo’ Spain was born into a working-class family in the little notorious residential district of Bel...
Further reading
Swift, Graham
1949 -
British author born in Bermondsey, South London. Swift was brought up in a lower middle-class home in Croydon – a happy c...
Further reading
Wolfe, Thomas
1900 - 1938
The American novelist and playwright Thomas Wolfe was born in Asheville, North Carolina. Although his parents later...
Further reading