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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
Rankin, Ian
1960 -
The Scottish crime writer Ian James Rankin was born in the coal mining town of Cardenden, Fife, where his father owned a...
Further reading
Child, Lee
1954 -
Lee Child is the pen name of the British author and television producer Jim Grant. He was born in Coventry as one of four...
Further reading
Turèll, Dan
1946 - 1993
Danish novelist and poet who was something as unusual as a well-respected and genuinely popular cultural figure. He was...
Further reading
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
1712 - 1778
Author and political philosopher born in Geneva, Switzerland as the son of a watchmaker. His mother died giving birth to...
Further reading