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It is 184 years today since Thomas Hardy was born.
The English author Thomas Hardy was born in Stinsford near Dorchester in Dorset, the son of a stonemason and local builder. Hardy trained as an architect before moving to London when he was twenty-two years old. He returned to Dorset where he began to write his first novel. Hardy was interested in the writings of Charles Darwin and in naturalism. During his long life he became famous for his...
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It is 111 years today since Barbara Pym was born.
Barbara Mary Crampton Pym was born in Oswestry, Shropshire, near the Welsh border where she grew up with her younger sister Hilary. Her father was a lawyer and her mother the organist in the local church. Many of the vicars and lay clergy that visited their home later turned up in Pym's books. She was privately educated, first at a girl's school and later at boarding school. After reading...
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It is 75 years today since Ingrid Hedström was born.
TThe Swedish journalist and author Ingrid Hedström were born in Söderhamn in the central Swedish province of Hälsingland, and then moved to Avesta in nearby Dalarna when she was five years old. She is said to be one of the 1960’s so-called "welfare-state princesses", meaning that she was the first in her family to graduate from high school. She completed her final exam at Avesta Grammar School in...
Sample of Authors
Blok, Aleksandr
1880 - 1921
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Blok is one of the great masters of Russian symbolism. He combined the early Russian literary...
Further reading
Rolland, Romain
1866 - 1944
The French author and playwright Romain Rolland was born in Clamecy, Bourgogne. The family moved to Paris, partly for the...
Further reading
Ekelöf, Gunnar
1907 - 1968
Swedish poet, born in Stockholm where he grew up in an upper-class family. The father worked as a stockbroker, but was...
Further reading
Yates, Richard
1926 - 1992
The American author Richard Yates was born in Yonkers, New York. His parents divorced when he was three years old, and as a...
Further reading