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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
Dante Alighieri
1265 - 1321
The Italian poet Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri, referred to as Dante, was born in Florence to an old, noble, but no...
Further reading
Macdonald, Ross
1915 - 1983
Ross Macdonald is a pseudonym for the American-Canadian crime writer Kenneth Millar. He was born in Los Gatos, California,...
Further reading
Kehlmann, Daniel
1975 -
The German/Austrian novelist, essayist and critic Daniel Kehlmann was born in Munich. His mother was the German actress...
Further reading
Steinbeck, John
1902 - 1968
American author and Nobel Prize winner born in Salinas in California. His mother was a teacher and his father worked in the...
Further reading