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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
Buck, Pearl S.
1892 - 1973
Pearl S. Buck is the pseudonym of Pearl Sydenstricker Walsh. She was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia. Her parents were...
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Laxness, Halldór
1902 - 1998
Icelandic author born in Reykjavik as Halldór Guðjónsson. When he was three years old his parents, Guðjón Helgason and Sigr...
Further reading
Adonis
1930 -
Adonis, or Adunis, is the alias of the Syrian-Lebanese poet Ali Ahmad Said. Said was born in a poor farming community in...
Further reading
Dexter, Colin
1930 - 2017
The British crime writer Colin Dexter grew up in Stamford, Lincolnshire. After completing his military service in 1950, he...
Further reading