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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
Leroux, Gaston
1868 - 1927
Gaston Leroux was born in Paris but grew up in a little village in Normandy close to the home of his maternal grandparents....
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Futrelle, Jacques
1875 - 1912
The American journalist and author Jacques Heath Futrelle made sure there was room for his wife in a lifeboat before he...
Further reading
Stefánsson, Jón Kalman
1963 -
The Icelandic author Jón Kalman Stefánsson grew up in Reykjavik, but also spent a lot of time in the countryside. After s...
Further reading
Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat
1689 - 1755
French man of letters and political philosopher; after Voltaire the most important cultural influence in France and in...
Further reading