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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
Fowles, John
1926 - 2005
John Robert Fowles was born in a middle-class family in the Essex town of Leigh-on-Sea. His father, Robert Fowles, dreamt...
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Hellström, Börge
1957 - 2017
Börge Hellström was a former criminal turned author. After a tough childhood he became an alcoholic and a drug addict, and e...
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Ginsberg, Allen
1926 - 1997
American poet born in Newark, New Jersey. His father, Louis, was also a poet and teacher. His mother was a Russian,...
Further reading
Gaboriau, Émile
1832 - 1873
While Edgar Allan Poe, the American author of short stories, is generally considered to be the father of modern crime...
Further reading