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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
Aymé, Marcel
1902 - 1967
French author born in the town of Joigny, Burgundy, as the youngest of six children. His father was a cavalry farrier. His...
Further reading
Jacobsen, Roy
1954 -
Norwegian author born in Oslo where he grew up in a working-class suburb, but he spent his teenage years in North Norway....
Further reading
Andersen, H.C.
1805 - 1875
Hans Christian Andersen is Denmark’s best-known author. Born in Odense on the island of Funen, he had an extraordinary w...
Further reading
Cheever, John
1912 - 1982
American author born in Quincy, Massachusetts. Cheever’s father owned a shoe factory, but he fell on hard times in the f...
Further reading