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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
Sappho
c. 630 BCE - c. 570 BCE
Thanks to the Athenian politician and poet Solon we know that the lyrical poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos was both...
Further reading
Vidocq, Eugène François
1775 - 1857
Few people have had a life and a professional career to match that of the criminal, police officer, criminologist and...
Further reading
Jiménez, Juan Ramón
1881 - 1958
Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón was a Spanish poet born in Moguer, Huelva, Southwest Spain. Jiménez studied fine art and law in S...
Further reading
Kantor, MacKinlay
1904 - 1977
The author and journalist MacKinlay Kantor was born Benjamin McKinlay Kantor in Webster City, Iowa. His father, John Martin...
Further reading