-
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...
-
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
Poe, Edgar Allan
1809 - 1849
Edgar Allan Poe, born Edgar Poe, was an American author of Irish descent whose contribution to the horror, crime and...
Further reading
Noll, Ingrid
1935 -
The German author Ingrid Noll was born in Shanghai. Her parents had left Hessen for China where her father, a physician,...
Further reading
Walcott, Derek
1930 - 2017
Derek Walcott was born in Castries on the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia. His father was a civil servant who painted and...
Further reading
Wolkers, Jan
1925 - 2007
The Dutch author and artist Jan Wolkers was born in Oegstgeest near Leiden as the third of eleven children. His father...
Further reading