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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
Wordsworth, William
1770 - 1850
The English poet William Wordsworth was born in Cumberland as the son of a lawyer, but lost his parents at an early age. He...
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Updike, John
1932 - 2009
American author, born in the small town of Shillington in Pennsylvania, where also his earliest works take place, but then...
Further reading
Balzac, Honoré de
1799 - 1850
Honoré de Balzac was born Honoré Balzac in Tours, France, to a civil servant and his wife who was 30 years his junior. He a...
Further reading
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