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It is 184 years today since Thomas Hardy was born.
The English author Thomas Hardy was born in Stinsford near Dorchester in Dorset, the son of a stonemason and local builder. Hardy trained as an architect before moving to London when he was twenty-two years old. He returned to Dorset where he began to write his first novel. Hardy was interested in the writings of Charles Darwin and in naturalism. During his long life he became famous for his...
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It is 111 years today since Barbara Pym was born.
Barbara Mary Crampton Pym was born in Oswestry, Shropshire, near the Welsh border where she grew up with her younger sister Hilary. Her father was a lawyer and her mother the organist in the local church. Many of the vicars and lay clergy that visited their home later turned up in Pym's books. She was privately educated, first at a girl's school and later at boarding school. After reading...
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It is 75 years today since Ingrid Hedström was born.
TThe Swedish journalist and author Ingrid Hedström were born in Söderhamn in the central Swedish province of Hälsingland, and then moved to Avesta in nearby Dalarna when she was five years old. She is said to be one of the 1960’s so-called "welfare-state princesses", meaning that she was the first in her family to graduate from high school. She completed her final exam at Avesta Grammar School in...
Sample of Authors
Millar, Margaret
1915 - 1994
The Canadian-American author Margaret Ellis Millar, born Sturm, grew up in Kitchener, Ontario. She attended...
Further reading
Twain, Mark
1835 - 1910
Pseudonym for the American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens. "Mark twain" is marine jargon for "two fathoms deep" and goes...
Further reading
Smirnoff, Karin
1964 -
Karin Smirnoff has the same name as August Strindberg’s daughter, dramatist and author Karin Smirnoff (1880-1973) who also 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