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It is 152 years today since Bertrand Russell was born.
The British philosopher and author Bertrand Arthur William Russel was born in Trelleck, Monmouthshire, Wales, to an aristocratic family that included the former Prime Minister Lord John Russell. His parents were liberal and advocated, among other things, the emancipation of women. Although his godfather was John Stuart Mill, the boy was brought up by his Presbyterian grandmother after he was...
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It is 80 years today since W.G. Sebald was born.
Winfried Georg (W.G.) Sebald was born near the end of the Second World War in the Bavarian mountain village of Wertach where his mother had moved to get away from the bombing of the town of Bamberg. His parents, Rosa and Georg, had three children. His father, an officer of the Wehrmacht who had participated in the invasion of Poland, was a prisoner of war until 1947, but mentioning the war was...
Sample of Authors
Gordimer, Nadine
1923 - 2014
South-African novelist born in Springs, now in the province of Gauteng, (part of what was formerly the Transvaal), not far...
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Shaw, George Bernard
1856 - 1950
Irish author and Nobel Prize laureate born in Dublin to a middle-class family. His father was an alcoholic and his mother...
Further reading
Hofmannsthal, Hugo von
1874 - 1929
The Austrian author Hugo von Hofmannsthal was born in Vienna. His father was a bank manager. As a young man, von...
Further reading
Hughes, Ted
1930 - 1998
English poet born in Mytholmroyd in the West Riding of Yorkshire. When he was seven years old, the family moved to...
Further reading