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It is 84 years today since Joseph Brodsky was born.
The Russian poet and essayist Joseph Brodsky was born to a Jewish family in Leningrad as Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky. His father was a journalist and a photographer in the Soviet Navy and his mother worked as an interpreter. He grew up on a communal housing estate where several families shared a bathroom and kitchen. Brodsky and his parents barely survived the German occupation of Leningrad,...
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It is 119 years today since Mikhail Sholokhov was born.
The Russian novelist and short story writer Mikhail Sholokhov was born in the village Veshenskaya (near Roston-on-Don) at the Don River. His father was a cattle trader, and his mother came from a family brought to the area as war prisoners by the Cossacks. She remained illiterate long into adulthood. Mikhail Sholokhov's schooling was interrupted by the war. Fifteen year old, he joined the...
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It is 96 years today since William Trevor was born.
William Trevor Cox was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, the Republic of Ireland, as the son of a Protestant bank official. Because his father moved around a lot, Trevor grew up in provincial towns all over Ireland and attended many different schools, including St. Columba’s College where he studied art and sculpture under the well-known sculptor Oisin Kelly. As a Protestant living in Catholic I...
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It is 61 years today since Michael Chabon was born.
Jewish-American author born in Washington D.C. His father, Robert Chabon, was a paediatrician and a lawyer. His mother, Sharon, went to law school as a mature student, but his parents were divorced when Michael Chabon was eleven years old. It has affected him deeply. After the divorce, he mostly lived with his mother in Maryland, spending his school holidays with his father in Pittsburgh.
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It is 50 years today since Jens Lapidus was born.
Jens Lapidus grew up on the outskirts of Stockholm. His mother was a social worker and his father a journalist who, among other things, worked for an immigrant magazine. As a result, Lapidus became aware of how more marginalised people lived from a young age. He was a trouble-maker in secondary school; had it been today, he believes he would have been diagnosed with behavioural disorder. He went...
Sample of Authors
Tyler, Anne
1941 -
Anne Tyler is an American author who was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and grew up in North Carolina. Her father, Lloyd...
Further reading
Berger, John
1926 - 2017
The English author and artist John Berger was born in a middle-class home in Stoke Newington, London. His father, S.J.D....
Further reading
Böll, Heinrich
1917 - 1985
German author born in Cologne. Böll was brought up a Roman Catholic in a middle-class family with pacifist and anti-Nazi ...
Further reading
Thomas, Ross
1926 - 1995
Ross Thomas was an American author of crime fiction, journalist and PR councillor. His political thrillers have received...
Further reading