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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
Barker, Pat
1943 -
The novelist Pat (Patricia) Barker was born in a working-class home in Thornaby-on-Tees, northeast England. Her father's...
Further reading
Francis, Dick
1920 - 2010
The British jockey and author Richard Stanley "Dick" Francis is famous worldwide both as a champion jockey – at one time j...
Further reading
Keller, Gottfried
1819 - 1890
Gottfried Keller was born in Zurich, Switzerland. His father was a lathe-worker who died in 1824. Keller grew up in poverty...
Further reading
Fonseca, Rubem
1925 - 2020
Brazilian author, born in Juiz de Fora in Minas Gerais, but at the age of 7 moved to Rio de Janeiro. Fonseca gained a...
Further reading