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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
Flaubert, Gustave
1821 - 1880
The French author Gustave Flaubert, the son of a prominent surgeon, grew up in Rouen. Both his parents were atheists, and,...
Further reading
Esterházy, Péter
1950 - 2016
The Hungarian author Péter Esterházy was born into one of Hungary's wealthiest and most influential aristocratic families. H...
Further reading
Némirovsky, Irène
1903 - 1942
French author, born in Kyiv by Russian-Jewish parents. Her father was one of the richest bankers of Tsarist Russia, and...
Further reading
Wahlöö, Per
1926 - 1975
Per Fredrik Wahlöö was a Swedish author born in Kungsbacka. His father was a newspaper editor in Lund. Per Wahlöö passed his...
Further reading