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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
Murakami, Haruki
1949 -
Haruki Murakami grew up as an only child in a traditional Japanese family. Both parents taught Japanese literature and his...
Further reading
Musil, Robert
1880 - 1942
Austrian writer, born in Klagenfurt, as the son of an engineer who later became a professor. Robert Musil received his...
Further reading
Oe, Kenzaburo
1935 - 2023
Japanese author Kenzaburo Oe was born in the village of Ose on the island of Shikoku where his family has lived for...
Further reading
Sachs, Nelly
1891 - 1970
The poet and playwright Leonie (Nelly) Sachs grew up in a Jewish family in Berlin. Her father was a wealthy manufacturer...
Further reading