Henry Vaughan   (1622 – 1695) Henry Vaughan, was one of the English metaphysical poets. He was born into a middle-class Welsh family in Breconshire. In 1638, he went to Jesus College, Oxford, with his brother Thomas, who later achieved fame as an alchemist. Henry left Oxford in 1640 without taking a degree, and spent two years in London studying law He was recalled home when the Civil War broke out,...

Henry James (1843 1916) James was an American-born writer, gifted with talents in literature, psychology and philosophy. James wrote 20 novels, 112 stories, 12 plays and a number of works of literary criticism. He was born on April 15, 1843 in New York City into a wealthy family. In his youth James travelled back and forth between Europe and America. He studied with tutors in Geneva, London, Paris, Bologna and Bonn....

Helen Keller (1880 – 1968) The story of Helen Keller is the story or a normal child who, at the age of 18 months, was suddenly shut off from the world but, against overwhelming odds, waged a slow, hard but successful battle to re-enter that same world. The child grew into a highly intelligent and sensitive woman who wrote, spoke and laboured incessantly for the betterment of others. Helen was born...

Hector Hugh Munro (1870 – 1916) Hector Hugh Munro was born in Akyab, Burma ‘(now Myanmar), the son of Charles Augustus Munro, an inspector-general in the Burma police. Munro’s mother, the former Mary Frances Mercer, died in 1872. Munro was brought up in England with his brother and sister by aunts who frequently used the birch and whip. He was educated at Pencarwick School in Exmouth and Bedford Grammar School. From...

Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe Harrier Elizabeth was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, June 15, 1812. Her father was Dr. Lyman Beecher, a distinguished clergy-man. In 1833, with her father, she moved to Cincinnati, where, in 1836, she was married to the Rev. Calvin Stowe, who afterward became professor at Bowdoin College, and at Andover Theological School. Several stories, which she had written for the Cincinnati Gazette and other periodicals, were collected and...

H.G Wells (1866 – 1946) English novelist, journalist, sociologist and historian, famous for his works of science fiction, Wells’s best-known books are The Time Machine (1895), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War Of The Worlds- (1898). H.G. Wells was born on September 21, 1866 in Bromley, Kent. His father was a shopkeeper and a professional cricketer. Well’s father’s business failed and he was apprenticed like his brothers to a draper,...

Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) Guy De Maupassant, French author of the naturalistic school who is generally considered the greatest French short story writer. Guy de Maupassant was probably born at the Château de Miromesniel, Dieppe on August 5, 1850. In 1869 Maupassant started to study law in Paris, but soon, at the age of 20, he volunteered to serve in the army during the Franco-Prussian War. Between the years 1872 and...

George Orwell (1903-1950) George Orwell was born in 1903 in Motihari, Bengal, India. His father, Richard Walmesley Blair was a civil servant for the British government. In 1904 Orwell moved with his mother and sister to England where he remained until 1922. He began to write at an early age, and was even published in college periodicals, but he did not enjoy school. Orwell wrote about his unfavourable prep-school experiences in...