Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745) Jonathan Swift was an Irish author and journalist, the foremost prose satirist in the English language. Swift’s best-known work is Gulliver’s Travels (1726). Swift was born in Dublin on November 30, 1667. He studied at Kilkenny Grammar School (1674-82) and at Trinity College in Dublin (1682-89), receiving his B.A. in 1868 and M.A. in 1692. In 1695 Swift was ordained in the Church of Ireland (Anglican),...

John Milton (1608 – 1674) Milton is often considered the greatest English poet after Shakespeare. His rich, dense verse was a powerful influence on succeeding English poets, and whose prose was devoted to the defence of civil and religious liberty. Milton was born in London on December 9, 1608, and educated at Saint Paul’s School and Christ’s College,- University of Cambridge. From 1632 to 1638 he lived in his father’s country...

John Keats (1795 – 1821) John Keats was born in Finsbury Pavement near London on October 31, 1795. When John was eight years old, his father (stable keeper) was killed in an accident; In the same year his mother married again, but little later separated from her husband and took her family to live with her. John attended a good school where he became well acquainted with ancient and contemporary liter...

John Keats (1579 – 1625) John Fletcher was born in December 1579 in Rye, Sussex, the son of Richard Fletcher, in turn. Dean of Peterborough, Bishop of Bristol, Bishop or Worcester, and later Bishop of London and chaplain to the queen. John Fletcher was cousin to the poet Phineas Fletcher, author of The Purple Island. He attended Bene’t College, Cambridge (now known as Corpus Christi College) of which his father had...

John Dryden (1631 – 1700) John Dryden was an influential British poet and playwright. Dryden was the most important poet between Milton and Pope. He was born at a village rectory near Oundle in Northamptonshire and educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a professional writer throughout his life. His early plays, often heroic-tragedy, met with highly variable success but served to promote his name and his Royalist...

John Donne (1572 – 1631 ) John Donne was the most outstanding of the English Metaphysical Poets and a churchman famous for his spellbinding sermons. Donne was born in London to a prominent Roman Catholic family but converted to Anglicanism during the 1590s. At the age of 11 he entered the University of Oxford, where he studied for three years. According to some accounts, he spent the next three years at...

Jim Thompson (1906 – 1977) Thompson was an American novelist and screenwriter, best known for his paperback pulp novels and his ability to enter the minds of the criminally insane. His wife protected his manuscripts and copy-rights, anticipating posthumous fame. He was proved right ten years after his death. James Meyers (Jim) Thompson was born in Oklahoma. His father James Thompson was the sheriff of Andarko, Oklahoma, who foiled jailbreaks and...

Jane Austen (1775) Jane Austen was born December 16, 1775 at Steventon, Hampshire, England (near Basingstoke). She was the seventh child (out of eight) and the second daughter (out of two), of the Rev. George Austen, 1731-1805 (the local rector, or Church of England clergyman), and his wife Cassandra, 1739-1827 (nee Leigh). In 1783, Jane and her older sister Cassandra went briefly to be taught by a Mrs. Cawley (the sister...