Anne Tyler Anne Tyler was an American novelist and short-story writer, whose keen ear for dialogue and life-like characters has won her critical acclaim. Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but grew up in North Carolina, the daughter of an industrial chemist and social worker. The writer Eudora Welty, who depicted the Mississippi of her childhood, influenced Tyler. Several of Tyler’s novels have been set in Baltimore and focus on...

Andrew Marvel (1621 – 1678) Andrew Marvell was born at Winestead-in-Holderness, Yorkshire, on March 31, 1621 to the Rev. Andrew Marvell, and his wife Anne. He was educated at the Hull Grammar School, and in 1633 he matriculated as a Sizar of Trinity College, Cambridge. Two poems by Marvel, one in Greek, one in Latin, were printed in the Musa Cantabrigiensis in 1637. In 1638, Marvell was admitted a Scholar of...

Alfred Tennyson (1809 – 1892) Alfred Tennyson was the English poet often regarded as the chief representative of the Victorian age in poetry. Tennyson succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in 1850. Lord Tennyson was born on August 5, 1809 in Somersby, Lincolnshire. His father, George Clayton Tennyson, a clergyman and rector, suffered from depression and was notoriously absentminded. Alfred began to write poetry at an early age in the style of...

Alfred Jarry ( 1873 – 1907) Alfred Jarry was born in Laval, Mayenne, into a well-to-do farmer and craftsman family From his mother’s side he received a legacy of eccentrity but also a strain of insanity. He was educated in the schools of Saint-Brieuc and Rennes. At the age of 18 he moved to Paris to live on a small family inheritance, and pursued his studies at the Lycec Henri IV....

Alexandre Dumas (1802 – 1870) Alexandre Dumas was one of the most famous French writers of the 19th century, best known for historical adventure novels like The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. He was among the first, along with Honore de Balzac and Eugene Sue, who fully used the possibilities of Roman Feuilleton, the serial novel. Dumas’ works are fast-paced adventure tales on one hand and on the...

Alexander Pope (1688 — 1744) Alexander Pope was born in London as the son of Alexander Pope, a Roman Catholic linen-merchant, and Edith (Turner) Pope. At that time Catholics suffered from repressive legislation and prejudices – they were not allowed to enter any universities or held public employment. Thus Pope had an uneven education, which was often interrupted. He was largely educated at home. Pope’s aunt taught him to read. Latin...

Aldous Huxley (1894 – 1963) Aldous Huxley was the English novelist and critic, best known for his dystopian novel Brave New World (1931). Besides novels, he published travel books, histories, poems, plays, and essays on philosophy, arts, sociology, religion and morals. Aldous Huxley was born in Godalming, Surrey on July 26, 1894, into a well-to-do upper-middle-class family He first studied at Eton College, Berkshire (1908 -1913). At the age of 16,...

Agatha Christie (1890-1976)   Agatha Christie prolific British Author.  Agatha Christie was born in Torquay, in the county of Devon, as the daughter of Frederick Alvah Miller and Clarissa Miller. Her father died when she was a child. Christie was educated at home, where her mother encouraged her to write from a very early age. At sixteen she was sent to school in Paris where she studied singing and piano. In...