Oscar Wilde   (1854 -1900) Oscar Wilde was an Irish poet and dramatist whose reputation rests on his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). Among Wilde’s other best-known works are his only novel The Picture of Dorian. Gray (1891) and his fairy tales especially The Happy Prince. He was born on October 16, 1854 in Dublin to unconventional parents -his mother Lady Jane Francesca...

O. Henry (1862 – 1910) Henry, pseudonym of William Sydney Porter, prolific American short-story writer, a master of surprise endings, who wrote about the life of ordinary people in New York City. Typical for 0. Henry’s stories is a twist of plot, which turns on an ironic or coincidental circumstance. Although some critics were not so enthusiastic about his work, the public loved it. Porter was born in Greenboro, North Carolina....

Nikolay Vasilyevich Gogol  (1809 — 1852) Gogol was a Russian writer, whose plays, short stories, and novels rank among the great masterpieces of the 19th-century Russian realist literature. Gogol was born on March 20, 1809, in Sorochintsy Mirgorod, Poltava Province, of cossack parents. In 1828 he went to Saint Petersburg, where he eventually secured employment in the civil service and became known in literary circles. Enthusiastic praise greeted his volume of...

Mildmay Fane (1600 — 1666) Mildmay Fane was born around 1600, probably in Kent, to Francis Fane, first Earl of Westmorland, and his wife Lady Mary Mildmay, daughter of Queen Elizabeth’s Treasurer. From around 1615 until 1617, Fane attended Emmanuel College, Cambridge, which had been founded by his grandfather, Sir Walter Mildmay. Fane served as MP for Peterborough (1620-21;1626-28) and for Kent (1625), and was created a Knight of the Bath...

Mark Twain (1835 – 1910) Mark Twain (pseudonym of Samuel Taylor Clemens,) was an American writer, journalist and humorist, who won a worldwide audience for his stories of the youthful adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Sensitive to the sound of language, Twain introduced colloquial speech into American fiction. Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri, of a Virginian family. He was brought up in Hannibal, Missouri....

Maksim Gorky (1868 – 1936) Maksim Gorky, pseudonym of Aleksei Maksimovich Peshkov, Soviet novelist, playwright, and essayist, who was a founder of socialist realism. Although known principally as a writer, he was also prominent in the Russian revolutionary movement. Gorky was born on March 16, 1868, in Nizhniy Novgorod (renamed ‘Gorky in his honour from 1932 to 1991), into a peasant family. He was self-educated. Compelled to earn his own living...

Louisa May Alcott (1832 – 1888) Louisa is primarily remembered for her children’s classics, especially for Little Women and its sequels. Contemporary research has revealed that Louisa Alcott wrote works aimed at adult audiences also, though under a pseudonym. She was also active as a nurse and a suffragette. She was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. In 1840 the family moved to Con-cord. Louisa enjoyed acting out plays...

Lewis Carroll (1832 — 1898) Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), the author of Alice in Wonderland, of mathematical treatises, and of a quantity of  stories and poems, serious and humorous, was the son of a churchman and the eldest of eleven children. His mother and father were first cousins, and unusually religious. At the time of his birth, his father, Dr. Dodgson, was the vicar of Daresbury, Cheshire (he later was...