Juan Benet (1927 - 1993)

In 1961, Juan Benet published You Will Never Amount to Anything (Nunca llegarás a nada), his first novel. In 1966, he returned to Madrid, and in 1968 he published Return to Región (Volverás a Región), at the same time that he built the reservoir of Porma. There were already those qualifying the work of Benet as […]

Peter Bradford Benchley (1940 - 2006)

By 1971, Peter Bradford Benchley was doing various freelance jobs in his struggle to support his wife and children. During this period, when Benchley would later declare he was “making one final attempt to stay alive as a writer”, his literary agent arranged meetings with publishers. Benchley would frequently pitch two ideas, a non-fiction book […]

Nathaniel Benchley (1915 - 1981)

Born in Newton, Massachusetts to a literary family, Nathaniel Benchley was the son of Gertrude Darling and Robert Benchley (1889–1945), the noted American writer, humorist, critic, actor, and one of the founders of the Algonquin Round Table in New York City. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor and […]

Jacinto Benavente (1866 - 1954)

Spanish Writer. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1922. He is best known for his books “El Nido Ajeno,” “Gente Conocida,” “La Noche del Sábado,” “Los Intereses Creados” and “La Malquerida.” There is a famous anecdote about his homosexuality.  While he walked by the street, he found the mother of a famous singer, […]

Ludwig Bemelmans (1898 - 1962)

Author.  “Hansi”, the first of Bemelmans’ fifteen books for children, beguiled most reviewers with its simple watercolor illustrations and nostalgic story of two children and their dog in the Austrian Tyrol. His greatest success, however, was “Madeline”, a rhymed picture book about a Parisian schoolgirl who becomes the envy of her classmates when her appendix […]

Andrei Bely (1880 - 1934)

Andrei Bely was born in Moscow, into a prominent intellectual family. His father, Nikolai Bugaev, was a leading mathematician who is regarded as a founder of the Moscow school of mathematics. His mother was not only highly intelligent but a famous society beauty, and the focus of considerable gossip. Young Boris was a polymath whose interests […]

Jerry Belson (1938 - 2006)

Jerry Belson’s writing credits include the Steven Spielberg films Always and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, several episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and I Spy. During the early 1960s, concurrent with contributing scripts for TV sitcoms with then writing partner Garry Marshall, Belson did stories for Gold Key […]

Saul Bellow (1915 - 2005)

Saul Bellow (10 June 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only writer to win the National Book Award for Fiction three times and he received the National Book […]

Hilaire Belloc (1870 - 1953)

‘Five yards East of this stone lies the body of Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953), for 28 years a member of the congregation of this Church of Our Lady of Consolation, in whose memory this tower and spire were completed in 1964 in grateful recognition of his zealous and unwavering profession of our Holy faith which he […]

Carl Michael Bellman (1740 - 1795)

Carl Michael Bellman; 4 February 1740 – 11 February 1795) was a Swedish poet, songwriter, composer and performer. Bellman is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and remains a powerful influence in Swedish music, as well as in Scandinavian literature, to this day. Bellman is best known for two collections of poems set to […]

Dario Bellezza (1944 - 1996)

Dario Bellezza was born in Rome on September 5, 1944. After his studies at a liceo classico in his native city, from which he graduated in 1962, he worked for several Italian literary and poetry magazines: Paragone, Carte segrete, Bimestre, Periferia, and Il Policordo. Dario Bellezza entered the Roman intellectual world in the mid-1960s when, thanks […]

Francis Bellamy (1855 - 1931)

Francis Julius Bellamy was born in Mount Morris, NY. His family was deeply involved in the Baptist church and they moved to Rome, NY when Bellamy was only 5. Here, Bellamy became an active member of the First Baptist Church; which his father was minister of until his death in 1864. He attended college at […]

Edward Bellamy (1850 - 1898)

Author. Edward Bellamy worked briefly in the newspaper industry in New York City, New York and in Springfield, Massachusetts. He left journalism to devote himself completely to literature, writing both short stories and novels. His books include “Dr. Heidenhoff’s Process” (1880), “Miss Ludington’s Sister” (1884), “The Duke of Stockbridge” (1900), and the novels “Looking Backward: […]

John Anthony Bellairs (1938 - 1991)

John Anthony Bellairs (January 17, 1938 – March 8, 1991) was an American author, best known for his fantasy novel The Face in the Frost and many gothic mystery novels for young adults featuring the characters Lewis Barnavelt, Anthony Monday, and Johnny Dixon. After earning degrees at University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago, […]

James Warner Bellah (1899 - 1976)

James Warner Bellah (September 14, 1899 in New York City – September 22, 1976 in Los Angeles, California) was a popular American Western author from the 1930s to the 1950s. His pulp-fiction writings on cavalry and Indians were published in paperbacks or serialized in the Saturday Evening Post. Bellah was the author of 19 novels, including […]

Jeremy Belknap (1744 - 1798)

Jeremy Belknap was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of a tanner. His uncle was Mather Byles, one of New England’s intellectual leaders. Belknap was baptized by the historian Thomas Prince, another leading figure of 18th-century New England. He was educated at the Boston Latin School and Harvard College, where he graduated in 1762. In […]

Alexander Beliayev (1884 - 1942)

Alexander Beliayev was born in Smolensk in the family of an Orthodox priest. His father, after losing two other children (Alexander’s sister Nina died at childhood from sarcoma and his brother Vasiliy, a veterinary student, drowned during a boat trip), wanted him to continue the family tradition and enrolled Alexander into Smolensk seminary. Belyaev, on […]

Archie “Grey Owl” Belaney (1888 - 1938)

Conservationist, colorful writer. British-born, Belaney came to Canada as masqueraded as a Native Indian. Popularized conservation theme in his books and lecture tours, especially in Britain. In Canada he was appointed to run beaver preservation programs in Riding Mountain and Prince Albert national parks. His ruse was uncovered three years before his death, but no […]

Aphra Behn (1970 - 1689)

Aphra Behn (/ˈæfrə bɛn/;[a] 14 December 1640? – 16 April 1689) was a British playwright, poet, translator and fiction writer from the Restoration era. As one of the first English women to earn her living by her writing, she broke cultural barriers and served as a literary role model for later generations of women authors. […]

Isabella Mary Mayson Beeton (1836 - 1865)

Author. British writer of cookery articles and books such as “The Book of Household Management” and “Mrs Beeton’s Cookbook.”  Family links:  Spouse:  Samuel Orchart Beeton (1830 – 1877)* *Calculated relationship

Michael Beer (1800 - 1833)

Michael Beer was born to a wealthy Jewish family. His elder brother was the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer; another brother was the astronomer Wilhelm Beer. In the period 1817–1823 he frequently travelled with family members in Italy, where his brother Meyerbeer was studying. In 1819 Beer was a founder member of the movement Verein für Cultur und Wissenschaft […]

Keyes Beech (1913 - 1990)

Journalist. Born in Pulaski, Tennessee, he was a foreign correspondent in Asia and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1951, for his reporting on the Korean War. During World War II, he served as a Sergeant in the 2nd Marine Division, US Marines, in the Pacific. He was with his unit when they landed at Tarawa […]

Lucius Morris Beebe (1902 - 1966)

Notable Newspaper Columnist, Author, Editor, Publisher, and Authority on the Golden Age of American Railroads. Son of Junius Beebe (1854 – 1934), President of the Brockton (Mass.) Gas Company and prominent Boston banker, and Eleanor Harriet Beebe (1865 – 1939). Graduated from Harvard in 1927; joining the staff of The Boston Telegraph, and later, from […]

Elswyth Thane Ricker Beebe (1900 - 1984)

Writer. Elswyth Thane was a twentieth century romantic historical novelist. Her most recognized work was a seven-novel series entitled “Williamsburg”, which was about a family from the Revolutionary War to World War II. Born Helen Ricker, her parents were Edith and Maurice Ricker, both educators. In 1918, the family moved form Iowa to New York […]

Harry Chester Bedwell (1888 - 1955)

Harry Bedwell was the author of over 70 short stories and one novel. He is considered one of the greats of the “railroad fiction” genre. His stories were regularly published in the popular magazines of his era, such as the Saturday Evening Post. His life was the subject of a biography by Frank P. Donovan, […]

Demyan Bedny (1883 - 1945)

Poet. Largely forgotten today, Demyan Bedny once ranked among the Soviet Union’s most famous authors. His simple, song-like topical verses, filled with slapstick wit and satire,  were widely read in the 1920s and 1930s.  Boris Pasternak claimed he saw “the spirit of the people” in his work.  Born Yefim Alekseyevich Pridvorov in Gubovka,  Ukraine,  he […]

Bede the Venerable (1970 - 0735)

Bede was the greatest writer in Anglo-Saxon literature. He wrote both poetry and prose, history and hagiography. We rely on him almost entirely for the early history of England – through his ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People’ – relying on and recording local tradition. His wide learning stretched from Latin and Greek, to astronomy […]

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836 - 1870)

Spanish-born writer of romanticism. He is remembered for his books “Rimas,” “Leyendas,” and “Cartas Desde mi Celda,” published after his death. He is buried in Capilla de la Universidad de Sevilla. (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)  Family links:  Spouse:  Casta Esteban Navarro (1841 – 1885)*  Children:  Emilio Eusebio Bécquer (1868 – 1874)* *Calculated relationship

William Beckford (1760 - 1844)

Author. He born in Fonthill, Wiltshire, in the manor house owned by his father who was twice Lord Mayor of London. He inherited a large fortune from his father, William Beckford, consisting of one million in cash, and several sugar plantations in Jamaica. In 1783, after his marraige to Margaret Gordon , he travelled, having […]

Samuel Beckett (1906 - 1989)

Author, Playwright. Lived in France from 1937 on and wrote primarily in French after 1945. His work was influenced primarily by Franz Kafka and James Joyce. His best known work is the absurdist play “Waiting for Godot” (1953).  Family links:  Parents:  William Frank Beckett (1871 – 1933)  Mary Jones Roe Beckett (1872 – 1950)  Spouse: […]