John Haden Badley (1865 - 1967)

Author, Educator. Born in Dudley, Worcestershire, England son of Dr. James Payton Badley and Laura Elizabeth Best his wife. He was the grandson of John Badley, F.R.C.S one of the original 300 fellows of the Royal College of Surgery. Early in life he saw the poverty and squalor of many working class in the Midlands. […]

James Bacon (1914 - 2010)

Columnist, Author, Actor. Born James Richard Hughes Bacon, the son of a journalist, he studied at the University of Notre Dame and Syracuse University from where he received his degree in Journalism; he began his career initially as an intern with the South Bend News-Times, before joining the Associated Press. Following service in the US […]

Delia Salter Bacon (1811 - 1859)

Author. She became convinced that works attributed to William Shakespeare were actually written by Francis Bacon, Edmund Spenser, and Sir Walter Raleigh, who, for political reasons, credited them to an obscure actor named William Shakespeare. She published “The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded” in 1857, but became insane immediately after. Her theories have […]

Benjamin Franklin Bache (1769 - 1798)

Journalist. The grandson of statesman Benjamin Franklin, he was known as “Benny” to his grandfather, who doted on his namesake. He and cousin William Temple, joined their grandfather to France, receiving an education in there and in Switzerland. When Franklin died in 1790, Benjamin Bache at his bedside. With the inheritance Franklin left him, Bache […]

Harivansh Rai Bachchan (1907 - 2003)

Poet, Author. His poetry collection entitled “Madhushala” was published in 1935. He was the first Indian to graduate from Cambridge in the UK and later became a professor of english at the Allahabad University in India from 1941 to 1952. He is also credited with translating the work of Shakespeare into Hindi. Some of his […]

Mihály Babits (1883 - 1941)

Noted Hungarian Poet. Founder of the literary periodical NYUGAT. (bio by: G. N.)

Isaac Babel (1894 - 1940)

Author.  A master of the short story,  he is regarded by many as the greatest Russian writer of the 1920s. Born in Odessa, Ukraine, to a family of Jewish merchants, he began writing as a teenager under the influence of Maupassant. In 1916 Babel met author Maxim Gorky, who published two of his stories but […]

Bernie Babcock (1868 - 1962)

Author. She was a playwright, novelist, and journalist who published around 40 books over a long literary career, while founding a natural history museum and the Arkansas Historical Society. Born Julia Burnelle Smade, she was raised in Russellville, Arkansas, from the time she was a toddler. Bernie did well in school, though the imagination she […]

Vital Aza (1851 - 1912)

Author. He was born in Pola de Lena, Asturias. He began writing for the newpapers, but soon, he triumphed with his comedic playwrights. He is remembered for “Basta de Matemáticas,” “Aprobados y Suspensos,” “Con la Música a Otra Parte,” “El Rey Que Rabió” and his poetry books “Todo en Broma,” “Bagatelas” and “Frivolidades.” He died […]

Marcel André Aymé (1902 - 1967)

Author. A novelist and essayist, his most famous works are “La jument verte” (The Green Mare), “La passe-muraille” (The Man Who Walked Through Walls). He was also active in the theatre and in movies as a playwright. (bio by: Apats)

George Axelrod (1922 - 2003)

Noted American writer for Broadway and Hollywood. He wrote “The Seven Year Itch,” “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter,” “Goodbye Charlie,” “Phffft,” and the film scripts for “Bus Stop,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” and “The Manchurian Candidate.” He also wrote some novels such as “Beggar’s Choice” and “Where Am I Now When I Need Me.”  (bio by: […]

Wilbert Vere Awdry (1911 - 1997)

Author. He was the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine,  a popular character in children’s fiction.  Awdry originally invented the stories as a way of entertaining his young son Christopher as he recovered from scarlet fever. The first book of the series,  “The Three Railway Engines”, was published in 1945. (bio by: John Byrne)

Arkady Averchenko (1881 - 1925)

Author,  Editor.  One of Russia’s most popular satirists in the years before the 1917 Revolution.  In his hundreds of short stories he used farcical situations and grotesque characters to make pungent observations about urban middle class life of his era.  Arkady Timofeevich Averchenko was born in Sevastapol,  Crimea,  the son of an impoverished merchant.  He […]

Lottie Dolores Hill Autry (1936 - 1997)

Author, Historian. She was a noted genealogist, author of “Linwood Cemetery” and several other books of Georgia and Alabama local histories. She was the first uniformed female law enforcement officer in Columbus,Ga and served in all three branches, Marshals Office, Sheriffs Office and the Police Department.The Historic Linwood Foundation has named their annual award to […]

Jacques Nicolas Augustin Thierry (1795 - 1856)

Historian.

W. H. Auden (1907 - 1973)

W.H. Auden was a British poet, author and playwright best known as a leading literary figure in the 20th century for his poetry. Known for his chameleon-like ability to write poems in almost every verse form, Auden’s travels in countries torn by political strife influenced his early works. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948. […]

Cecile Aubry (1928 - 2010)

Actress, Author. She followed a brief career as a silver screen sex kitten with success as a writer of children’s stories. Born Anne-Jose Madeleine Henriette Benard, she initially performed as a dancer and became an overnight star as the title lead of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1949 “Manon” which won the Lion d’or at the Venice Film […]

Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé (1786 - 1871)

Author, Lawyer, Seigneur. Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé is most remembered as the author of the iconic novel “Les Anciens Canadiens” (“The Canadians of Old”). He was the son of seigneur Pierre-Ignace Aubert de Gaspé, and came from a distinguished family that had been ennobled by Louis XIV in 1693. He received his classical education at […]

Max Aub (1903 - 1972)

Author. Among his works are “Los Poemas Cotidianos,” “Espejo de Avaricia,” “La Gallina Ciega,” “Juego de Cartas,” and “El Laberinto Mágico” that includes “Campo Cerrado,” “Campo Abierto,” and “Campo de Sangre.” (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)

Hüseyin Nihal Atsız (1905 - 1975)

Writer. He graduated from Dar-ül Fünun (now Istanbul University) in 1931. He worked as a teacher at various schools in Turkey until 1944, when he was charged with agitation because of criticisms of various political figures. After a few court cases and one and one-half years in jail, he was freed in 1947. From 1949 […]

William-Henry Atherton (1867 - 1950)

Canadian historian. Born on November 15, 1867, in England. In his childhood, he expressed a great interest for archives and History. So he studied in those fields and began to teach the classic authors and diction while getting interested in theatre. After having obtained a considerable success in teaching in England, he emigrated to Canada […]

Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton (1857 - 1948)

Author. Wrote 60 books and millions of words for magazines and newspapers.  Though she hated her existence in San Francisco and the West, she masterfully captured the spirit and romance of Old California before the Americans came.  She originated the serialized biography.  Family links:  Parents:  Gertrude Franklin Uhlhorn (1837 – 1898)  Spouses:  George Henry B […]

Miguel Angel Asturias (1899 - 1974)

Author. Recipient of the 1967 Nobel Prize. Born in Guatemala, the son of Ernesto Asturias, a magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice, and María Rosales, a schoolteacher. Miguel spent his childhood and adolescence in his native country. He studied for his baccalaureate at the state high school and later took a law degree at […]

Robert Lynn Asprin (1946 - 2008)

Author. Born in St. John’s, Michigan the son of a machinist and a school teacher, he attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Employed as an accounts payable clerk by Xerox he became inspired to write his first novel ‘The Cold Cash War’ in 1977 when he became frustrated with bureaucracy and inefficiency. The […]

Adam Asnyk (1838 - 1897)

Polish poet and dramatist. He published his poems in the collections Poezje (1869, 1872, 1880, 1894). He began his literary career in 1864-65. The fullest expression of his intellectualised poetry is the series of 30 sonnets, Nad glebiami (1883-94), owing to which Asnyk came to be referred to as “a poet-philosopher.” This series comprises the […]

Eliot Asinof (1919 - 2008)

Author. He is best known for the acclaimed baseball book “Eight Men Out” (1963), which was based on the 1919 “Black Sox” scandal and became a 1988 film adaptation. Born in New York City, he was educated at Swarthmore College and later played baseball in the Philadelphia Phillies minor league system. After serving in the […]

Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)

Author, Scientist. Born in Petrovichi, Russia, his family relocated to New York in 1923, where his father operated a series of candy stores in Brooklyn. He developed a deep fascination with the science fiction genre, and became a legend and a giant in the genre as an author. Beginning with stories sold to magazines by […]

Timothy Shay Arthur (1809 - 1885)

Author. The founder of “Arthur’s Home Magazine”, he used his publication to publish hundreds of short stories, and was known as one of the most prolific writers of the pre-Civil War era. Among his books are “Lights and Shadows of Real Life”, “Tales for Rich and Poor”, “Library for the Household”, “Steps to Heaven”, “The […]

Art Arthur (1911 - 1985)

Hollywood Screenwriter. Arthur started in the business as a Broadway columnist for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, later going to work for the Toronto Star.  He worked on Cecil B. DeMille’s executive staff as well as serving on the executive board of the Writers Guild of America.  He also worked on the Academy Award winning documentary […]

Raymond Aron (1905 - 1983)

Philosopher, Sociologist. After attending the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, he studied Philosophy at the Universities of Cologne and Berlin. In 1938, he obtained a degree in French Language and Literature. In Paris he met Jean Paul Sartre, with whom, at the end of the Second World War, founded the magazine Les Temps Modernes. He […]