Erich Arendt (1903 - 1984)

Poet. Born in Neuruppin to a schoolmaster and washerwoman, he obtained his Abitur and began to study art at a teachers college in Neuruppin. His first poems were published in 1925. He joined the Communist Party in 1926 and became a teacher in Berlin. In 1933, due to his Communist politics and a half-Jewish wife, […]

Reinaldo Arenas (1943 - 1990)

Author. At the age of 15 he left home and joined the Fidel Castro’s Revolution, (1956 to 1959), and fought against the dictatorial government of Fulgencio Batista.  In the mid-1960s the Castro regime openly persecuted homosexuals and Reinaldo Arenas abandoned the Revolution. His writings were censored and declared anti-revolutionary. Some of his manuscripts were confiscated. […]

Army Archerd (1922 - 2009)

Journalist. Born in the Bronx borough of New York City, he was a writer for the trade magazine Daily Variety for 52 years. A graduate of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1941, he began his career as a mailroom attendant at Paramount Pictures before moving to the Associated Press in October 1945 […]

János Arany (1817 - 1882)

Poet.

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880 - 1918)

Poet.  A leader of the Paris avant-garde before and during World War I,  his impact on poetry was similar to that of his friend Pablo Picasso on painting.  His two major books of poetry are classics of French Literature.  “Alcools” (1913) combined traditional verse forms with modern imagery and used snatches of overheard conversation,  slang, […]

Jean Anouilh (1910 - 1987)

Playwright.

Moses Annenberg (1878 - 1942)

Newspaper Publisher. Executive for different Hearst newspapers from 1904 to 1926. He became the owner of the Philadelphia “Inquirer” in 1936.  Family links:  Children:  Walter Hubert Annenberg (1908 – 2002)* *Calculated relationship

Gerald “Jerry” Anglin (1970 - 1970)

Journalist. Canadian magazine and newspaper writer and editor. He was renowned for his stylistic and gentleness of manner. He worked on several prominent national publications including “Chatelaine”, “The Canadian” and “Maclean”s Magazine”.

Jerzy Andrzejewski (1909 - 1983)

Author. He was born and died in Warsaw (Poland). He is best known for his works “Ashes and Diamonds”, “And Darkness Covered the Earth (The Inquisitors)”, “The Gates of Paradise”, “He Cometh Leaping Upon The Mountains”, “Inescapable Ways”, “Mode of the Heart’, “No Man”, “Night” and “All But Gone”.  (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)

Leonid Andreyev (1871 - 1919)

Author. Born in Oryol, Russia, he studied law at the universities of St. Petersburg and Moscow, but quickly abandoned the legal profession for a literary career. He was mentored by Maxim Gorky,  who helped get his first collection of stories published in 1901,  but their friendship later ended because of opposing political views.  Andreyev’s writing […]

V.C. Andrews (1923 - 1986)

Author. Her works included “Flowers in the Attic.”  Family links:  Parents:  William Henry Andrews (1894 – 1957)  Lillian Lilnora Parker Andrews (1902 – 1993)Cause of death: breast cancer Inscription:DaughterAuthor

Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews (1860 - 1936)

Novelist. She wrote “A Kidnaped Colony,” “Bob and the Guides,” “His Soul Goes Marching,” and “Lost Commander.” (bio by: Laurie)  Family links:  Spouse:  William Shankland Andrews (1858 – 1936)*  Children:  Paul Shipman Andrews (1887 – 1967)* *Calculated relationship

Lou Andreás Salomé (1861 - 1937)

Russian-German Writer and Psychoanalyst. She was born in St. Petersburg and died in Göttingen (Germany). She was a contemporary of Freud, Nietzsche (from whom she rejected a marriage request), and Rilke. She wrote several books about Psychoanalysis and kept up a long correpondence with Sigmund Freud. She was cremated and her ashes were buried in […]

Olegario Víctor Andrade (1839 - 1882)

Poet. Among his works are “Las Dos Políticas,” “Poema a Paysandú,” “La Atlántida,” “El Nido de los Cóndores,” and others. (bio by: 380W)

Dan Andersson (1888 - 1920)

Author.  His poetry and fiction depict the hard life of the working class and the rugged wildnerness of his native Sweden.  Andersson was born in Skattlösberg, Dalecarlia, the son of a poor country teacher. In his youth he worked as a woodsman,  charcoal burner, and factory worker. From 1914 to 1915 he took part in […]

Sherwood Berton Anderson (1876 - 1941)

Author. Born the third of seven children of Erwin and Emma Anderson in Camden, Ohio. Anderson attended school intermittently, while helping to support the family by working at various odd jobs. He finally left school at fourteen and worked as a laborer until at seventeen he enlisted in the army and served during the Spanish-American […]

Jorge Amado (1912 - 2001)

Author. Brazil’s leading novelist whose works have been translated into 48 languages and sold more than 20 million copies. Novels like “Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands” and “The Violent Land” made him a regular candidate for a Nobel prize for literature, though he never won. He died of a heart attack in the north-eastern […]

Paul Almond (1931 - 2015)

Canadian Television and Motion Picture Screenwriter, Director, Producer, and Novelist. He attended Bishop’s College School, McGill University and Balliol College, Oxford University, where he read Philosophy, Politics, Economics, edited the University magazine Isis played for the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club and was president of the university Poetry Society. At the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, he […]

Almafuerte (1854 - 1917)

Poet. Born Pedro Bonifacio Palacios, he was a humble teacher, despite his intellectual production, he lived and died poor.  He wrote two books: “Lamentaciones,” and “Almafuerte y la Guerra de 1914.”

William Allingham (1824 - 1889)

Poet. Prominent Anglo-Irish poetry figure.  Family links:  Spouse:  Helen Patterson Allingham (1848 – 1926)* *Calculated relationship

Margery Louise Allingham (1904 - 1966)

Author. She was educated the Perse School for Girls, Cambridge, and while there wrote stories and plays, her first published work appearing in her aunt’s magazine when she was only eight years old. She studied drama at the Regent Street Polytechnic from 1920, and during this time wrote several plays and published her first novel, […]

Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321)

Author. Born Durante Alighieri in Florence, Italy the son of Alighiero di Bellincione Alighieri, a notary, and his first wife. His studies included rhetoric, grammar, philosophy, literature , theology, philosophy, and theology. In 1293 he joined the guild of physicians and apothecaries in order to gain entry into the political life of the city. About […]

(1970 - 1970)

Author. He wrote 18 poems books, among them are “Límites Posibles,” “Cuartos Contiguos,” “Delicado Equilibrio” and “Incierta Vocación.” He also wrote five essays books and several anthologies.  (bio by: 380W)

Francesco Algarotti (1712 - 1764)

Philosopher, Art Critic. Born into a privileged Venetian family, Algarotti studied in Rome, Bologna, Florence and Paris before settling in London in 1744 where he became a member of the Royal Society, officially known as The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge. He studied and wrote on topics from classical literature and paintings, […]

(1887 - 1932)

Motion Picture Screenwriter. A former civil engineer, he started his career as a vaudeville songwriter and later wrote plays. He began writing motion picture screenplays with Universal Studios in the mid-1910s and worked on a number of serials.  He later wrote for Fox Studios and signed a contract with Warner Brothers in 1928. In all, […]

Louisa May Alcott (1832 - 1888)

Author. She is best known as the author of the novel “Little Women”, which was published in 1869. Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, she grew up in Boston and Concord, Massachusetts, where her father, A. Bronson Alcott, was a noted educator and leader of a philosophical movement called transcendentalism. Her family friends and neighbors included the […]

Alain (1868 - 1951)

Philosopher.

Agathon (1970 - 1970)

Playwright, Composer. A master of Ancient Greek tragedy, he lived from approximately 448 BC to 400 BC. Agathon was once mentioned with the “Big Three” of that genre,  Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, but virtually all of his work is lost. We learn of his importance in the development of drama through the writings of others, […]

George Adamski (1891 - 1965)

Author. George was born in Poland and emigrated to America when he was two. He  was a soldier in the 13th U.S. Cavalry Regiment (K Troop) fighting at the Mexican border during the Pancho Villa Expedition. In 1917 he married Mary Shimbersky. She died in 1954; they had no children. Following his marriage George moved […]

Andy Adams (1859 - 1935)

Author. After living and working on the Western Frontier, he drew his experiences there to write a number of successful western novels. His first “The Log of a Cowboy” (1903), was his best known and most successful work. (bio by: Laurie)  Family links:  Parents:  Andrew Adams (1821 – 1906)  Elizabeth Elliott Adams (1821 – 1897)