Colette (1873 - 1954)

Author.  She was one of the few 20th Century French novelists to identify with nature.  Her mother taught her to love every plant and animal,  and she expressed this feeling in her writing.  Colette’s style is earthy and sensual.  She was particularly sensitive portraying women in love or suffering from jealousy;  at other times she […]

Louise “The Muse” Colet (1810 - 1876)

Author. Born in the Aix-en Province of France, she was a pioneer feminist literary, known to her contemporaries as the Muse. A flamboyant populist, she wrote her first poetry novel “Fleurs du Midi,” in 1836. Her Paris salon became a meeting place for many noted literary writers such as Gustave Flaubert who had strong affections […]

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834)

Poet, Critic, Philosopher. Born in Ottery St. Mary in Devonshire England, Coleridge was the youngest of 10 children born to John Coleridge, a minister, and his wife, Ann Bowden. In this crowed household, it was reported that Coleridge led to a less than idyllic childhood. It was made worse in 1781 by the death of […]

John Winston Coleman, Jr (1898 - 1983)

Historian, Author. A 1920 graduate of the University of Kentucky with a B.S. degree he received an M.A. from U.K. in 1929. A Lexington businessman he was a noted collector, historian and author. “Squire” Coleman as he was known authored more than 150 pamphlets and articles, mostly on historical topics, and more than twenty books. […]

Gautier de Coincy (1970 - 1236)

Poet, Composer, Cleric. His masterpiece, the two-volume “Miracles de Nostre-Dame” (“Miracles of Our Lady”, 1222 and 1233), is a major work of Medieval French literature and music. A mammoth verse narrative of over 30,000 lines, it chronicles miracles attributed to the Virgin Mary interspersed with songs and prayers. Coincy wrote it in French rather than […]

Art Cohn (1909 - 1958)

Screenwriter, died in the same airplane crash that killed film pioneer, Mike Todd.  Family links:  Spouse:  Marta Cohn (1910 – 1972)* *Calculated relationshipCause of death: Plane crash

Robert Peter Tristram Coffin (1892 - 1955)

Author, Poet. He is best known as the author of more than three dozen works of literature, poetry and history, including the book Strange Holiness, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1936. His early poetry was derivative of classical forms (e.g., sonnets) and in verbiage and subject archaic. His mature poetry is marked […]

Vicente Coello (1915 - 2006)

Screenwriter, Journalist. A native of Valencia, Coello was one of the most prolific screenwriters in Spanish cinema. He is probably best remembered for his scripts for Paco Martínez Soria’s films, among them “El Abuelo Tiene un Plan” (1972) and “Estoy Hecho un Chaval” (1975). His other credits,  many of them popular comedies,  include “Pequeñeces” (1950), […]

John Albert Cockerill (1845 - 1896)

Cockerill was a journalist who served in the Civil War as a drummer boy when he was just 15 years old. He worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as the editor. In one editorial he criticized the conduct of James Overton Broadhead of the law firm of Broadhead, Slayback & Haeussler. Nine years after the […]

Robert Bingham Cochrane (1909 - 2000)

War correspondent who reported on World War II and who witnessed the the surrender of the Japanese.  Family links:  Spouse:  Irma B. Boyer Cochrane (1899 – 1974)Cause of death: Bone cancer

Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb (1876 - 1944)

Humorist. Born in Paducah, Kentucky, he made his mark as a columnist in New York. He wrote over 60 books, but is probably best known for his humorous tales of Kentucky first seen in a collection of stories about a shrewd but kindly Kentucky judge in “Old Judge Priest” in 1915. Among his other books […]

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth (1893 - 1986)

Prolific poet and author of fiction and non-fiction. She is best remembered as an author of children’s books, most notably “The Cat That Went To Heaven,” which won the prestigious Newbery Medal for Children’s literature and has been in continuous print for the past 75 years. Over 80 of her children’s books have been published, […]

Austin Coates (1970 - 1970)

Author. Son of the famous British composer Eric Coates. (bio by: Kieran Smith)

Ronald H. Coase (1910 - 2013)

Nobel Prize-Winning Economist, Author. His revolutionary theory of the significance of transaction costs and property rights for the institutional structure and functioning of the economy earned him the Noble Prize in Economic Sciences in 1991. Born outside of London, both of his parents worked in a telegrapher’s office, he was academically-sound and earned a scholarship […]

Arthur Hugh Clough (1819 - 1861)

English poet. Clough was educated at Rugby and Balliol College, Oxford. He wrote a great deal of poetry but only two volumes appeared during his lifetime: “The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich” (1848) and “Ambarvalia” (1849). His posthumous poems include “Amours de Voyage,” the dialogues “Dypsichus,” and the tales “Mari Magno.” Clough is best known for the […]

Margery Kimball Clifford (1908 - 2000)

Author. The wife of former Defense Secretary and presidential adviser Clark M. Clifford, she founded and became the first president of the St. Louis Opera Guild. She was a graduate of the Fannie Farmer School of Cooking in Boston and the author in 1972 of her own cookbook, “Marny Clifford’s Washington Cookbook.” In 1985 she […]

Jon Cleary (1917 - 2010)

Novelist.  The author of over 50 novels,  he is best known for “The Sundowners” (1952) and “Peter’s Pence” (1974). Born into a poverty-stricken family, he was the oldest of seven children. He dropped out of school at age 15 to work in order to provide income for his family, and toiled at many occupations including […]

Virginia Clay-Clopton (1825 - 1915)

Author. She wrote “A Belle of the Fifties,” an account of her life in Washington, DC as the wife of a United States Senator.  Family links:  Children:  Ella Clay (____ – 1952)* *Calculated relationship

Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917 - 2008)

Author. One of the most prolific science-fiction writers of the 20th Century, he wrote over 100 books on science-fiction and space, and was a commentator during the Apollo moon flights with Walter Cronkite. He battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and was occasionally confined to a wheelchair. Clarke moved to Sri Lanka in 1956. […]

Walter Van Tilburg Clark (1909 - 1971)

Author. He wrote, “The Ox-Bow Incident” (1940) and “The Track Of The Cat” (1949). Both of these books were later made into Hollywood films.  Family links:  Spouse:  Barbara Frances Morse Clark (1906 – 1969)

John Clare (1793 - 1864)

Poet. He was born in Helpston, England. He was best known as the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet. His works include “Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery,” “The Village Minstrel and Other Poems,” “The Shepherd’s Calendar with Village Stories and Other Poems” and his best known book “The Rural Muse.” Today, children at the John Clare […]

Antonio Cisneros (1942 - 2012)

Poet, Author. His works include “Exile” (1961), “David” (1962), “Royal Commentaries” (1964), “The water doesn’t have to drink” (1971), “As a fig tree on a golf course” (1972) , “The book of God and the Hungarians” (1978), “The immense celestial questions” (1992), “A cruise to Galapagos Islands” (2005) and “Diary of a hospitalized diabetic” (2010). […]

Johannes Ciconia (1970 - 1412)

Composer, Theorist. An important figure in music’s transition from the Medieval to Renaissance periods. Belgian by birth, he spent most of his life in Italy and his surviving output blends Franco-Flemish and Italian inflences. This was a step in the growing “internationalism” that had its first great synthesis under Guillaume Dufay. Ciconia was born in […]

Reba Churchill (1923 - 1985)

Churchill, with her sister, Bonnie, wrote newspaper columns and radio broadcasts about Hollywood. They also edited such film magazines as “Silver Screen” and “Screenland.” The sisters also wrote books together. (bio by: Scott G) Cause of death: Respiratory complications

Charles Churchill (1970 - 1764)

Poet, Satirist. He was educated at Westminster School, London, before entering Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1749. He was then made curate of South Cadbury, Somerset, before succeeding his father as curate of Rainham, Essex, in 1756. In 1758 he was elected to the curacy and lectureship of St. John’s, Westminster, and also took a teaching […]

Francis Pharcellus Church (1839 - 1906)

Journalist. He served as the editor at the “New York Sun”, and wrote the famous editorial “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”, which appeared in print on September 21, 1897, as an answer to the question posed by eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon.  Family links:  Parents:  Pharcellus Church (1801 – 1886)  Chara Emily Conant Church (1809 […]

Ralph Chubb (1892 - 1960)

British Poet, Printer, and Artist. He was born in Harpenden, Hertfordshire and he died at Fair Oak Cottage in Hampshire. He was influenced by Whitman, Blake, and the Romantics, and his work was the creation of a personal mythology, one that was anti-materialist and sexually revolutionary. His liberalised, nature based romantic view was set out […]

Charles Chilton (1917 - 2013)

Playwright, Author. He will perhaps be best remembered for penning the story “Oh, What a Lovely War!” (1963) which was made into both a successful stage and film adaptation. Born Charles Frederick William Chilton, his father a clerk for his family business (a painting and decoration company) perished during World War I at the age […]

Beatrice Chase (1874 - 1955)

Author. Beatrice Chase was the pen name of Olive Katherine Parr, a British writer who became well known for her Dartmoor-based novels during the first half of the 20th century. She claimed to be directly descended from William Parr, the brother of Catherine, the sixth wife of Henry VIII. She was born in Harrow, Middlesex, […]

William Ellery Channing (1818 - 1901)

Poet. Often referred to as William Ellery Channing the 2nd or simply Ellery Channing, he was the nephew of Dr. William Ellery Channing, the Unitarian preacher of Boston.  The name they shared was also the name of an ancestor who had signed the Declaration of Independence. The younger Channing dropped out of Harvard College and […]