Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855 - 1927)

Philosopher. Chamberlain’s most famous work, “The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century” (1916), argued for the superiority of the “Aryan”, Germanic peoples and attacked Jews as being degenerate. Among the people he influenced was Hitler, and they met at least once before Hitler came to power. Chamberlain was associated with the composer Richard Wagner and married […]

Charles Chadwick (1874 - 1953)

Author. Writer on Football for New York World, also wrote articles in syndication to the Chicago Tribune and other papers. Wrote books which include ‘The Cactus’, ‘The Moving House of Foscaldo.’ also short stories in Century and Ladies’ Home Journal. (bio by: Laurie)

Adémar de Chabannes (1970 - 1970)

Chronicler, Composer, Literary Forger. A controversial French monk of the Middle Ages. His “Apostolic Mass for St. Martial” (1029) is Europe’s earliest surviving music score written in the composer’s own hand – and an extraordinary fraud. Adémar was born in Limoges, Limousin, into a family with prominent ties to the Catholic Church. Before 1000 he […]

Julián Centeya (1910 - 1974)

Noted Poet and Composer. Born in Italy as Amleto Enrique Vergiati, had a long and successful career. He wrote “El Recuerdo de la Enfermería de Jaime,” “La Musa Mistonga,” “La Musa del Barro,” and “Vaciadero.” As a composer wrote the tangos “Claudinette,” “La vi llegar,” “Lluvia de Abril,” and many others. (bio by: 380W)

Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)

Author. One of the most prominent mystery writers, she was born  in Torquay, England, the youngest daughter of Frederick Alvah and Clarissa Miller. As a child, she was educated at home, and later studied singing and piano in Paris. Her writing career began with the publication of “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” in 1920. She […]

Driss Chraïbi (1926 - 2007)

Author. Born in El Jadida, Morocco, Chraïbi is considered the father of the modern Moroccan novel. He moved to Paris in 1946,  where he spent most of his life. His many works have been translated into several languages and examined themes such as colonialism, culture clashes, generational conflict and the treatment of Islamic women. They […]

Erskine Childers (1870 - 1922)

Robert Erskine Childers. Writer who served in the Boer War and first came to notice with his excellent spy thriller, ‘The Riddle of the Sands’ (1903). Clerk of the House of Commons in London until 1910. Sympathised with Irish Nationalists and in 1914 used his yacht, ‘Asgard,’ to run guns from Germany to the Irish […]

Lydia Maria Francis Child (1802 - 1880)

Author. A native of Medford, Massachusetts, she wrote over fifty books, edited periodicals and wrote many poems during her lifetime. Her most popular book was “The Frugal Housewife” which had thirty-three editions and her most famous poem was the Thanksgiving classic “Over the River and Through the Woods to Grandfather’s House We Go”. In addition […]

Dick Chevillat (1905 - 1984)

Writer for motion pictures and television. Most notable for his work on the long running “The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet” tv series of the 1950s and 60s. (bio by: A.J. Marik)

G.K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)

Author. He is best known for his novels about the priest-detective Father Brown. Among others works are “The Napoleon of Nothing Hill,” “The Man Who Was Thursday,” “The Innocence of Father Brown,” “The Trees of Pride” and “The Man Who Knew Too Much.” (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)  Family links:  Spouse:  Frances Alice Blogg […]

Thomas Morris Chester (1834 - 1892)

Journalist. He was the first African-American to cover the Civil War in the field for a major American daily newspaper. Son of an escaped slave, he spent the earlier part of the war recruiting African-Americans in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the Union Army; men he recruited would eventually go on to serve in the famous 54th […]

Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1858 - 1932)

Author, Social Reformer. The grandson of a whiteman and the son of free blacks, he was one of the first black writers to use black dialect. His writings were controversial, dealing with subject matter such as interracial sex and “passing” – people legally defined as black but with skin light enough to permit them to […]

Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut (1823 - 1886)

Diarist. Born Mary Boykin Miller at Pleasant Hill in Stateboro, South Carolina, the eldest child of Mary Boykin and Senator Stephen Decatur Miller. She was educated home before she was sent to Madame Talvande’s French School for Young Ladies, a boarding school in Charleston, at the age of about 13. She met James Chestnut, Jr. […]

Andre Chenier (1762 - 1794)

Poet. Born in Constantinople – what is today Istanbul, Turkey – the son of Louis Chénier, the French consul in Constantinople, and Elisabeth Santi-Lomaca of Greece. In 1773 he enrolled in the Collège de Navarre in Paris. In 1783 he became a cadet in a French regiment at Strasbourg, he had no affinity for military […]

Nien Cheng (1915 - 2009)

Author. The survivor of more than six years of torture in a Red Chinese prison, she wrote a best-selling account of her experiences. Raised in a wealthy family, she studied at the London School of Economics where in 1935 she met her future husband, Kang-chi Cheng (deceased 1957). Following their marriage, the couple worked in […]

Anton Chekhov (1860 - 1904)

Author. Russia’s greatest dramatist and short story writer, he had a seminal influence on 20th Century literature. Chekhov was born in Taganrog, the grandson of a former serf who had purchased his freedom. His father, a grocer and domestic tyrant, went bankrupt in 1876, and to avoid debtor’s prison he fled to Moscow with most […]

John Cheever (1912 - 1982)

Master American Writer of Short Stories and Novels. Hailing from an old New England family, his father lost much of his money in the stock market crash. He was a high school dropout, but a brilliant wordsmith. Served as a sergeant in the US Army. Began selling short stories to the New Yorker and other […]

Fermín Chávez (1924 - 2006)

Historian. Strongly involved with the peronism, he wrote more than 40 books, among them are: “Historia y Antología de la Poesía Gauchesca,” “Eva Perón sin Mitos,” “Eva Perón en la Historia,” “Civilización y Barbarie en la Historia de la Cultura Argentina,” and many others. (bio by: 380W)

Geoffrey Chaucer (1970 - 1400)

Poet. He was an English literary most noted as the best poet of the Middle Ages. Educated at St. Paul’s Cathedral School, he became acquainted with the influential writing of Virgil and Ovid. During his lifetime as an author, his most acclaimed book work was “The Canterbury Tales”, a collection of stories and poems. Many […]

Bruce Chatwin (1940 - 1989)

Author. Charles Bruce Chatwin, who seldom used his first name, was born in Sheffield in Yorkshire, although his parents came from Birmingham and he spent much of his youth in that city. His father was a solicitor who, at the time of his children’s birth (another son, Hugh, was born in 1944) was serving abroad […]

Thomas Chatterton (1752 - 1770)

Poet.  Famous for creating one of the 18th Century’s most notorious literary hoaxes. He was the son of a church choirmaster who died three months before Thomas was born,   and he grew up in poverty. At the age of eight he was sent to the school founded by Edward Colston, which was a charitable […]

Mary Coyle Chase (1906 - 1981)

Playwright, Journalist. She was a pioneering female newspaper reporter, starting with the Denver “Rocky Mountain News” from 1924 to 1931, and later working for United Press International news agency and the International News Service. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1945 for her play “Harvey”, a drama about inebriated drinker ‘Elwood P. Dowd’ and […]

James Hadley Chase (1906 - 1985)

Author. Born René Brabazon Raymond in London,  he was one of the most popular and prolific mystery writers of his time. During the Second World War he served as a pilot in the RAF, achieving the rank of Squadron Leader. Chase published some 80 books, of which more than twenty have been adapted into films. […]

Borden Chase (1900 - 1971)

Motion Picture Screenwriter, Author. He is best known for writing the screenplay for the 1948 Howard Hawks-directed western motion picture “Red River”, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.  Family links:  Spouse:  Patricia Chase (1926 – 1974)* *Calculated relationship

Henri Charrière (1906 - 1973)

Writer and Folk Figure. He was born in Ardèche (France) and died in Madrid (Spain). He is best known as the author of Papillon, that details his numerous escapes from his imprisonment in 1932 to his escape to Venezuela. His nickname is Papillon (Butterfly in french language), from a butterfly tattoo in his chest). He […]

Joseph Charless, Sr (1772 - 1834)

Founder of the first newspaper established in St. Louis, Missouri. Of Welsh origin, his family moved to Ireland in 1663 and as a young man he participated in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. After the failure of that patriotic movement he fled to France and from there came to the United States. He was a […]

John Roy Chapman (1927 - 2001)

Notable British playwright. Started out as a stage playwright, particularly Whitehall farces, with such plays as “Dry Rot”(1958), “Not Now Darling”(1973) and “Simple Spyman”(1958). He later moved into television with productions such as “Are You Being Served?,” “Fresh Fields (for which he was awarded an Emmy in 1984), “The Liver Birds” and “Allo Allo!” (bio […]

George Chapman (1970 - 1634)

Poet, Playwright, Translator. He was the first to translate the works of Homer into English, beginning with his “Seven Books of the Iliad” in 1598. This was followed by the complete “Iliad” in 1611, the “Odyssey” in 1615, and “The Whole Works of Homer” in 1616. Chapman took liberties with the material that reflected his […]

Dickey Chapelle (1919 - 1965)

Photojournalist. When she was killed in Viet Nam, she was both the first war correspondent killed in that conflict, as well as the first American woman reporter to be killed in any conflict. Born Georgette Louise Meyer, she was attending MIT by the age of sixteen, taking aeronautical design classes.  Later, she went to New […]

Iris Chang (1968 - 2004)

Author. She was the author of several books including “The Rape of Nanking,” “The Chinese in America” and “Thread of the Silkworm.” She died form a self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 36. (bio by: Erik Lander)