Algis Budrys (1931 - 2008)

Called “AJ” by friends, Budrys was born Algis Budrys in Königsberg in the then East Prussia, to a family which considered itself Lithuanian rather than German. In 1936, when Budrys was five years old, his father Jonas Budrys was appointed as the Lithuanian consul general in New York. Jonas Budrys continued to hold that position, […]

Sergei Budantsev (1896 - 1938)

Author. His work often dealt with feminism, corruption, and intellectuals coming to grips with communism, hot topics in the Soviet Union during the 1920’s but later considered suspect under Stalinism. In his famous novel “Locusts” (1927),  a plague of the insects symbolizes malevolent forces trying to stop the Russian people from building a new society. […]

William Frank Buckley, Jr (1925 - 2008)

Author and conservative commentator. Born in New York City, he was recruited into the CIA in 1951, the same year his first book, God and Man at Yale, was published. Soon founded the National Review in 1955, which he used as a forum to mobilize support for Barry Goldwater’s presidential bid. In 1964 helped form […]

Dr Ernest Redmond Buckler (1908 - 1984)

Canadian novelist and short story writer. Buckler wrote two of the most carefully crafted novels in English-Canadian literature, “The Mountain and the Valley” (1952), and “The Cruelest Month” (1963).  (bio by: Manley Bennett)

T. Nash Buckingham (1880 - 1971)

Sportsman, Author. Born in Memphis, he was an athlete, noted sportsman, field trial judge, pioneering conservationist, accomplished raconteur, and author. His books include “De Shootinest Gent’man and Other Tales” (1934), “Mark Right! Tales of Shooting and Fishing” (1936), “Ole Miss’” (1937), “Blood Lines, Tales of Shooting and Fishing” (1938), “Tattered Coat” (1944), “Game Bag, Tales […]

Pearl S. Buck (1892 - 1973)

Author, humanitarian, philanthropist. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. She was born Pearl Sydenstricker in Hillsboro, West Virginia. Her parents were missionaries and she spent her youth in China. She learned to speak Chinese before she could speak English. After being educated by her mother and by a Chinese, Buck was sent […]

Lucy Rebecca Buck (1845 - 1918)

Civil War Diarist, author of “Sad Earth, Sweet Heaven,” the diary of Lucy Rebecca Buck during the War between the States, Front Royal, Virginia – December 25, 1861 – April 15, 1865, and “Shadows of My Heart,” the Civil War diary of Lucy Rebecca Buck of Virginia. Lucy was only 18 when the Civil War […]

Frank Buck (1884 - 1950)

Professional Outdoor Adventurer, Filmmaker. He was born on March 17, 1884, in Gainesville, Texas. When Frank Buck was five, his family moved to Dallas,Texas. After attending public schools there, he left home at the age of eighteen to take a job handling a trainload of cattle being sent to Chicago. In 1911 he made his […]

Charles Lunsford Neville Buck (1879 - 1957)

American Author. A writer of 24 novels, nine of his books were made into movies during the silent screen era.  He was at the pinnacle of his career from 1910-1935.  He then faded into obscurity after 1935, only to find a new audience in recent years.  Many of his books were being published again after […]

Art Buchwald (1925 - 2007)

Humorist, Journalist and Author. Art Buchwald is best remembered for his long running political satire and commentary column that he wrote for the Washington Post newspaper.  He won a Pulitzer Prize for outstanding commentary in 1982.  Born Arthur Buchwald in Mount Vernon, New York, he was the son of a drapery salesman.  Soon after he […]

Georg Buchner (1813 - 1837)

Playwright.  Although Georg Buchner died at the age of 23,  leaving only three plays and an unfinished novella,  his influence has vastly execeeded his slender output.  He has been hailed as a forerunner of such literary movements as Naturalism,  Metaphysical Symbolism,  Expressionism,  the Epic Theatre of Bertolt Brecht,  and the Theatre of the Absurd. His […]

George Buchanan (1506 - 1582)

Scholar, poet, author, and humanist. Born in Stirlingshire, Scotland, one of eight children of a small farmer who died when George Buchanan was 7, leaving the family in poverty. George received a grammar school education before being sent by his uncle to study at the University of Paris when he was 14. Returning to Scotland, […]

William Buchan (1970 - 1805)

Medical Pioneer. Author of the first-ever book of home medicine, ‘Domestic Medicine’, which sold over 80,000 copies in his lifetime. (bio by: David Conway)

John Buchan (1875 - 1940)

British Peer, Author. Born in Perth, Scotland, the eldest son of Reverend John Buchan and Helen Masterson. He attended the University of Glasgow on scholarship where he began writing both prose and poetry, and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate prize for poetry. He passed the bar in 1901 and worked on the […]

Martin Buber (1878 - 1965)

Martin Buber (Hebrew: מרטין בובר‎‎, German: Martin Buber, Yiddish: מארטין בובער‎; February 8, 1878 – June 13, 1965) was an Austrian-born Israeli Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism centered on the distinction between the I–Thou relationship and the I–It relationship. Born in Vienna, Buber came from a family […]

Valery Bryusov (1873 - 1924)

Author. A leader of the Russian Symbolist movement. Although active mainly as a poet, Valery Bryusov is probably best known today for his historical novel “The Fiery Angel” (1908). Set during the Spanish Inquisition, this gloomy,  sexually-charged book had its origins in a real-life love triangle between Bryusov,  poet Nina Petrovskaya,  and Andrei Bely,  the […]

William Cullen Bryant (1794 - 1878)

“Thanatopsis” is William Cullen Bryant’s most famous poem, which Bryant may have been working on as early as 1811. In 1817 his father took some pages of verse from his son’s desk, and at the invitation of Willard Phillips, an editor of the North American Review who had previously been tutored in the classics by […]

Bernice Morgan Bryant (1906 - 1976)

Author. Best known for the following books ‘Dan Morgan, Boy of the Wilderness’,and ‘P’s and Q’s for Boys and Girls'(which was the Book of the Month for Parent’s Magazine). (bio by: Laurie)

Ford Richardson Bryan (1912 - 2004)

Author/Historian. As a 4th cousin of Henry Ford I, he authored many articles on the Ford Family and Henry Ford, in the Dearborn Historian, and the Ford Legend. He worked 33 years as a Spectrochemical Analyst for Ford Motor Company. When he became a volunteer at The Henry Ford in 1981, he found a lot […]

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)

Poet. Born Elizabeth Moulton-Barrett at Cohnadatia Hall in Durham, England,, family wealth from Jamaican sugar plantations gave Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her eleven brothers and sisters a privileged childhood. In her teens, she contracted a lung disorder, the nature of which is still speculated upon, and was treated as an invalid by her parents. In […]

Thomas Browne (1605 - 1682)

Author and Physician. Born in the parish of St Michael le Querne in London, educated at Oxford. He wrote ‘Religio Medici’, a literate attempt to reconcile the disciplines of science and religion. An authorised version was published in 1643. In the late 50’s he wrote ‘Urn Burials’, a reflection on mortality, and the curious ‘Garden […]

Sylvia Celeste Browne (1936 - 2013)

Psychic, Spiritual Medium, Author. Sylvia Celese Browne appeared regularly on television and radio, and hosted an hour-long Internet radio show on Hay House Radio. She was the subject of frequent criticism for making psychic predictions that were later proven false. She was the author of dozens of books on paranormal and spiritual topics. She discussed […]

Malcolm Wilde Browne (1931 - 2012)

Award-Winning Reporter and Photographer. Malcolm Wilde Browne, who spent most of his career writing for The New York Times, was working as a chemist in New York in the 1950s when he was drafted to go to Korea in 1956 where he drove a tank and was later assigned to write for the military newspaper, […]

George Forrest Browne (1833 - 1930)

George Forrest Browne (4 December 1833 – 1 June 1930) was an English bishop, the first Anglican Bishop of Stepney from 1895[1] until 1897 when he was appointed Bishop of Bristol. Browne was born in 1833[3] and educated at St Peter’s School, York and St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, gaining his BA as 30th wrangler in 1856. […]

William Wells Brown (1814 - 1884)

William Wells Brown (circa 1814 – November 6, 1884) was a prominent African-American abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian in the United States. Born into slavery in Montgomery County, Kentucky, near the town of Mount Sterling, Brown escaped to Ohio in 1834 at the age of 20. He settled in Boston, where he worked for […]

John Henry Brown (1820 - 1895)

John Henry Brown was born in Pike County, Missouri Territory, the son of Henry S. Brown and Margaret Jones Brown. He received little formal schooling but apprenticed as a youth in a printer’s office and various newspapers in Missouri. At age 17, Brown moved to the Republic of Texas and soon thereafter worked for a […]

Hablot Knight “Phiz” Brown (1815 - 1882)

British Book Illustrator. He began his career as an apprentice at the engraving firm of Findon Brothers, London.  Engraving was laborious work and he soon progressed to working on etchings and watercolors.  In 1833 he won the Society of Arts’ medal for his etching “John Gilpin’s Ride”.  In 1834 he went into business as an […]

George Douglas Brown (1869 - 1902)

George Douglas Brown was the illegitimate son of a farmer and a woman of Irish descent. He went to school at Ochiltree, Coylton, and Ayr, his academic performance allowing him to study Classics at the University of Glasgow and at Balliol College, Oxford. However his studies were interrupted by the illness of his mother; he […]

Estelle Aubrey Brown (1877 - 1958)

Author. He is best known for her works “A Woman of Character,” “With Trailing Banners,” and “Around Two Worlds.” She also wrote short stories and articles in leading magazines. (bio by: Laurie)

Clara Spalding Brown (1970 - 1935)

Author. Married to a mining engineer in Tombstone, Arizona, he became a journalist and author who detailed events the that part of the Western Frontier, and was present in the town during the famous “Shootout at the OK Corral”. She published the work “Life at Shut-In Valley and Other Pacific Coast Tales”, and in 1998 […]