Bertolt Brecht (1898 - 1956)

Playwright.  Family links:  Parents:  Berthold Friedrich Brecht (1869 – 1939)  Sophie Brezing Brecht (1871 – 1920)  Spouses:  Helene Weigel-Brecht (1900 – 1971)  Marianne Zoff (1893 – 1984)*  Children:  Hanne Brecht Hiob (1923 – 2009)* *Calculated relationship

Richard Gary Brautigan (1935 - 1984)

Writer, poet, novelist. Works include “Revenge of the Lawn,” “The Abortion: A Historical Romance 1966,” “Trout Fishing In America,” “A Confederate General From Big Sur,” “Dreaming of Babylon,” and “So The Wind Won’t Blow It All Away.” Cause of death: suicide by gunshot to the head

Lilian Jackson Braun (1913 - 2011)

Author. A respected Detroit journalist, she is remembered for her 29 best-selling “The Cat Who…” mystery novels. Raised in a variety of places before settling in Michigan, she began working for the “Detroit News” and as a department store advertising copywriter while in her teens. Eventually Braun joined the “Detroit Free Press” where she was […]

Fernand Braudel (1902 - 1985)

Historian.

Bobbi Brat (1962 - 1988)

Singer/songwriter. Born in 1962, Bobbi did time living on the streets but was lauded for never losing a basic decency. Bobbi was well-known on the California punk scene in the late seventies and early eighties and was highly respected. She was called tough, beautiful, kind, talented, and an incredible singer. Bobbi was one of the […]

Robert Brasillach (1909 - 1945)

Author. Prolific novelist, poet and playwright author of several acclaimed novels and co-author, with Maurice Bardèche, of “L’Histoire Du Cinéma,” the first prominent survey of film. He was also editor of the major fascist and anti-semitic newspaper in Paris. Tried and executed for treason by a firing squad, he was the only writer of any […]

Charles Brasch (1909 - 1973)

New Zealand poet. In 1947 he launched Landfall, a literary journal that gained an international reputation and influenced New Zealand’s cultural life.

William Cowper Brann (1855 - 1898)

Writer, Publisher. He wrote and published ‘The Iconoclast’ magazine out of Waco, Texas in the 1890s. Circulation was in every state and 20 foreign countries. He was shot in the back by an irate Baptist on a downtown Waco street. He turned, pulled his pistol and killed his assassin. Baptists disliked Brann because he ridiculed […]

Georg Brandes (1842 - 1927)

Biographer, wrote biographies about Goethe and Kierkegaard.

Millen Brand (1906 - 1980)

Novelist, Poet, Screenwriter. He is best known for the critically-acclaimed, best-selling novel “The Outward Room”(1937), and the Oscar-nominated screenplay (with Frank Partos) for ”The Snake Pit”(1948). Born Elmer Millen Brand in Jersey City, New Jersey, he was the son of Elmer Brand and Carrie E. Myers. In 1929, he graduated from the Columbia University School […]

Mary Lydia Bolles Branch (1840 - 1922)

Author. Writer of stories for children. Some of her books are “The Kantor Girls,” “The Old Hempstead House,” “Home of Eighth Generations,” and “The Manner of Life of Nancy Hempstead.” (bio by: Laurie)  Family links:  Parents:  John Rogers Bolles (1810 – 1895)  Mary Hempstead Bolles (1811 – 1859)  Spouse:  John Locke Branch (1837 – 1908) […]

Anne Dudley Bradstreet (1612 - 1672)

Poet. Born Anne Dudley to nonconformist parents Thomas Dudley and Dorothy Yorke Dudley in Northampton, England. Her father was the steward for the Earl of Lincoln and afforded his daughter an unusually complete education. About 1620 she married Simon Bradstreet, her father’s assistant. On March 29, 1630, Bradstreet and her family sailed for the New […]

Marion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley (1930 - 1999)

Fantasy and Science Fiction author and editor and receiver of numerous awards. She created the Darkover series and among many others wrote the highly successful novel “The Mists of Avalon”. She also edited the fantasy short story collections “Sword & Sorceress” and “The Marion Zimmer Bradley Fantasy Magazine”. Her ashes were to be scattered in […]

Esther “Kitty” Buhler Bradley (1922 - 2004)

Motion Picture Screenwriter. The second wife of General of the Army Omar N. Bradley, she was a playwright for television and movies. Educated at Kansas Wesleyan University and at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), (later receiving an honorary doctorate’s degree from Park College), she was a freelance writer for UPI in Okinawa when […]

Ben Bradlee (1921 - 2014)

Journalist. He served as Editor of The Washington Post from 1965 until 1991 and during his leadership, the stories of “The Pentagon Papers” and “Watergate” were reported. He was born Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee, his father was an investment banker, Ben (as he was called throughout his life) was educated at Harvard College. During World War […]

William Bradford (1663 - 1752)

Pioneer American Publisher.  Bradford established the American colony’s first press, in Philadelphia, after his emigration from England in 1683. He defended press freedom and was tried for sedition in 1692. He was not convicted and moved to New York where he became a Trinity Vestryman in 1703. He created the first edition of the Book […]

Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835 - 1915)

Autor. Her parents separated while she was still a child, and she wrote and worked as an actress to support her mother. Her first novel, “Three Times Dead” (also known as “The Trail of the Serpent”) sold well, but her second, “Lady Audley’s Secret” was reprinted nine times in three months. In 2000, it was […]

Thomas Bracken (1843 - 1898)

Poet. He wrote New Zealand’s National Anthem “God Defend New Zealand”. It was published in 1876.

Brendan Bracken (1901 - 1958)

Irish journalist and politicain. Born in Kilmallock in Ireland in 1901. Later moving to London, he became friends with Winston Churchill, edited the Financial News, The Banker and The Practitioner before being promoted to managing director of the Economist in 1928. He replaced Duff Cooper as Minister of Information on in 1941. He held the […]

Gerard Brach (1927 - 2006)

Screenwriter. He was born in Mountrouge, France. He is best known for his collaborations with directors Jean Jacques Annaud and Roman Polanski. His credits include “Repulsion” (1965), “Cul de Sac” (1965), “The Fearless Vampire Killers” (1967), “Wonderwall” (1968), “Le Locataire” (“The Tenant”) (1975), “Quest for Fire” (1981), “L’Africain” (1983), “The Name of the Rose” (1986), […]

Charles Brabin (1882 - 1957)

Motion Picture Director. Forgotten today, he was highly esteemed in the years following World War I. His independent production “Driven” (1923, now lost) was hailed as a masterpiece by contemporary critics. On the strength of this picture he was chosen to direct the epic “Ben-Hur” and began shooting in Italy in 1923, but after costly […]

Virginia Frazer Boyle (1863 - 1938)

Author. Poet Laureate of the Confederacy. Known for her writing of “Union” and “Love Songs and Bugle Calls.” (bio by: Laurie)

Kay Boyle Franckenstein (1902 - 1992)

Award-Winning Writer, Educator, and Political Activist. She was born in St. Paul (Minnesota) and died in Mill Valley (California). She studied architecture at the Ohio Mechanics Institute in Cincinnati. In 1929 the Crosbys’ Black Sun Press published Boyle’s first book of fiction titled Short Stories. Kay Boyle’s short stories won two O. Henry Awards (for […]

Harold Vincent “Hal” Boyle (1911 - 1974)

Writer. Hal Boyle graduated from Central High School in Kansas City Missouri, started as a copy boy at the Kansas City Bureau of Associated Press, later became a reporter, was AP’s first columnist, won a Pulitzer prize in 1945 for columns and stories from the North African and European war theaters, wrote a book “Best […]

Karin Boye (1900 - 1941)

Swedish Poet and Novelist. She wrote about how we should live our lives and how we actually manage to do it. To meet her poetry is to recieve a knowledge on the divion of life, between wanting and being. She made her debut with the collection of poems ”Moln” (Clouds) 1922, and wrote several noted […]

Gerald Michael Boyd (1950 - 2006)

Journalist. New York Times Managing Editor. He entered journalism after graduating from the University of Missouri. After working as the White House correspondent for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Boyd joined the Times in 1983 and rose through the ranks, including assignments as metropolitan editor and managing editor. He oversaw the 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winning series, […]

Paul Bowles (1910 - 1999)

American Author. He lived in Tangier (Morocco) from 1947 and remained as an artist who evoked an atmosphere of dark, arabian streets, hashish and drug-induced visions. He is best remembered for his book “The Sheltering Sky,” filmed by Bernardo Bertolucci.  He was also a composer, and in 1936 he wrote a musical score for Orson […]

Jane Bowles (1917 - 1973)

Writer. She was born in New York (United States) and died in Málaga (Andalucia, Spain). Her first novel La Phaeton Hypocrite  was printed privately and no copies survive. Despite of her lesbianism, she married the gay writer Paul Bowles in 1938, who remain her husband until her death in 1973. Her health declined and in […]

Claude Gernade Bowers (1879 - 1958)

Author / Politician / Diplomat. US Ambassador to Spain 1933 – 1939. US Ambassador to Chile 1939 – 1953.  Family links:  Parents:  Lewis Bowers (1847 – 1891)  Juliet Bowers (1855 – 1917)  Spouse:  Sybil W. McCaslin Bowers (1884 – 1964)*  Sibling:  Gertrude Bowers (1874 – 1878)*  Claude Gernade Bowers (1879 – 1958) *Calculated relationship

Elizabeth Bowen (1899 - 1973)

Writer. She was born in Dublin (Ireland) and died in London (England). She is best remembered fos her books The Death of the Heart, Eva Trout, A World of Love, Seven Winters, The Last September, The House in Paris and Pictures and Conversations, that was published posthumously. (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)