Thursday, June 26, 2008

W J Loftie

W J Loftie

William John Loftie (1839 1911) was a British clergyman and writer, on the history of London, travel, art and architecture.


W Loftie's Books:


[Authorised Guide To The Tower Of London]

Damon Runyon

Damon Runyon (1880-1946)

Damon Runyon (1880-1946) title=

Alfred Damon Runyon (October 4, 1880 December 10, 1946) was a newspaperman and writer. He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To New Yorkers of his generation, a "Damon Runyon character" evoked a distinctive social type from the Brooklyn or Midtown demi-monde. The adjective "Runyonesque" refers to this type of character as well as to the type of situations and dialog that Runyon depicted. He spun humorous tales of gamblers, hustlers, actors, and gangsters, few of whom go by "square" names, preferring instead colorful monikers such as "Nathan Detroit," "Benny Southstreet," "Big Jule," "Harry the Horse," "Good Time Charley," "Dave the Dude," or "The Seldom Seen Kid. " Runyon wrote these stories in a distinctive vernacular style: a mixture of formal speech and colorful slang, almost always in present tense, and always devoid of contractions. A passage from "Tobias the Terrible", collected in More than Somewhat (1937) illustrates Runyon's memorable prose: If I have all the tears that are shed on Broadway by guys in love, I will have enough salt water to start an opposition ocean to the Atlantic and Pacific, with enough left over to run the Great Salt Lake out of business. But I wish to say I never shed any of these tears personally, because I am never in love, and furthermore, barring a bad break, I never expect to be in love, for the way I look at it love is strictly the old phedinkus, and I tell the little guy as much. The musical Guys and Dolls was based on two Runyon stories, "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure". The musical also takes characters and story elements from a few other Runyon stories, most notably "Pick The Winner. " The film Little Miss Marker (and its remake, Sorrowful Jones) grew from his short story of the same name. Runyon was also a newspaperman. He wrote the lead article for UP on Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Presidential inauguration in 1933.



[The Informal Execution Of Soupbone Pew]

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Ada Leverson

Ada Leverson

Ada Leverson (ne Beddington; 1862 August 1933) was a British writer who is now known primarily for her work as a novelist. She began writing during the 1890s, as a contributor to Black and White, Punch, and The Yellow Book. She was a loyal friend to Oscar Wilde, who called her Sphinx. She was a wit, and a friend of Max Beerbohm; her writing has been compared to Beerbohm's, and the stories of Saki. She was also a friend of George Moore; Osbert Sitwell in Great Morning has an anecdote in which she tries, unsuccessfully, to get Moore to see the young William Walton. Of the Sitwells' circle - Sacheverall Sitwell dedicated a poetry collection to her, while she was hopelessly in love with Osbert - she lived out her old age in the Hotel Porta Rossa in Florence.



[Bird Of Paradise | Love At Second Sight | Love Shadow | The Limit | Tenterhooks | The Twelfth Hour]

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Antonino Russo Giusti

Antonino Russo Giusti

Antonino Russo Giusti (Catania, February 23, 1876-September 28, 1957) was an Italian dramatist. After passing his youth in Belpasso, Giusti studied the classics at Catania before taking his diploma in jurisprudence, upon completion of which he dedicated himself to forensics. He eventually became artistic director of the communal theater in Catania, which showed his first work in the Sicilian language, L'eredit dello zio canonico; this was followed in 1920 by U Spirdu, with music by Francesco Paolo Frontini conducted by Gaetano Emanuel Cal In 1923 Tommaso Marcellini showed L'eredita dello zio canonico on the Italian mainland for the first time; it was performed at the communal theater of Trapani under its Sicilian title, U tistamentu di lu ziu canonicu. Marcellini later showed another one of Giusti's plays, Il biberon di pap, giving it the Sicilian title of A sucarola du pap. Among Giusti's other plays was Un autore di assalto, a comedy that some branded Pirandellian. He authored 27 plays total over the course of his career. Angelo Musco acquired the rights to L'eredita dello zio canonico, playing the protagonist of a film of the same name produced in 1934; he also played the same character in the film Gatta ci cova. Giusti died in Catania in 1957.



[Der Roman Eines Geborenen Verbrechers]

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Stefan Jerzy Zweig

Stefan Jerzy Zweig (1941-now)

Stefan Jerzy Zweig (1941-now) title=

Stefan Jerzy Zweig (b. January 28, 1941 in Krakw) is an author and cameraman and is known as the Buchenwald child from the novel by Bruno Apitz, Naked Among Wolves. He survived Buchenwald concentration camp at age four by being protected by his father and other prisoners.



[Magallanes]

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Achmed Abdullah Alexander Nikolayevitch Romanoff

Achmed Abdullah Alexander Nikolayevitch Romanoff

Achmed Abdullah (12 May 1881 12 May 1945), a pseudonym of Alexander Nicholayevitch Romanoff, was a Russian-born writer. He is most noted for his pulp stories of crime, mystery and adventure. He wrote screenplays for some successful films. He was the author of the progressive Siamese drama Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness, an Academy Award nominated film made in 1927. He earned an Academy Award nomination for collaborating on the screenplay to the 1935 film The Lives of a Bengal Lancer.



[A Simple Act Of Piety]

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Greg London

Greg London

Greg London title=

Greg London is an American singer, actor, musician, satirist, comedian, song writer, show writer, producer and impressionist. After a solo hit show in London's West End, he enjoyed a lengthy residency in Reno, Nevada before announcing his move to the Las Vegas Strip in mid 2010 and enjoying hit singles.



[Bounty Hunters Map Makers Gold Miners]

Donald Grant Mitchell

Donald Grant Mitchell (1822-1908)

Donald Grant Mitchell (April 12, 1822 - December 15, 1908) was an American essayist and novelist.



[Dream Life]

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Francis Harold

Francis Harold

Francis Harold (died March 18, 1685) was an Irish Franciscan and historical writer. He was for some time professor of theology in the Irish College in Prague; and afterwards went to Rome, where he spent the remaining years of his life in the Irish Franciscan College of St. Isadore, fulfilling the duties of librarian.



[Are We Ruined By The Germans]

Monday, June 2, 2008

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Earl Derr Biggers

Earl Derr Biggers (1884-1933)

Earl Derr Biggers (August 24, 1884 April 5, 1933) was an American novelist and playwright. He is remembered primarily for adaptations of his novels, especially those featuring the Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan.



[Inside The Lines | Seven Keys To Baldpate | The Agony Column | Fifty Candles]

Annabel Karmel

Annabel Karmel (1957-now)

Annabel Jane Elizabeth Karmel MBE is the author of books on nutrition and cooking for babies, children and families. Annabel's first child died of a rare viral disease aged just three months. Although the illness was not diet related, Annabel was determined to give her second child the best possible start in life and she spent two years researching child nutrition and development, interviewing leading UK paediatricians and child nutritionists. Her first book was The Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner, written in 1991. It was endorsed by Great Ormond Street Hospital, the UKs leading childrens hospital. Annabel has since published numerous other books and has worked as a consultant with manufacturers like Marks and Spencer. In August 2006 she launched Make Your Own A range of equipment for making one's own baby food. Annabel writes regularly for national United Kingdom newspapers including The Times, The Daily Mail and the Sunday Mirror as well as contributing to Practical Parenting, BBC Good Food and Sainsbury's Magazine. She is the childrens celebrity chef on the BBC website and also appears frequently on radio and television as the UKs expert on nutritional issues including BBC1s Saturday Kitchen and BBC2s Working Lunch. She completed a series on the Richard & Judy Show, as the Foodie Godmother where she travelled around the United Kingdom solving the problems of fussy eaters. She also filmed a 10 part series with Sky Active called Mummy That's Yummy. In 2007, Annabel launched a range of food products for children called Eat Fussy with Sainsbury's supermarket in the UK. In June 2009, Annabel will be one of the celebrity chefs appearing at the Children's Food Festival in Oxfordshire.



[I N R I]