Sir Adolphus William Ward (2 December 1837 19 June 1924) was an English historian and man of letters. He was born at Hampstead, London, and was educated in Germany and at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1866 he was appointed professor of history and English literature in Owens College, Manchester, and was principal from 1890 to 1897, when he retired. In 1898, Ward delivered the Ford Lectures at Oxford University.
Archie Frederick Collins (born South Bend, Indiana January 8, 1869. Died Nyack, New York January 3, 1952) was an early experimenter in wireless telephony and a prolific author of books and articles on a wide range of scientific and technical subjects.
Anna Maria Hall (6 January 1800 - 30 January 1881) was an Irish novelist who often published as "Mrs. S.C. Hall". She was born Anna Maria Fielding in Dublin, but left Ireland at the age of 15. Nevertheless, her home country was the theme for several of her most successful books, such as Sketches of Irish Character (1829), Lights and Shadows of Irish Character (1838), Marian (1839), and The Whiteboy (1845).
Marguerite Poland is a South African novelist. When she was two years old, the Poland family relocated to the Eastern Cape where she spent most of her formative years. After completing her secondary education at St Dominics Priory School in Port Elizabeth, Poland completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at Rhodes University, majoring in Social Anthropology and Xhosa. In 1971, Marguerite Poland completed her honours degree in African languages at Stellenbosch University.
Jake Farrow (born October 18, 1978) is a television writer and actor. He is most famous for the role of Gavin Mitchell on the TV series Drake & Josh.
Franklin Pierce Adams (November 15, 1881, Chicago, Illinois March 23, 1960, New York City, New York) was an American columnist (under the pen name F.P.A. ) and wit, best known for his newspaper column, "The Conning Tower", and his appearances as a regular panelist on radio's Information Please. He was a prolific writer of light verse, and a member of the Algonquin Round Table of the 1920s and 1930s.
Justin Richards is a British writer. He has written many spin off novels based on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, and he is Creative Director for the BBC Books range. He has also written for television, contributing to Five's soap opera Family Affairs. He is also the author of a series of crime novels for children about the Invisible Detective, and novels for older children.
Guido Pieter Theodorus Josephus Gezelle (1 May 1830 - 27 November 1899) was an influential Dutch language writer and poet and a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium.
Hermann Hagedorn (1882, New York City - d. 1964) was an American author, poet and biographer. He was born in New York City and educated at Harvard University, the University of Berlin, and Columbia University. From 1909 to 1911, he was an instructor in English at Harvard. Hagedorn was a friend and biographer of Theodore Roosevelt. He also served as Secretary and Director of the Theodore Roosevelt Association from 1919 to 1957. Drawing upon his friendship with Roosevelt, Hagedorn was able to elicite the support of Roosevelt's friends and associates' personal recollections in his biography of TR which was first published in 1919 and then updated in 1921 and which is oriented toward children. The book has a summary questions for young readers at the end of each chapter. Drawing on the same friends and associates of Roosevelt, Hagedorn also published the first serious study of TR's experience as a rancher in the Badlands after the death of his wife and mother in 1884. Hagedorn's access to TR's associates in these two books has been utilized by historian, Edmund Morris
Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky, (11 November 1821 9 February 1881) was a Russian writer and essayist, best known for his novels Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. Dostoyevsky's literary output explores human psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th-century Russian society. Considered by many as a founder or precursor of 20th-century existentialism, his Notes from Underground (1864), written in the embittered voice of the anonymous "underground man", was called the "best overture for existentialism ever written" by Walter Kaufmann. A prominent figure in world literature, Dostoyevsky is often acknowledged by critics as one of the greatest psychologists in world literature.
Armin Wolf (born August 19, 1966) is an Austrian journalist and well-known television anchor. Since 2002 he has been presenting ORF's (Austria's public television network) daily news show ZiB 2, the most respected news program in Austria with a market share of almost 30 percent. Wolf is also one of the hosts of the Sunday morning interview show Pressestunde (ORF's version of Meet the Press). For his interviews he was distinguished with numerous awards, e.g.
William Somerset Maugham, CH (25 January 1874 16 December 1965) was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era, and reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.
Abi Morgan (born 1968) is a British playwright and screenwriteer. She won the 2003-2004 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
Anne Douglas Sedgwick (March 28, 1873 - July 19, 1935) was an American-born British writer. The daughter of a businessman, she was born in Englewood, New Jersey but at age nine her family moved to London. Although she made return visits to the United States, she lived in England for the remainder of her life. In 1908, she married the British essayist and journalist, Basil de Slincourt. During World War I she and her husband were volunteer workers in hospitals and orphanages in France. Her novels explored the contrast in values between Americans and Europeans. He bestsellin novel Tante was made into a 1918 film, The Impossible Woman and The Little French Girl into a 1925 film of the same name. In 1931, she was elected to the United States National Institute of Arts and Letters. Four of her books were on the list of bestselling novels in the United States for 1912, 1924, 1927, and 1929 as determined by the New York Times. Anne Douglas Sedgwick died in Hampstead
Henri "Hendrik" Conscience (December 3, 1812 Antwerp - September 10, 1883 Elsene) was a Belgian writer. He was a pioneer in writing in Dutch after the secession from the Netherlands in 1830 left Belgium a mostly French speaking country. He was the son of a Frenchman, Pierre Conscience, from Besanon, who had been chef de timonerie in the navy of Napoleon Bonaparte, and who was appointed under-harbourmaster at Antwerp in 1811, when that city formed part of France. Hendrik's mother was a Fleming, Cornelia Balieu. When, in 1815, the French abandoned Antwerp after the Congress of Vienna, they left Pierre Conscience behind them. He was a very eccentric person, and he took up the business of buying and breaking-up worn-out vessels, of which the port of Antwerp was full after the peace. The child grew up in an old shop stocked with marine stores, to which the father afterwards added a collection of unsellable books; among them were old romances which inflamed the fancy of the child. His mother died in 1820, and the boy and his younger brother had no other companion than their grim and somewhat sinister father. In 1826 Pierre Conscience married again, this time a widow much younger than himself, Anna Catherina Bogaerts. Hendrik had long before this developed an insatiable passion for reading, and revelled all day long among the ancient, torn and dusty tomes which passed through the garret of The Green Corner on their way to destruction. Soon after his second marriage Pierre took a violent dislike to the town, sold the shop, and retired to the Kempen region which Hendrik Conscience so often describes in his books, the desolate flat land that stretches between Antwerp and Venlo. Here Pierre bought a little farm, with a great garden round it, and here, while their father was buying ships in distant havens, the boys would spend weeks, and even months, with no companion but their stepmother. At the age of seventeen Hendrik left the paternal house in the Kempen region to become a tutor in Antwerp, and to prosecute his studies, which were soon broken in upon by the Revolution of 1830. He volunteered as a private in the new Belgian army, and served in barracks at Venlo, and afterwards at Dendermonde, until 1837, when he retired with the grade of sergeant-major. Thrown in this way with Flemings of every class, and made a close observer of their mental habits, the young man formed the idea of writing in the despised idiom of the country, an idiom which was then considered too vulgar to be spoken, and much less written in, by educated, Francophone Belgians. Although, close by, across the Scheldt, the Dutch possessed a rich and honored literature, many centuries old, written in a language scarcely to be distinguished from Flemish, a foolish prejudice denied recognition to the language of the Flemish provinces of Belgium. As a matter of fact, nothing had been written in it for many years, when the separation in 1831 served to make the chasm between the nations and the languages one which could never be bridged over. It was therefore with the foresight of a prophet that Conscience wrote, in 1830: "I do not know how it is, but I confess I find in the real Flemish something indescribably romantic, mysterious, profound, energetic, even savage. If I ever gain the power to write, I shall throw myself head over ears into Flemish composition. " His poems, however, written while he was a soldier, were all in French. He received no pension when he was discharged, and going back idle to his fathers house, he determined to do the impossible, and write a Flemish book for sale. A passage in Guicciardini fired his fancy, and straightaway he wrote a series of vignettes set during the Dutch Revolt, with the title In 't Wonderjaar 1566. His father thought it so vulgar of his son to write a book in Flemish that he turned him out of doors, and the celebrated novelist of the future started for Antwerp, with a fortune which was strictly confined to two francs and a bundle of clothes. An old schoolfellow found him in the street and took him to his home; and soon various people of position, amongst them the eminent painter Wappers, interested themselves in the brilliant and unfortunate young man. Wappers even gave him a suit of clothes, and presented him to the king, who expressed a wish, which was not immediately carried out in consequence of some red tape, that the Wonderjaar should be added to the library of every Belgian school. But it was under the patronage of Leopold I that Conscience published his second work, Fantasy, in the same year, 1837. A small appointment in the provincial archives relieved him from the actual pressure of want, and in 1838 he made his first great success with the historical romance called The Lion of Flanders, which still holds its place as one of his masterpieces, and whose influence extended far beyond the strictly literary sphere.
Francisco de Moncada, 3rd Marquis of Aytona, (1586 - 1635) was a Spanish diplomat, soldier and writer of the early 17th century. He was also a governor of the Spanish Netherlands.
Michael Sellers, (2 April 1954 - 24 July 2006) was an English actor, builder, car restorer, author and the son of actor Peter Sellers. He was often interviewed by the media about his relation with his father. Despite a tenuous and troubled relationship with his father he frequently defended him and his legacy.
Alfred Thomas Story (1842 1934) was an English journalist, poet and author of numerous books. He was born in North Cave, in the county of York, the fourth child in the large family of James Story. His family was an old Durham branch of the Northumbrian Story family. His father, a property-owner and keen amateur musician, composer and poet, died when his son was about ten years of age. He was educated in Manchester, studying for some time at Owen's College. He began his career as a provincial journalist and became the sub-editor of Human Nature, a monthly periodical to which he contributed his first poems. Subsequently he went to Germany to study. He spent two years in Switzerland acting as foreign sub-editor of the Swiss Times, published at first in Geneva and afterwards in Paris as the Continental Times. Returning to England, he worked for several years in the provincial press, part of this time on the Northampton Mercury. Settling in London, he contributed, during the ensuing years, to many newspapers and literary periodicals. He was a sometime editor of The Phrenological Magazine and published two books on the now discredited subject of phrenology. During his long life, he produced numerous books. These include biographies (The Life of John Linnell, William Ewart Gladstone and his Contemporaries,William Blake, his Life, Character and Genius, James Holmes and John Varley); local histories (Historical Legends of Northamptonshire, American Shrines in England); literary essays (Books that are the Hearts of Men, A Book of Vagrom Men and Vagrant Thoughts); popular science works; history (The Building of the Empire); economics (The Martyrdom of Labour); travel (Swiss Life in Town and Country, North Wales); public school fiction (Boys of St. Elmos); romances (Only Half a Hero, Fifine) and poetry (The Northern Cross and Other Poems, The Trumpeter of the Dawn and Other Poems).
Edward Lear (12 May 1812 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, author, and poet, renowned today primarily for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised.
Jason Snell is a writer and editor whose professional career has been spent covering Apple Computer's Apple Macintosh computers and related technologies. He was also one of the early users of the Internet as a publishing medium, with several magazines and web sites to his credit. He is currently the editorial director of Mac Publishing, the publishers of the U.S. edition of Macworld. His column appears monthly in that magazine.
