Aulus Gellius (ca. 125 ADafter 180 AD), was a Latin author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up at Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome, where he held a judicial office. He is famous for his Attic Nights, a commonplace book, or compilation of notes on grammar, philosophy, history, antiquarianism and other subjects, preserving fragments of many authors and works who otherwise might be unknown today.
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 25 October 1400) was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales. Sometimes called the father of English literature, Chaucer is credited by some scholars as the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular Middle English, rather than French or Latin.
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.
Amelia Ellis (born September 23, 1977 in Hamburg, Germany) is a British-German novelist and photographer best known for her mystery series featuring London private investigator Nea Fox. Her themes include guilt and redemption, integrity, courage and sacrifice, but also friendship, love and various aspects of lesbian relationships. Urban loneliness is another major subject of her books. Ellis' protagonist is a pensive but tough post-feminist woman in her early thirties searching for answers to life's persistent questions, often finding them in the course of her investigations. Her novels contain elements of hardboiled fiction, cozies and classic detective stories and cannot easily be assigned to a specific genre of mysteries. As a photographer, Ellis works primarily in the field of street photography. She is best known for her black and white pictures of London. Ellis is taking part in the London-based art project Camden17.
Aleksis Kivi, born Alexis Stenvall, (10 October 1834 31 December 1872) was a Finnish author who wrote the first significant novel in the Finnish language, Seven Brothers. Although Kivi was among the very earliest authors of prose and lyrics in Finnish language, he is still considered one of the greatest of them all. Aleksis Kivi was born at Nurmijrvi, Finland, to a tailor's family. In 1846 he left for school in Helsinki, and in 1859 he was accepted to the University of Helsinki, where he studied literature and developed an interest in the theater. His first play was Kullervo, based on a tragic tale from Kalevala. He also met the famous journalist and statesman Johan Vilhelm Snellman. From 1863 onwards, Kivi devoted his time to writing. He wrote 12 plays and a collection of poetry. The novel Seven Brothers took him ten years to write. Literary critics, especially the prominent August Ahlqvist, disapproved of the book, at least nominally because of its "rudeness" - romanticism was in its forte at the time - but maybe also because it was written in the south-western dialect of Finnish, while Ahlqvist himself preferred north-eastern dialects of his homelands. The Fennomans also disapproved of its depiction of not-so-virtuous rural life that was far from their idealized point of view, and his excessive drinking may have alienated some. In 1865 Kivi won the State Prize for his still often performed comedy Nummisuutarit (The Cobblers on the Heath). However, the less than enthusiastic reception of his books was taking its toll and he was already drinking heavily. His main benefactor Charlotta Lnnqvist could not help him after the 1860s. Physical deterioration and the development of schizophrenia set in, and Kivi died in poverty at the age of 38. In 1995-1996, Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara wrote an opera about Kivi's life and works. In 2002 director Jari Halonen's movie The Life of Aleksis Kivi premiered in Finnish cinemas.
Ivan Turgenev Born October 28, 1818(1818-10-28)Oryol, Russian Empire Died September 3, 1883 (aged 64)Bougival, Seine-et-Oise Occupation Novelist and Playwright Genres Realism Notable work(s) A Sportsman's Sketches Fathers and Sons A Month in the Country Influences Shakespeare, Goethe, Pushkin, Belinsky, Lermontov, Byron, Schiller, Hegel, Schlegel, Schopenhauer, Bakunin Influenced Theodor Storm, Gustave Flaubert, Herman Bang, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, Anton Chekhov, Irne Nmirovsky, Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (November 9 1818 - September 3 1883) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century fiction.
Everett B. Cole was an American writer of science fiction short stories and a professional soldier. He worked as a signal maintenance and property officer at Fort Douglas, Utah. His first science fiction story, "Philosophical Corps" was published in the magazine Astounding in 1951. His fix-up of that story and two others, The Philosophical Corps, was published by Gnome Press in 1962. A second novel, The Best Made Plans, was serialized in Astounding in 1959, but never published in book form. He also co-authored historical books about the south Texas region.
Clara Morris (March 17, 1849 November 20, 1925) (her birth date is sometimes given as 1846/48) was an American actress.
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
Arnold Stephen Jacobs, Jr., commonly called A.J. Jacobs (born March 20, 1968, New York City) is an American journalist and author.
Hermann Sudermann (September 30, 1857 - November 21, 1928) was a German dramatist and novelist.
George Bethune English (March 7, 1787 - Washington, D.C., September 20, 1828) was an American adventurer, diplomat, soldier, and convert to Islam. The oldest of four children, English was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was baptized at Trinity Church on April 1, 1787. He later attended Harvard College, where his dissertation won a Bowdoin Prize he received a Masters in theology in 1811. During his studies, however, English encountered doubts about Christian theology, and went on to publish his misgivings in a book entitled The Grounds of Christianity Examined, which earned him excommunication from the Church of Christ in 1814. English addressed some of the criticisms and controversies caused by his first book in a second tract, "A Letter to the Reverend Mr. Cary," as well as in published responses to Unitarian leader William Ellery Channing's (17801842) "Two Sermons on Infidelity. " Subsequently he edited a country newspaper, during which time he may have learned the Cherokee language. English was nominated by President James Madison on February 27, 1815 and commissioned on March 1, 1815 as a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps during the War of 1812 and assigned to Marine Corps headquarters. He then sailed to the Mediterranean, and was among the first citizens of the United States known to have visited Egypt. Shortly after arriving in Egypt he resigned his commission, converted to Islam and joined Isma'il Pasha in an expedition up the Nile River against Sennar 1820, winning distinction as an officer of artillery. He published his Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar (London 1822) regarding his exploits. A colleague from Harvard, Edward Everett, published a rejoinder to English's book "The Grounds of Christianity Examined," to which English responded with his 1824 book "Five Smooth Stones out of the Brook. " After his work for Isma'il Pasha, English worked in the Diplomatic Corps of the United States in the Levant, where he worked to secure a trade agreement between the United States and the Ottoman Empire, which had trade valued at nearly $800,000 in 1822. In 1827, he returned to the United States and died in Washington the next year.
The Three Doctors is a group of African-American motivational speakers, authors, and doctors.
Gustav Meyrink (January 19, 1868 December 4, 1932) was the pseudonym of Gustav Meyer, an Austrian author, storyteller, dramatist, translator, and banker, most famous for his novel The Golem.
Karl Friedrich Schimper (15 February 1803 - 21 December 1867) was a German naturalist and poet. Born in Mannheim, he was a theology student at Heidelberg University and taught at Munich University. He pioneered research in the field of plant morphology, particularly phyllotaxis. He is perhaps best known as the originator of the theory of prehistoric hot and cold eras, and was one of the initiators of the modern theories of ice ages and climatic cycles.
Gil Ofer Student (born August 8, 1972) is the Managing Editor of OU Press, and an Orthodox Jewish blogger who writes about the interface between different facets of Judaism, specifically Orthodox Judaism and Modern Orthodox Judaism, including modern, controversial topics. He is an ordained non-pulpit serving Orthodox rabbi.
Rafael Sabatini (April 29, 1875 - February 13, 1950) was an Italian/British writer of novels of romance and adventure.
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.
Sir Ernest Scott KB (21 June 1867 6 December 1939) was an Australian historian, professor of history at the University of Melbourne from 1913.
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.
