Constantin Franois de Chassebuf, comte de Volney (3 February 1757 25 April 1820) was a French philosopher, historian, orientalist, and politician. He was at first surnamed Boisgirais after his father's estate, but afterwards assumed the name of Volney.
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.
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Venusia, December 8, 65 BC Rome, November 27, 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.
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.
David Mark Chalmers is an American author and historian.
Sir Claude Phillips (January 29, 1846August 9, 1924) was an English writer, art historian and critic for the Daily Telegraph, Manchester Guardian and other publications during the late 19th century. He was the first keeper of the Wallace Collection at Hertford House, writing its first catalogue, and held that post from 1900 until his retirement in 1911 whereupon he was knighted for his service. Phillips was considered one of the most eminent critics in Victorian Britain, and his numerous scholarly and art history books were widely read.
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.
Arnobius of Sicca was an Early Christian apologist, during the reign of Diocletian (284 305). According to Jerome's Chronicle, Arnobius, before his conversion, was a distinguished rhetorician at Sicca Veneria (El Kef, Tunisia), a major Christian center in Proconsular Africa, and owed his conversion to a premonitory dream. Arnobius writes dismissively of dreams in his surviving book, so perhaps Jerome was projecting his own respect for the content of dreams. According to Jerome, to overcome the doubts of the local bishop as to the earnestness of his Christian belief he wrote an apologetic work in seven books that St. Jerome calls Adversus Gentes but which is entitled Adversus Nationes in the only (9th-century) manuscript that has survived. Jerome's reference, his remark that Lactantius was a pupil of Arnobius and the surviving treatise are all that we know about Arnobius.
Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean (18 November 1879 30 August 1968), usually identified as C.E.W. Bean, was an Australian schoolmaster, judge's associate, barrister journalist, war correspondent and historian. Bean is renowned as the editor of the 12-volume Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918. Bean wrote Volumes I to VI himself, dealing with the Australian Imperial Force at Gallipoli, France and Belgium. Bean was instrumental in the establishment of the Australian War Memorial, and of the creation and popularisation of the ANZAC legend. Bean was born in Bathurst, New South Wales. In 1889, his family moved to England where he was educated, firstly at Brentwood School in Essex, of which his father was headmaster, then from 1894 at Clifton College, Bristol, before winning a scholarship in 1898 to Hertford College, Oxford. He returned to Australia in 1904 and worked as a lawyer until June 1908 when he joined The Sydney Morning Herald as a reporter.
Adrian Dawson (born 26 January 1971) is a British author of thriller and horror fiction, currently best known for his 2010 debut novel Codex. Codex was written in 1999, and Adrian was signed to the Christopher Little Literary Agency,[1 1] on the strength of the novel, but they failed to find a publisher. Codex deals with cryptology, religion and high-end technology, with one publisher stating that most readers would turn to non-fiction, rather than fiction for such subject matter{1] - that self same publisher was thanked by Dan Brown in the 2003 published The Da Vinci Code. However, with the advent of the iPad, Adrian's novel was published in ebook format where it stormed the UK iBookstore's Best Seller list [2 2] and will be out in print in November 2010.
Abraham Viktor Rydberg (Jnkping, December 18, 1828 - Djursholm, September 21, 1895) was a Swedish writer and a member of the Swedish Academy, 1877-1895. "Primarily a classical idealist", "Viktor Rydberg, poet, novelist, essayist, idealist philosopher and one of the prominent figures in Swedish intellectual life in the latter half of the nineteenth century", has been described as "Sweden's last Romantic" and by 1859 was "generally regarded in the first rank of Swedish novelists. " "The leading cultural figure of his day, he also wrote works on philosophy, philology, and aesthetics. " As "an idealist faithful to the Romantic tradition in poetry and thought, but with a mind receptive to the ideas of a new age, he achieved an unequalled position of authority in Swedish literature" and "with his broad range of achievements, greatly influenced Swedish cultural life" He came to be described by subsequent biographer Judith Moffett as "a 'man of letters': a journalist, novelist, poet, religious historian, an expert on Norse mythology and the history of ideas, an all-around cultural leader. " Of him, a trio of scholars at the University of Cambridge in 1951, write: "One writer, par excellence, represents the transition from idealism of the 'Nyromantik' ['New Romantic'] to the Naturalism of the '80s. Viktor Rydberg (1828-1895) was a radical, largely self-educated journalist, who ended up as a professor at the newly founded University (Hgskola) of Stockholm, and the Grand Old Man of the Swedish Academy, novelist, poet, philosopher, he owes his place in the history of Swedish literature before 1879 principally to his ideological novel The Last Athenian ('Den siste Athenaren', 1859) and his philosophical treatise The Bible's Doctrine Concerning Christ (Bibelns lra om kristus, 1862). In both of these works he attacks the narrow orthodoxy of the Church, implicitly or explicitly. Rydberg was a fighter for broader perspectives and loftier ideals, in fact for a better world. " Fredrik Bk sums up Rydberg as a metaphysical: "He saw the ideas of things, not the things themselves, the eternal, the overall patterns not the shifting multicolor phenomena of this world. " "It is as an exegetic researcher that Rydberg's influence on the history of ideas is the greatest. " His work has "plainly been seen as the breakthrough of religious liberalism in Sweden. " Rydberg's works on the history of religion and comparative Indo-European studies has not been recognized to the same extent, but [p p]riority for Sweden should be given to the writer and poet Viktor Rydberg who, although an amateur, was a forerunner of comparative Indo-European studies. "He was a constant student of the customs, philosophies, and religions of the ancients, and in a utilitarian age he avoided that close analytical study of the conditions of life about him which gives us our realists of this era. " "Rydberg fell between idealism and Naturalism, for as a novelist, poet, and critic, he began as a radical journalist and ended as a professor and author of philosophical poems. " "Viktor Rydberg, perhaps the most important of Sweden's writers in the second half of the nineteenth century, whose Platonic ideas were extremely influencial", as an idealist and a romantic, had little influence on the next generation of writers, dominated by realism. "With the death of Rydberg, the last ideal barrier against the invading realism falls."
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.
Catherine Booth (17 January 1829 - 4 October 1890) was the wife of the founder of The Salvation Army, William Booth. Because of her influence in the formation of The Salvation Army she was known as the 'Army Mother'. She was born Catherine Mumford in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England, the daughter of John Mumford and Sarah Milward. Her father was a coach builder. Her family later moved to Boston, Lincolnshire, and later lived in Brixton, London.
Arlo Bates (December 16, 1850 August 25, 1918) was an American author, educator and newspaperman. Arlo BatesBorn December 16, 1850Died August 25, 1918Boston, MassachusettsAlma mater Bowdoin CollegeSpouse(s) Harriet L. Vose (d. 1886)Signature
Alexander George (Alec) Craig (18971973) was an author and poet, who wrote extensively about banned books. Craig was interested more generally in sexual behaviour and reform, and was also engaged with the socialist movement. He was involved with the Progressive League, reviewing books for their journal. His papers are in the archives of Senate House Library.
Mark Stephen Meadows is an American author and artist. In addition to his illustration, books, and travelogues he also develops software. He is the co-inventor of several US patents relating to artificial intelligence and avatars, and he lectures internationally on this work. Meadows is known for his hitchhiking adventures, specifically for visiting Baghdad in 2003, and his interviews with terrorists in Sri Lanka. He holds a USCG captain's license.
Douglas Johnson (19252005), a British historian, was born in Edinburgh in 1925. He attended the Royal Grammar School, Lancaster, and then Worcester College, Oxford, on a history scholarship. His academic career was as a historian of France; he held professorships, first, at the University of Birmingham, then at University College, London. His books included France and the Dreyfus Affair (1966), France (for the Thames & Hudson 'Nations and Peoples' series, 1969), An Idea of Europe (with Richard Hoggart, 1987) and The Age of Illusion: art and politics in France, 1918-1940 (with his wife Madeleine Johnson, 1987). From 1983 he was General Editor of the Fontana History of Modern France. Unashamedly Francophile, Johnson devoted his academic career to improving relations between France and Britain. He became an advisor to Margaret Thatcher on all matters concerning France, although his own political position was always something of a mystery. A collection of essays in his honour was compiled by Martyn Cornick and Ceri Crossley under the title Problems in French History and published by Palgrave in 2000.
Edward Eggleston (December 10, 1837 September 3, 1902) was an American historian and novelist.
Charles Whibley (1859-1930) was an English literary journalist and author.
Abi Morgan (born 1968) is a British playwright and screenwriteer. She won the 2003-2004 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
