Classical Writers

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Philip K Dick

Philip K Dick (1928-1982)

Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 March 2, 1982) was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist whose published work was almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments, and altered states. In his later works, Dick's thematic focus strongly reflected his personal interest in metaphysics and theology. He often drew upon his own life experiences and addressed the nature of drug abuse, paranoia and schizophrenia, and transcendental experiences in novels such as A Scanner Darkly and VALIS. The novel The Man in the High Castle bridged the genres of alternate history and science fiction, earning Dick a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1963. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, a novel about a celebrity who awakens in a parallel universe where he is unknown, won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel in 1975. "I want to write about people I love, and put them into a fictional world spun out of my own mind, not the world we actually have, because the world we actually have does not meet my standards", Dick wrote of these stories. "In my writing I even question the universe; I wonder out loud if it is real, and I wonder out loud if all of us are real. " Dick referred to himself as a "fictionalizing philosopher. " In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines. Although Dick spent most of his career as a writer in near-poverty, nine of his stories have been adapted into popular films since his death, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly and Minority Report. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the one hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series.

Philip Dick's Books:

Tags: albert bushnell hart with blanche hazard edouard charton adalbert stifter herman melville ernest glanville william walker atkinson e havell frederick martens

George Cochrane Hazelton

George Cochrane Hazelton, actor and playwright, was born January 20, 1868. He performed as an actor with Lawrence Barrett, Edwin Booth, and Madame Modjeska. His first attempt as a playwright was The Raven: The Love Story of Edgar Allan Poe, which was later made into a film. His next play, Mistress Nell, was written in 1900 and was a great success. His most well-known play was The Yellow Jacket, which he co-authored in 1912 with Benrimo.

George Hazelton's Books:

[Mistress Nell]

Tags: johann david wyss goldwin smith arnold henry savage landor enrico castelnuovo gustav meyrink edmondo de amicis d belisle elizabeth beverley edward young friedrich bente

Monday, November 3, 2008

Addams Stratton Mcallister

Addams Stratton McAllister, Ph.D. (24 February 1875, Covington, Va., USA - 26 November 1946, Clifton Forge, Va. ) was an American electrical engineer and editor. He was educated at Pennsylvania State College (B.S. 1898; E.E., 1900) and at Cornell (M.M.E., 1901; Ph.D., 1905). He was employed by the Berwind-White Coal Mining Company in 1898 and by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in 1899. He was associate editor (1905-12) and thereafter editor of the Electrical World.

A Mcallister's Books:

[A Dissertation On The Medical Properties And Injurious | A Dissertation On The Medical Properties And Injurious Effects Of The Habitual Use Of Tobacco]

Wilhelm Raabe

Wilhelm Raabe (September 8, 1831 - November 15, 1910), German novelist, whose early works were published under the pseudonym of Jakob Corvinus, was born at Eschershausen (then in the Duchy of Brunswick, now in the Holzminden District). He served apprenticeship at a bookseller's in Magdeburg for four years (18491854); but tiring of the routine of business, studied philosophy at Berlin (18551857). While a student at that university he published his first work, Die Chronik der Sperlingsgasse (1857), which at once attained to great popularity. Raabe next returned to Wolfenbttel, and then lived (18621870) in Stuttgart, where he devoted himself entirely to authorship and wrote a number of novels and short stories; notably Unseres Herrgotts Kanzlei (1862); Der Hungerpastor (1864); Abu Telfan (1867) and Der Schdderump (1870). In 1870 Raabe removed to Brunswick and published the narratives Horacker (1876); Das Odfeld (1889); Stopfkuchen (1891) perhaps his masterpiece, Kloster Lugau (1894) and numerous other stories. The distinguishing characteristic of Raabe's work is a genial humour reminiscent of Dickens; but often combined with realistic pessimism. His works, many of which double as fairy tales, have a recurrent theme of homecoming to the place of birth. Raabe's 40th anniversary as a writer in 1894 was a matter of national celebration. The critical edition of Raabe's complete works was published as Smtliche Werke (Braunschweiger Ausgabe) Im Auftrage der Braunschweigischen Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft hrsg. von Karl Hoppe, beginning in 1965.

Wilhelm Raabe's Books:

[Deutscher Mondschein | German Moonlight | La Nigra Galero]

Kelly Link

Kelly Link is an American editor and author of short stories. While some of her fiction falls more clearly within genre categories, many of her stories might be described as slipstream or magic realism: a combination of science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, and realism. Among other honors, she has won a Hugo award, three Nebula awards, and a World Fantasy Award for her fiction. Link is a graduate of Columbia University in New York and the MFA program of UNC Greensboro. In 1995, she attended the Clarion East Writing Workshop. Link and husband Gavin Grant manage Small Beer Press, based in Northampton, Massachusetts. They also co-edit St. Martin's Press's Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthology series with Ellen Datlow. (The couple inherited the "fantasy" side from Terri Windling in 2004. ) Link was also the slush reader for Sci Fiction, edited by Datlow. Link taught at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, North Carolina, with the Visiting Writers Series for spring semester 2006. She has taught or visited at a number of schools and workshops including Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, New Jersey; the Imagination Workshop at Cleveland State University; New England Institute of Art & Communications, Brookline, Massachusetts; Clarion East at Michigan State University; and Clarion West in Seattle, Washington. She has participated in the Juniper Summer Writing Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst's MFA Program for Poets & Writers. Link currently teaches a course on Short Story Writing to undergraduates at Smith College, near her home in Northampton.

Kelly Link's Books:

[Magic For Beginners | Stranger Things Happen]

Tags: fyodor dostoevsky edward george bulwer lytton a quiller couch cesrio verde william lyon arthur thomas quiller couch horatio edward norfolk francis lathom

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Albert Bushnell Hart With Mabel Hill

Albert Bushnell Hart, Ph.D. (July 1, 1854-July 16, 1943), was an American historian, writer, and teacher. One of the first generation of professionally trained historians in the United States, a prolific author and editor of historical works, Albert Bushnell Hart became, as Samuel Eliot Morison described him, "The Grand Old Man" of American history, looking the part with his "patriarchal full beard and flowing moustaches."