Last reviewed: June 2017 Poet Born: April 11, 1934 Birthplace: Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada Died: November 29, 2014 Place of death: New York, New York Biography Mark Strand began life on remote Prince Edward Island, Canada, and when he was four, he moved with his parents to the United States. Eventually he landed in Yellow Springs, […]

English biographer Author Works Nonfiction: Landmarks in French Literature, 1912 Eminent Victorians, 1918 Queen Victoria, 1921 Books and Characters, French and English, 1922 Elizabeth and Essex, 1928 Portraits in Miniature, 1931 Characters and Commentaries, 1933 Biography The new movement in biography as a literary form began in England with Giles Lytton Strachey (STRAY-chee) as World […]

Last reviewed: June 2018 American novelist Born: June 14, 1811 Birthplace: Litchfield, Connecticut Died: July 1, 1896 Place of death: Hartford, Connecticut Biography Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe presented two regional backgrounds in her fiction: the South before the Civil War and the rural area of New England and Maine. Her novels of the antebellum South were less […]

Australian novelist and poet Author Works Long Fiction: A Haunted Land, 1956 The Bystander, 1957 To the Islands, 1958 Tourmaline, 1963 The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea, 1965 Visitants, 1979 The Girl Green as Elderflower, 1980 The Suburbs of Hell, 1984 Poetry: Act One, 1957 Outrider: Poems, 1956-1962, 1962 A Counterfeit Silence: Selected Poems, 1969 Drama: […]

American novelist Biography Rex Todhunter Stout, perhaps the most prolific of American mystery authors, was born in Noblesville, Indiana, on December 1, 1886. The son of John Wallace Stout and Lucetta Todhunter Stout, he descended from five generations of Quakers and had an impressive legacy of ancestors, including Mary Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s sister, and Joshua […]

Last reviewed: June 2018 German novelist and poet. Born: September 14, 1817 Birthplace: Husum, Schleswig (now in Germany) Died: July 4, 1888 Place of death: Hademarschen, Holstein, Germany Biography Hans Theodor Woldsen Storm (shtawrm) was one of Germany’s greatest writers of the Age of Realism. In addition to his well-constructed novellas, he also produced highly regarded lyric […]

English playwright and novelist Biography David Malcolm Storey is renowned as both a novelist and a playwright. His works are awaited in Great Britain as major statements on his times by a writer whom many consider to be the best of his generation. Born the third son of a coal miner, Storey was reared on […]

English playwright and screenwriter Biography Catapulted to fame in 1967 with the National Theatre’s production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (it was first produced in Edinburgh), Tom Stoppard (STOP-ahrd) emerged as a leading dramatist in the second of the two waves of new drama that arrived on the London stage in the mid-1950’s and […]

American novelist Author Works Long Fiction: State Fair, 1932 Stranger’s Return, 1933 Village Tale, 1934 Week-end, 1935 Farmer in the Dell, 1935 Buckskin Breeches, 1937 The Long Lane, 1939 The Iron Mountain, 1942 Our Destiny, 1942 Jessamy John, 1947 Return in August, 1953 Nonfiction: Horses and Americans, 1939 Hawkeyes, 1940 If School Keeps, 1940 (autobiography) […]

American novelist and short-story writer Biography Robert Anthony Stone is one of the most important novelists of his generation. The son of C. Homer Stone and his wife, Gladys Catherine Grant, Stone was reared almost entirely by his mother in rather economically difficult circumstances. Because of his mother’s emotional problems, Stone spent a number of […]

American novelist Biography Irving Stone was born July 14, 1903, in San Francisco, California, son of Charles Tennenbaum and Pauline Rosenberg Tennenbaum Stone. He legalized the surname of his stepfather. Educated at the University of California at Berkeley, Stone received his B.A. in 1923, taught economics at the University of Southern California from 1923 to […]

Last reviewed: June 2018 Irish novelist Born: November 8, 1847 Birthplace: Dublin, Ireland Died: April 20, 1912 Place of death: London, England Biography Abraham “Bram” Stoker, famous for his sensational novel, Dracula, was a sickly child, so weak that he was unable to stand up unaided until the age of seven. He outgrew his childhood weakness, however, […]

American short-story writer and novelist Author Works Short Fiction: The Floating Prince, and Other Fairy Tales, 1881 Ting-a-Ling Tales, 1882 The Lady, or the Tiger?, and Other Stories, 1884 A Christmas Wreck, and Other Stories, 1886 Amos Kilbright: His Adscititious Experiences, with Other Stories, 1888 The Stories of the Three Burglars, 1889 The Rudder Grangers […]

American poet, novelist, and short-story writer Author Works Long Fiction: River of Earth, 1940, 1968, 1978 Sporty Creek, 1977 Short Fiction: On Troublesome Creek, 1941 The Wolfpen Rusties: Appalachian Riddles and Gee-Haw Whimmy-Diddles, 1975 Pattern of a Man, 1976 The Run for the Elbertas, 1983 Poetry: Hounds on the Mountain, 1937 River of Earth, 1983 […]

Last reviewed: June 2018 Austrian novelist Born: October 23, 1805 Birthplace: Oberplan, Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Horní Planá, Czech Republic) Died: January 28, 1868 Place of death: Linz, Austria Biography The literary fortunes of Adalbert Stifter have risen and fallen several times in the German-speaking world, but in the United States he has remained nearly unknown outside […]

Last reviewed: June 2018 Scottish novelist, short-story writer, poet, and essayist Born: November 13, 1850 Birthplace: Edinburgh, Scotland Died: December 3, 1894 Place of death: Vailima, near Apia, Samoa Biography Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson, born in Edinburgh in 1850, achieved fame because of his romantic life nearly as much as because of his romantic fiction. His life […]

American poet Biography Wallace Stevens’s life has been called a “double life,” split between the seemingly antithetical professions of poet and insurance lawyer. However, as critic Frank Kermode notes, “Stevens did not find that he must choose between the careers of insurance lawyer and poet. The fork in the road where he took the wrong […]

American short-story writer and novelist Author Works Short Fiction: Paul Bunyan, 1925 Homer in the Sagebrush, 1928 The Saginaw Paul Bunyan, 1932 Paul Bunyan’s Bears, 1947 Long Fiction: Brawny-man, 1926 Mattock, 1927 Big Jim Turner, 1948 Nonfiction: Green Power: The Story of Public Law 273, 1958 Biography James Floyd Stevens, born in Monroe County, Iowa, […]

Last reviewed: June 2018 Irish novelist, essayist, and Anglican clergyman. Born: November 24, 1713 Place of birth: Clonmel, Ireland Died: March 18, 1768 Place of death: London, England Biography Laurence Sterne was born in Clonmel, Ireland, on November 24, 1713, the son of an Irishwoman and an ensign in the English army whose regiment had just been […]

American novelist and short-story writer Author Works Long Fiction: Golk, 1960 Europe: Or, Up and Down with Schreiber and Baggish, 1961 In Any Case, 1962 (also known as The Chaleur Network, 1981) Stitch, 1965 Other Men’s Daughters, 1973 Natural Shocks, 1978 A Father’s Words, 1986 Pacific Tremors, 2001 Short Fiction: Teeth, Dying, and Other Matters, […]

Irish poet, novelist, and short-story writer Author Works Poetry: Insurrections, 1909 The Lonely God, and Other Poems, 1909 The Hill of Vision, 1912 The Rocky Road to Dublin, 1915 Songs from the Clay, 1915 Green Branches, 1916 Reincarnations, 1918 Collected Poems, 1926, revised 1954 The Outcast, 1929 Theme and Variations, 1930 Strict Joy, 1931 Long […]

Last reviewed: June 2018 French novelist, historian, and critic Born: January 23, 1783 Birthplace: Grenoble, France Died: March 23, 1842 Place of death: Paris, France Biography Stendhal (stehn-dahl), the most “unromantic” figure of France’s Romantic period (1830-1848), ranks with Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert, and Émile Zola as one of the greatest French novelists of […]

American critic and philosopher Identity: Jewish Author Works Nonfiction: Tolstoy or Dostoevsky: An Essay in the Old Criticism, 1959 The Death of Tragedy, 1960 Language and Silence: Essays on Language, Literature, and the Inhuman, 1967 Extraterritorial: Papers on Literature and the Language Revolution, 1971 In Bluebeard’s Castle: Some Notes Toward the Redefinition of Culture, 1971 […]

American critic Author Works Nonfiction: Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, 1983 Marilyn: Norma Jean, 1986 Revolution from Within, 1992 Moving Beyond Words, 1994 Biography Gloria Steinem, founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus, is one of the leading spokespersons for the feminist movement in the United States, and her witty, cogent, and vivid writing style […]

Last reviewed: June 2017 American author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born: February 27, 1902 Birthplace: Salinas, California Died: December 20, 1968 Place of death: New York, New York Biography Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1962, John Ernst Steinbeck secured his place in American literature largely on the basis of his […]

Last reviewed: June 2017 Expatriate American novelist, dramatist, poet, and nonfiction writer Born: February 3, 1874 Birthplace: Allegheny (now in Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania Died: July 27, 1946 Place of death: Neuilly-sur-Seine, France Biography Gertrude Stein, who studied psychology under William James (1842–1910) at Harvard University and went to medical school at the Johns Hopkins University, became one of […]

American novelist, short-story writer, essayist, historian, and biographer Author Works Long Fiction: Remembering Laughter, 1937 The Potter’s House, 1938 On a Darkling Plain, 1940 Fire and Ice, 1941 The Big Rock Candy Mountain, 1943 Second Growth, 1947 The Preacher and the Slave, 1950 A Shooting Star, 1961 All the Little Live Things, 1967 Angle of […]

American journalist Biography Joseph Lincoln Steffens, the most notable of the early twentieth century muckrakers and one of the most important journalists of his time, was born in San Francisco on April 6, 1866. The son of Joseph Steffens, a prominent businessman, and his wife, English-born Elizabeth Symes, he grew up in Sacramento, where the […]

American sociologist Identity: African American Author Works Nonfiction: The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America, 1990 A Dream Deferred: The Second Betrayal of Black Freedom in America, 1998 Biography Shelby Steele’s first book, The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America, which contained several of his […]

British playwright and essayist Author Works Drama: The Funeral: Or, Grief-à-la-Mode, pr. 1701 The Lying Lover: Or, The Ladies’ Friendship, pr. 1703 (adaptation of Pierre Corneille’s play Le Menteur) The Tender Husband: Or, The Accomplished Fools, pr., pb. 1705 (adaptation of Molière’s play Le Sicilien) The Conscious Lovers, pr. 1722 (adaptation of Terence’s play Andria) […]

Australian novelist and short-story writer Biography Until the 1960’s, Christina Stead was either unmentioned in Australian literary histories or briefly alluded to as an expatriate writer who had inexplicably attracted the attention of British and American readers and critics. Her work had never been published in her own country. By 1990, however, she was regarded […]

Roman poet Author Works Poetry: Thebais, c. 90 (Thebaid, 1767) Silvae, c. 91-95 (English translation, 1908) Achilleid, c. 95-96 (English translation, 1660) Biography Publius Papinius Statius (STAY-shuhs) was a poet of the court of the Emperor Domitian (81-96) and wrote adulatory poetry for that ruler, who had no taste for verse. Statius’s father had been […]

English novelist and philosopher Biography Born into a moderately wealthy family, William Olaf Stapledon had sufficient private income to free him from any pressing need to work for a living, and he elected to become a philosopher. He never held a university post, although he did a good deal of teaching for the Workers Educational […]

American political reformer and journalist Author Works Nonfiction: The Woman’s Bible, 1895 (volume 1), 1898 (volume 2) Eighty Years and More, 1898 The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, 1997-2000 (2 volumes; Ann D. Gordon, editor) Edited Text: History of Woman Suffrage, 1881-1922 (6 volumes; with Susan B. Anthony and Matilda […]

American playwright and screenwriter Author Works Drama: What Price Glory?, pr. 1924 (with Maxwell Anderson) First Flight, pr. 1925 (with Anderson) The Buccaneer, pr. 1925 (with Anderson) Three American Plays, pb. 1926 (includes previous 3 titles) Deep River, pr. 1926 (libretto and lyrics, music by W. F. Harling) Rainbow, pr. 1928 (with Oscar Hammerstein II) […]

American poet Author Works Nonfiction: Down in My Heart, 1947, 2d edition 1985 Friends to This Ground: A Statement for Readers, Teachers, and Writers of Literature, 1967 Leftovers, A Care Package: Two Lectures, 1973 Writing the Australian Crawl: Views on the Writer’s Vocation, 1978 You Must Revise Your Life, 1986 Writing the World, 1988 Edited […]

American short-story writer and novelist Author Works Short Fiction: Children Are Bored on Sunday, 1953 Bad Characters, 1964 Selected Stories of Jean Stafford, 1966 The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford, 1969 Long Fiction: Boston Adventure, 1944 The Mountain Lion, 1947 The Catherine Wheel, 1952 A Winter’s Tale, 1954 Nonfiction: A Mother in History, 1966 Children’s/Young […]

French critic and novelist Author Works Nonfiction: Essai sur les fictions, 1795 (Essay on Fiction, 1795) De l’influence des passions sur le bonheur des individus et des nations, 1796 (A Treatise on the Influence of the Passions upon the Happiness of Individuals and Nations, 1798) De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports avec les institutions […]

American anthropologist Author Works Nonfiction: All Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Black Community, 1974 Call to Home: African Americans Reclaim the Rural South, 1996 Edited Text: Holding on to the Land and the Lord: Kinship, Ritual, Land Tenure, and Social Policy in the Rural South, 1982 (with Robert Hall) Biography Carol B. Stack […]

Last reviewed: June 2018 Swiss novelist, poet, and Nobel laureate. Born: April 24, 1845 Place of birth: Liestal, Switzerland Died: December 29, 1924 Place of death: Lucerne, Switzerland Biography Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler was born on April 24, 1845, in Liestal, Switzerland, near Basel. When he was four years old, his family moved to Bern, his father […]

Dutch philosopher Identity: Jewish Author Works Nonfiction: Renati des Cartes principia philosophiae, 1663 (Principles of Descartes’ Philosophy, 1905) Tractatus theologico-politicus, 1670 (A Theologico-Political Treatise, 1862) Opera posthuma, 1677 Ethica, 1677 (Ethics, 1870) Tractatus politicus, 1677 (A Political Treatise, 1883) De intellectus emendatione, 1677 (On the Improvement of the Understanding, 1884) Epistolae doctorum quorundam virorum ad […]

American novelist and short-story writer Biography Mickey Spillane (spuh-LAYN) is one of the best-selling detective fiction writers in the history of world literature. He was once listed as the author of seven of the ten best-sellers in the United States. He was born Frank Morrison Spillane in Brooklyn, the only child of an Irish Catholic […]

Last reviewed: June 2018 American poet Born: January 30, 1925 Birthplace: Los Angeles, California Died: August 17, 1965 Place of death: San Francisco, California Biography California poet Jack Spicer attended the University of Redlands from 1943 to 1944, transferring to the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned his BA in 1947. His first poems appeared […]

English poet Author Works Poetry: The Shepheardes Calender, 1579 The Faerie Queene, 1590, 1596 Complaints, 1591 Daphnaïda, 1591 Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, 1595 Astrophel, 1595 Amoretti, 1595 Epithalamion, 1595 Fowre Hymnes, 1596 Prothalamion, 1596 The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, 1912 (J. C. Smith and Ernest de Selincourt, editors) Nonfiction: Three Proper, and Wittie, […]

English poet, critic, and essayist Biography Stephen Harold Spender, one of the best lyrical poets and most ardent political writers of the 1930’s, later became an important literary critic, essayist, and journalist. He was born in London on February 28, 1909, the second of four children. Because both of his parents, Edward Harold Spender and […]

American novelist and short-story writer Author Works Long Fiction: Fire in the Morning, 1948 This Crooked Way, 1952 The Voice at the Back Door, 1956 The Light in the Piazza, 1960 Knights and Dragons, 1965 No Place for an Angel, 1967 The Snare, 1972 The Salt Line, 1984 The Night Travellers, 1991 Short Fiction: Ship […]

Scottish novelist, short-story writer, and biographer Biography Muriel Spark is one of the most critically acclaimed of contemporary novelists. Born Muriel Sarah Camberg, Spark was educated at James Gillespie’s School for Girls (which appears fictionally as the Marcia Blaine School in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) and wrote poetry from the age of nine. […]

Last reviewed: June 2017 Nigerian playwright, poet, and activist Born: July 13, 1934 Birthplace: Abeokuta, Nigeria Biography One of Africa’s most important writers, Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka (shoy-IHNG-kuh) became the first African to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1986. His extraordinary work exemplifies his vision as a Yoruba, an African, and a world citizen. His […]

English poet Identity: Catholic Author Works Poetry: Saint Peter’s Complaint, with Other Poems, 1595 Moeoniae, 1595 A Foure-Fould Meditation of the Foure Last Things, 1605 The Complete Poems of Robert Southwell, 1872 (Alexander B. Grosart, editor) The Poems of Robert Southwell, 1967 (James H. McDonald and Nancy Pollard Brown, editors) Nonfiction: A Hundred Meditations on […]

Last reviewed: June 2018 English poet Born: August 12, 1774 Birthplace: Bristol, England Died: March 21, 1843 Place of death: Greta Hall, Keswick, England Biography One of the hardiest of English poet laureates, Robert Southey held that post for the last thirty years of his life, from 1813 to 1843. During that time he also held a […]

Last reviewed: June 2017 American poet, children’s and young-adult author, and professor Born: April 12, 1952 Birthplace: Fresno, California Biography Gary Soto, who has been called one of the finest natural talents among Mexican American writers, was born on April 12, 1952, to Manuel and Angie (Trevino) Soto. Although his parents were born in the United States, […]

American novelist and poet Biography Gilbert Sorrentino (saw-rehn-TEE-noh) was a central figure in the literary avant-garde of the 1960’s and 1970’s, which was centered in New York but had artistic ties to other communities in the United States. His work displays fictional devices and techniques that are now associated with postmodernism. The child of a […]

Last reviewed: June 2018 Greek playwright and poet Born: ca. 496 b.c.e. Birthplace: Colonus, near Athens, Greece Died: ca. 406 b.c.e. Place of death: Athens, Greece Biography Few facts about Sophocles (SAHF-uh-kleez) are known. He was born about 496 b.c.e. at Colonus in Attica, near Athens, and his father, Sophillus, was said by tradition to have been […]

Last reviewed: June 2017 American author and critic Born: January 16, 1933 Birthplace: New York, New York Died: December 28, 2004 Place of death: New York, New York Biography Although Susan Sontag wrote novels and short fiction and considered herself a creative writer, her work as a critic is what established her as one of the most […]

American poet Identity: Korean American Author Works Poetry: Picture Bride, 1983 Frameless Windows, Squares of Light, 1988 School Figures, 1994 The Land of Bliss, 2001 Edited Text: Sister Stew: Fiction and Poetry by Women, 1991 (with Juliet S. Kono) Biography A chronological examination of the poems of Cathy Song’s books would result, among other things, […]

American memoirist Identity: Japanese American Author Works Nonfiction: Nisei Daughter, 1953 Biography Monica Sone is primarily known for her autobiography, Nisei Daughter, an account of her years of growing up in the waterfront area of Seattle. The Japanese word nisei means second generation, and Sone’s autobiography thus reflects the experiences of a second-generation Japanese American.{$I[AN]9810001644}{$I[A]Sone, […]

American composer and lyricist Author Works Drama: West Side Story, pr. 1957 (lyrics; music by Leonard Bernstein; book by Arthur Laurents) Gypsy, pr. 1959 (lyrics; music by Jule Styne; book by Laurents) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, pr., pb. 1962 (lyrics and music; book by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove) […]

Russian novelist, playwright, and poet Author Works Long Fiction: Odin den’ Ivana Denisovicha, 1962 (novella; One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, 1963) Rakovy korpus, 1968 (Cancer Ward, 1968) V kruge pervom, 1968 (The First Circle, 1968) Avgust chetyrnadtsatogo, 1971 (August 1914, 1972) Lenin v Tsyurikhe, 1975 (Lenin in Zurich, 1976) Krasnoe koleso, 1983-1991 […]

Russian novelist Author Works Long Fiction: Shkola dlia durakov, 1976 (A School for Fools, 1977) Mezhdu sobakoi i volkom, 1980 Palisandriia, 1984 (Astrophobia, 1989) Biography Sasha Aleksandr Vsevolodovich Sokolov (SUH-kohl-uhv) was the most critically acclaimed writer to appear on the Russian literary scene during the 1970’s and 1980’s. He was born in Ottawa, Canada, where […]

Greek philosopher Biography Socrates (SAHK-ruh-teez) did not make a written record of his teachings. What is known of his philosophy comes from the Dialogues of Plato, in which Socrates is the central figure.{$I[AN]9810001574}{$I[A]Socrates}{$I[geo]GREECE;Socrates}{$I[tim]0470 b.c.e.;Socrates} Socrates (Library of Congress) What is known of Socrates, the great Greek philosopher, comes primarily from two of his pupils, Xenophon […]

Last reviewed: June 2018 American poet Born: May 8, 1930 Birthplace: San Francisco, California Biography Poet, translator, essayist, and educator Gary Sherman Snyder grew up in the state of Washington and later moved to Portland, Oregon, where he gained an appreciation for the wilderness and mountain trails that became interests dominating his future writings. In 1947 he […]

English novelist and critic Author Works Long Fiction: Death Under Sail, 1932, 1959 New Lives for Old, 1933 The Search, 1934, 1958 Strangers and Brothers, 1940-1970 (collective title for the following 11 novels) Strangers and Brothers, 1940 (reissued as George Passant, 1972) The Light and the Dark, 1947 Time of Hope, 1949 The Masters, 1951 […]

Icelandic historian Author Works Nonfiction: Snorra Edda, c. 1220-1230 (The Prose Edda, partial translations 1916, 1954; full translation 1987) Heimskringla, c. 1230-1235 (English translation, 1844) Biography Scion of a family of powerful Icelandic chiefs, Snorri Sturluson (SNAWR-ee STUR-luh-suhn) was Iceland’s most widely influential medieval writer, an adviser to and historian of the Norse kings, and […]

American poet Author Works Poetry: Heart’s Needle, 1959 After Experience: Poems and Translations, 1968 Remains: Poems, 1970 (as S. S. Gardons), revised 1985 (as Snodgrass) The Führer Bunker: A Cycle of Poems in Progress, 1977 If Birds Build with Your Hair, 1979 The Boy Made of Meat, 1983 Magda Goebbels, 1983 D. D. Byrde Callyng […]

Last reviewed: June 2018 Scottish novelist Born: March 19, 1721 (baptized) Birthplace: Dalquhurn (now Renton), Scotland Died: September 17, 1771 Place of death: Livorno, Tuscany (now in Italy) Biography Tobias Smollett, born in 1721 at Dalquhurn near Bonhill, Scotland, was the most prolific and venturesome of the eighteenth century’s novelists. After 1754, the year Henry Fielding died […]

English poet and novelist Author Works Poetry: A Good Time Was Had by All, 1937 Tender Only to One, 1938 Mother, What Is Man?, 1942 Harold’s Leap, 1950 Not Waving but Drowning, 1957 Selected Poems, 1962 The Frog Prince, and Other Poems, 1966 The Best Beast, 1969 Two in One: Selected Poems and The Frog […]

American novelist Author Works Long Fiction: The Indians Won, 1970 Gypsy in Amber, 1971 The Analog Bullet, 1972 Canto for a Gypsy, 1972 The Inca Death Squad, 1972 Code Name: Werewolf, 1973 The Devil’s Dozen, 1973 The Devil in Kansas, 1974 His Eminence, Death, 1974 The Last Time I Saw Hell, 1974 Nuplex Red, 1974 […]

American novelist and physiologist Author Works Long Fiction: Kamongo, 1932 (revised paperback edition 1956) The End of Illusion, 1935 Nonfiction: The Kidney: Structure and Function in Health and Disease, 1951 Man and His Gods, 1952 (with foreword by Albert Einstein) From Fish to Philosopher, 1953 Principles of Renal Physiology, 1956 Biography For thirty-four years Homer […]

American poet Author Works Poetry: Bull Island, 1970 Mean Rufus Throw Down, 1973 The Fisherman’s Whore, 1974 Drunks, 1975 Cumberland Station, 1976 In Dark, Sudden with Light, 1977 Goshawk, Antelope, 1979 Blue Spruce, 1981 Dream Flights, 1981 Homage to Edgar Allan Poe, 1981 In the House of the Judge, 1983 Gray Soldiers, 1983 The Roundhouse […]

American novelist Biography Betty Smith was born in Brooklyn and went to college in Michigan. Enrolled as a part-time student at the University of Michigan, she studied writing, particularly playwriting, almost exclusively. In 1930 she published two short plays in a volume written by drama students at Michigan, and in 1931 she won the first […]

Scottish economist Author Works Nonfiction: The Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776 (commonly known as The Wealth of Nations) Essays on Philosophical Subjects, 1795 Biography Adam Smith studied at the University of Glasgow, where he came under the influence of the famous professor […]

American novelist Author Works Long Fiction: Barn Blind, 1980 At Paradise Gate, 1981 Duplicate Keys, 1984 The Greenlanders, 1988 A Thousand Acres, 1991 Moo, 1995 The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton, 1998 Horse Heaven, 2000 Good Faith, 2003 Short Fiction: The Age of Grief: A Novella and Stories, 1987 “Ordinary Love” and “Good […]

American journalist and biographer Author Works Nonfiction: Chinese Destinies: Sketches of Present-Day China, 1933 (journalism) China’s Red Army Marches, 1934 (journalism) China Fights Back: An American Woman with the Eighth Route Army, 1938 (journalism) Battle Hymn of China, 1943 (journalism) The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh, 1956 (biography) Long Fiction: Daughter […]

English poet Author Works Poetry: On the Eternity of the Supreme Being, 1750 On the Immensity of the Supreme Being, 1751 On the Omniscience of the Supreme Being, 1752 Poems on Several Occasions, 1752 The Hilliad, 1753 On the Power of the Supreme Being, 1754 On the Goodness of the Supreme Being, 1755 Hymn to […]

American novelist, poet, and translator Author Works Long Fiction: Rochelle: Or, Virtue Rewarded, 1966 The Exhibitionist, 1967 (as Henry Sutton) Feel Free, 1968 The Voyeur, 1969 (as Sutton) Anagrams, 1970 Vector, 1971 (as Sutton) A B C D, 1972 The Liberated, 1973 (as Sutton) The Outer Mongolian, 1973 The Killing of the King, 1974 King […]

Czech novelist Author Works Long Fiction: Zbabělci, 1958 (The Cowards, 1970) Legenda Emöke, 1963 (Emöke, 1977) Bassaxofon, 1967 (The Bass Saxophone, 1977) Konec nylonoveho véku, 1967 Farářův konec, 1969 (with Evald Schorm) Lvíče, 1969 (Miss Silver’s Past, 1974) Tankový prapor, 1969 (The Republic of Whores: A Fragment from the Time of the Cults, 1993) Mirákl: […]

American psychologist Author Works Nonfiction: The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis, 1938 Science and Human Behavior, 1953 Verbal Behavior, 1957 Schedules of Reinforcement, 1957 (with Charles. B. Ferster) Cumulative Record, 1959, enlarged 1961, 3d edition 1972 The Analysis of Behavior, 1961 (with James G. Holland) The Technology of Teaching, 1968 Contingencies of Reinforcement: A […]

English poet Author Works Poetry: The Bowge of Court, 1499 Phyllyp Sparowe, c. 1508 Ware the Hawk, c. 1508 The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng, 1508 Speke, Parrot, 1521 Collyn Clout, 1522 Why Come Ye Nat to Courte, 1522 The Garlande of Laurell, 1523 Pithy, Pleasaunt, and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate, 1568 The […]

English poet Biography Edith Sitwell, one of the twentieth century’s foremost poets and a flamboyant exponent of experimentation in verse, was the oldest child of Sir George Sitwell, fourth baronet of Renishaw Park, the family seat for six hundred years. Much of the extravagant personality of Edith and her brothers, Osbert and Sacheverell, is readily […]

Russian novelist Biography Andrei Donatovich Sinyavsky (sihn-YOV-skee) was the godfather of the post-Stalin renaissance in Russian literature. Born on October 8, 1925, into the family of an ineffectual radical idealist, Sinyavsky was reared as a true believer in the Communist system. Although well-educated, his parents held menial white-collar jobs. In his late teens Sinyavsky served […]

American novelist and short-story writer Author Works Long Fiction: Katy Gaumer, 1915 Basil Everman, 1920 Ellen Levis, 1921 Bennett Malin, 1922 The Hidden Road, 1923 Keller’s Anna Ruth, 1926 What Everybody Wanted, 1928 The Magic Mirror, 1934 The Loving Heart, 1937 A High Wind Rising, 1942 I Speak for Thaddeus Stevens, 1947 I Heard of […]

Polish-born American novelist Identity: Jewish Long Fiction: Shtol un ayzh, 1927 (Blood Harvest, 1935; also known as Steel and Iron, 1969) Yoshe Kalb, 1932 (The Sinner, 1933) Di brider Ashkenazi, 1936 (The Brothers Ashkenazi, 1936) Khaver Nakhman, 1938 (East of Eden, 1939) Di mishpokha Karnovsky, 1943 (The Family Carnovsky, 1943) Short Fiction: Perl, un andere […]

Polish-born American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright Identity: Jewish Author Works Long Fiction: Der Sotn in Gorey, 1935 (Satan in Goray, 1955) Di Familye Mushkat, 1950 (The Family Moskat, 1950) Der Hoyf, 1953–1955 (The Manor, 1967, and The Estate, 1969) Shotns baym Hodson, 1957–1958 (Shadows on the Hudson, 1998) Der Kuntsnmakher fun Lublin, 1958–1959 (The […]

Last reviewed: June 2017 American novelist, dramatist, journalist, and essayist Born: September 20, 1878 Birthplace: Baltimore, Maryland Died: November 25, 1968 Place of death: Bound Brook, New Jersey Biography Born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 20, 1878, Upton Sinclair moved with his family to New York City in 1888 and began his career as a prodigy. He […]

English novelist Author Works Long Fiction: Audrey Craven, 1897 Two Sides of a Question, 1901 The Divine Fire, 1904 The Helpmate, 1907 The Creators, 1910 The Three Sisters, 1914 Tasker Jevons, 1916 (pb. in U.S. as The Belfry, 1914) The Tree of Heaven, 1917 Mary Olivier: A Life, 1919 Mr. Waddington of Wyck, 1921 Anne […]

American novelist Author Works Long Fiction: Anywhere but Here, 1986 The Lost Father, 1991 A Regular Guy, 1996 Off Keck Road, 2000 Short Fiction: “What My Mother Knew,” 1982 “Approximations,” 1983 “The Day He Left,” 1983 “Lawns,” 1984 “You Leave Them,” 1985 “Victory Mills,” 1989 “I Am Here to Tell You It Can Be Done,” […]

Jamaican-born American poet Biography Louis Aston Marantz Simpson was born in Jamaica, where his father was a lawyer. His parents were divorced when he was young, and his father remarried. When Simpson traveled to New York to attend Columbia University, he learned for the first time that his mother was Jewish–“and therefore, according to Jewish […]

American playwright and screenwriter Identity: Jewish Author Works Drama: Come Blow Your Horn, pr. 1960 Little Me, pr. 1962, revised pr. 1982 (music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Carol Leigh; adaptation of Patrick Dennis’s novel) Barefoot in the Park, pr. 1963 The Odd Couple, pr. 1965 Sweet Charity, pr., pb. 1966 (music and lyrics by […]

French novelist Biography One of the principal French writers of the New Novel, Claude-Eugène-Henri Simon (see-mohn) has combined the exploration of new modes of novelistic discourse with a trenchant view of the human condition to create a unique fictional universe. He was born in Tananarive, Madagascar (then a French possession), on October 10, 1913. He […]

Last reviewed: June 2018 American novelist and poet Born: April 17, 1806 Birthplace: Charleston, South Carolina Died: June 11, 1870 Place of death: Charleston, South Carolina Biography William Gilmore Simms was known in his lifetime as a novelist, short-story writer, poet, historian, and journalist; his reputation rests on his novels, though as an antebellum Southern writer who […]

American poet Author Works Poetry: What the Grass Says, 1967 Somewhere Among Us a Stone Is Taking Notes, 1969 Dismantling the Silence, 1971 White, 1972, revised 1980 Return to a Place Lit by a Glass of Milk, 1974 Biography and a Lament: Poems, 1961-1967, 1976 Charon’s Cosmology, 1977 Brooms: Selected Poems, 1978 Classic Ballroom Dances, […]

Belgian novelist and short-story writer Biography Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (see-muhn-awn), the master of the contemporary psychological novel, is perhaps best known for his detective stories featuring Inspector Maigret, but he also became internationally celebrated for his other novels, which–like the Maigret works–deal with guilt and innocence, flight and return, and the search for home.{$I[AN]9810000818}{$I[A]Simenon, […]

Italian novelist Biography Ignazio Silone (see-LOH-nay), who was born in the Appenine Mountains of the Abruzzi district, dropped his real name, Secondo Tranquilli, to save his family from Fascist persecution. Born the son of a small landowner, he became active in the labor movement as a young boy. In 1917, as secretary for the land […]

English novelist, playwright, and poet Biography Alan Sillitoe (SIHL-ih-toh) is one of England’s best writers of proletarian fiction and the spokesperson for the English working class of the 1950’s and 1960’s. He was born in Nottingham, England, the setting for much of his fiction. The son of Sylvia and Christopher Sillitoe, the latter a tannery […]

Finnish novelist Author Works Long Fiction: Elämä ja aurinko, 1916 Hurskas kurjuus, 1919 (Meek Heritage, 1938) Nuorena nukkunut, 1931 (The Maid Silja, 1933; also known as Fallen Asleep While Young, 1939) Miehen tie, 1932 Ihmiset suviyössä, 1934 (People in the Summer Night, 1966) Elokuu, 1941 Ihmiselon ihanuus ja kurjuus, 1945 Short Fiction: Ihmislapsia elämän saatossa, […]

American poet and novelist Identity: American Indian (Laguna and Plains) Author Works Poetry: Laguna Woman: Poems, 1974 Long Fiction: Ceremony, 1977 Almanac of the Dead, 1991 Gardens in the Dunes, 1999 Short Fiction: Yellow Woman, 1993 Drama: Lullaby, pr. 1976 (with Frank Chin) Nonfiction: The Delicacy and Strength of Lace: Letters Between Leslie Marmon Silko […]

Last reviewed: June 2018 Polish novelist Born: May 5, 1846 Birthplace: Wola Okrzejska, Poland Died: November 15, 1916 Place of death: Vevey, Switzerland Biography Poland’s greatest novelist was born on May 5, 1846, near Lukow, in Russian Poland, of a family that belonged to the country gentry. Educated by a tutor who shared his interest in history […]

English poet Author Works Poetry: The Poems of Robert Sidney, 1984 (P. J. Croft, editor) Biography Sir Robert Sidney was the fifth of six children born to Sir Henry Sidney, of whom only three survived. The children’s father was lord deputy of Ireland, and their uncle was Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, who may have […]

English poet Author Works Poetry: Astrophel and Stella, 1591 (pirated edition printed by Thomas Newman), 1598 (first authorized edition) Certaine Sonnets, 1598 The Psalmes of David, Translated into Divers and Sundry Kindes of Verse, 1823 (with Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke) The Complete Poems of Sir Philip Sidney, 1873 (2 volumes) The Poems of […]

American novelist Identity: Pakistani American Author Works Long Fiction: The Crow-Eaters, 1978 The Bride, 1983 Ice-Candy-Man, 1988 (pb. in U.S. as Cracking India) An American Brat, 1993 Biography Bapsi Sidhwa (SIH-dwuh) invented English-language fiction in Pakistan. Unlike India, from which Pakistan was carved, the country had no established literary tradition in English. Urdu was the […]