The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald—inspired by the parties he had attended while visiting Long Island's north shore—began planning the novel in 1923, desiring to produce, in his words, "something new—something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned."[3] Progress was slow, with Fitzgerald completing his first draft following a move to the French Riviera in 1924. His editor, Maxwell Perkins, felt the book was too vague and convinced the author to revise over the next winter. Fitzgerald was ambivalent about the book's title, at various times wishing to re-title the novel Trimalchio in West Egg. First published by Scribner's in April 1925, The Great Gatsby received mixed reviews and sold poorly; in its first year, the book sold only 20,000 copies. Historical context[edit] Set on the prosperous Long Island of 1922, The Great Gatsby provides a critical social history of America during the Roaring Twenties within its narrative. Plot summary[edit] Major characters[edit] Cover art[edit]
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (/ˈbɛkɪt/; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life and wrote in both English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour. Beckett is widely regarded as among the most influential writers of the 20th century.[2] He is considered one of the last modernists. Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation".[3] He was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1984. Life and career[edit] Early life and education[edit] The Becketts were members of the Anglican Church of Ireland. Early writings[edit] Beckett studied French, Italian, and English at Trinity College, Dublin from 1923 to 1927 (one of his tutors was the eminent Berkeley scholar A. World War II[edit]
Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American author and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works. In 1921, he married Hadley Richardson, the first of his four wives. Shortly after the publication of The Old Man and the Sea (1952), Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in two successive plane crashes that left him in pain or ill health for much of his remaining life. Life Early life Hemingway was the second child and first son born to Clarence and Grace Hemingway. Hemingway's mother frequently performed in concerts around the village. World War I Hemingway in uniform in Milan, 1918. Toronto and Chicago Cuba
Franz Kafka Kafka was born into a middle-class, German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In his lifetime, most of the population of Prague spoke Czech, and the division between Czech- and German-speaking people was a tangible reality, as both groups were strengthening their national identity. The Jewish community often found itself in between the two sentiments, naturally raising questions about a place to which one belongs. Kafka himself was fluent in both languages, considering German his mother tongue. Kafka trained as a lawyer and after completing his legal education, obtained employment with an insurance company. Life[edit] Family[edit] Plaque marking the birthplace of Franz Kafka in Prague. The Kafka family had a servant girl living with them in a cramped apartment. Education[edit] Employment[edit] Former home of the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute. Private life[edit] Kafka had an active sex life. Miss FB.
On the Road On the Road is a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac. On the Road is based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across America. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagonists living life against a backdrop of jazz, poetry and drug use. The idea for On the Road formed during the late 1940s. It was to be Kerouac's second novel, and it underwent several drafts before he completed it in April 1951. Origins[edit] Many aspects go into understanding the context of On the Road, and they must be viewed cohesively in order to appreciate why the book was as relevant and pertinent as it was. Kerouac biography[edit] Kerouac was born in a French-Canadian neighborhood of Lowell, Massachusetts, and learned English at age six. Many of the events depicted in the book are the experiences that shaped both its content and production. The publication process was another adventure unto itself, which took a major psychological toll on Kerouac.
Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski;[1]:11–12 Berdichev, Imperial Russia, 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924, Bishopsbourne, Kent, England) was a Polish author who wrote in English after settling in England. He was granted British nationality in 1886, but always considered himself a Pole.[note 1] Conrad is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English,[2] though he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties (and always with a marked accent). He wrote stories and novels, often with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of an indifferent universe. He was a master prose stylist who brought a distinctly non-English[note 2] tragic sensibility into English literature.[3] While some of his works have a strain of romanticism, his works are viewed as modernist literature. Early life[edit] Nowy Świat 47, Warsaw, where three-year-old Conrad lived with his parents in 1861 Apollo did his best to home-school Conrad.
Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis "Jack" Kérouac (/ˈkɛruːæk/ or /ˈkɛrɵæk/; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation.[2] Kerouac is recognized for his method of spontaneous prose. Thematically, his work covers topics such as Catholic spirituality, jazz, promiscuity, Buddhism, drugs, poverty, and travel. Biography[edit] Early life and adolescence[edit] Jack Kerouac was born on 9 Lupine Road in the West Centralville section of Lowell Massachusetts, 2nd floor. Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, to French-Canadian parents, Léo-Alcide Kéroack and Gabrielle-Ange Lévesque, of St-Hubert-de-Rivière-du-Loup in the province of Quebec, Canada. His third of several homes growing up in the West Centralville section of Lowell, Jack Kerouac later referred to 34 Beaulieu Street as "sad Beaulieu". Early adulthood[edit] Early career: 1950–1957[edit]
William Faulkner Biography[edit] Faulkner was born William Cuthbert Falkner in New Albany, Mississippi, the first of four sons of Murry Cuthbert Falkner (August 17, 1870 – August 7, 1932) and Maud Butler (November 27, 1871 – October 19, 1960).[3] He had three younger brothers: Murry Charles "Jack" Falkner (June 26, 1899 – December 24, 1975), author John Falkner (September 24, 1901 – March 28, 1963) and Dean Swift Falkner (August 15, 1907 – November 10, 1935). Faulkner was born and raised in the state of Mississippi, which had a great influence on him, as did the history and culture of the American South altogether. Soon after Faulkner's first birthday, his family moved to Ripley, Mississippi from New Albany. His family, particularly his mother Maud, his maternal grandmother Lelia Butler, and Caroline Barr (the black woman who raised him from infancy) crucially influenced the development of Faulkner's artistic imagination. As a schoolchild, Faulkner had much success early on. Personal life[edit]
The Catcher in the Rye The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger.[3] Originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage angst and alienation.[4][5] It has been translated into almost all of the world's major languages.[6] Around 250,000 copies are sold each year with total sales of more than 65 million books.[7] The novel's protagonist, Holden Caulfield, has become an icon for teenage rebellion.[8] Plot summary[edit] Holden begins his story at Pencey Prep, an exclusive private school in (fictional) Agerstown, Pennsylvania, on the Saturday afternoon of the traditional football game with rival school Saxon Hall. Holden returns to his dorm, which is quiet because most of the students are still at the football game. He checks into the dilapidated Edmont Hotel. After a short sleep, Holden telephones Sally Hayes, a familiar date, and they agree to meet that afternoon to attend a play. History[edit] Writing style[edit] Interpretations[edit]
E. E. Cummings Edward Estlin Cummings (October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962), known as E. E. Cummings, with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in lowercase letters as e e cummings (in the style of some of his poems—see name and capitalization, below), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. Life[edit] i thank You God for most this amazing day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes From "i thank You God for most this amazing" (1950) Early years[edit] Edward Estlin Cummings was born into a Unitarian family, son of Edward Cummings and Rebecca Haswell Clarke. Cummings wanted to be a poet from childhood and wrote poetry daily aged eight to 22, exploring assorted forms. masthead from volume 56 of The Harvard Monthly; Cummings was an editor and contributor to this literary journal while at Harvard The war years[edit] From "Buffalo Bill's" (1920) Post-war years[edit] and
J. D. Salinger Jerome David Salinger (/ˈsælɪndʒər/; January 1, 1919 – January 27, 2010) was an American writer who won acclaim early in life. He led a very private life for more than a half-century. He published his final original work in 1965 and gave his last interview in 1980. Early life and experiences[edit] Jerome David Salinger was born in New York City, on New Year's Day, 1919. 1133 Park Avenue Salinger had trouble fitting in at his new school and took measures to conform, such as calling himself Jerry.[16] (His family called him Sonny.[17]) His parents then enrolled him at Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania.[10] Though he had written for the school newspaper at McBurney, Salinger began writing stories "under the covers [at night], with the aid of a flashlight".[18] Salinger was the literary editor of the class yearbook, Cross Sabres. Salinger started his freshman year at New York University in 1936. World War II[edit] Post-war years[edit] The Catcher in the Rye[edit]
James Joyce Joyce was born into a middle class family in Dublin, where he excelled as a student at the Jesuit schools Clongowes and Belvedere, then at University College Dublin. In his early twenties he emigrated permanently to continental Europe, living in Trieste, Paris and Zurich. Though most of his adult life was spent abroad, Joyce's fictional universe does not extend far beyond Dublin, and is populated largely by characters who closely resemble family members, enemies and friends from his time there; Ulysses in particular is set with precision in the streets and alleyways of the city. Shortly after the publication of Ulysses he elucidated this preoccupation somewhat, saying, "For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal Biography[edit] 1882–1904: Dublin[edit] Joyce's birth and baptismal certificate Joyce at age six, 1888 1904–20: Trieste and Zurich[edit]
Women (novel) Women focuses on the many dissatisfactions Chinaski faced with each new woman he encountered. One of the women featured in the book is a character named Lydia Vance; she is based on Bukowski's one-time girlfriend, the sculptress and sometime poet Linda King. Another central female character in the book is named "Tanya" who is described as a 'tiny girl-child' and Chinaski's pen-pal. They have a weekend tryst. The real-life counterpart to this character wrote a self-published chapbook about the affair entitled "Blowing My Hero" under the pseudonym Amber O'Neil.[1] The washed-up folksinger "Dinky Summers" is based on Bob Lind.[2] In the book, Chinaski's nickname is Hank, which was one of Bukowski's nicknames. Bukowski himself drew the picture of the girl on the cover of the book. The book was simultaneously published in Australia by Wild and Woolley, who bought a chunk of the first Black Sparrow Press print run. When asked his favorite author, Chinaski responds, "Fante." Women Quotes
Katherine Anne Porter Biography[edit] Katherine Anne Porter, born as Callie Russell Porter in Indian Creek, Texas,[3] was the fourth of five children of Harrison Boone Porter and Mary Alice (Jones) Porter. Her family tree can be traced back to American frontiersman Daniel Boone, and the writer O. Henry (whose real name was William Sydney Porter) was her father's second cousin.[4] In 1892, when Porter was two years old, Porter's mother died two months after giving birth to her last child. After her grandmother's death, the family lived in several towns in Texas and Louisiana, staying with relatives or living in rented rooms. In 1906, at age sixteen, Porter left home and married John Henry Koontz, in Lufkin, Texas the son of a wealthy Texas ranching family, and subsequently converted to Koontz's religion, Roman Catholicism.[5] Koontz was physically abusive; once while drunk, he threw her down the stairs, breaking her ankle. Awards and honors[edit] Works[edit] Short story collections[edit] Novel[edit] Notes[edit]
when there is no home to live writing becomes home by huckfinn Apr 12