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
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.
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]
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
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]
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.
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]
F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigmatic writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.[1] Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s. He finished four novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby (his most famous), and Tender Is the Night. Life and career[edit] Born in 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to an upper-middle-class family, Fitzgerald was named after his famous second cousin, three times removed, Francis Scott Key,[2] but was referred to by the familiar moniker Scott Fitzgerald. In 1908, his father was fired from Procter & Gamble, and the family returned to Minnesota, where Fitzgerald attended St. Fitzgerald's writing pursuits at Princeton came at the expense of his coursework. Zelda Fitzgerald[edit] "The Jazz Age"[edit] F.