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Adgar
Allan Poe
Adgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), American
short story writer, poet and critic
was born in Boston, he was orphaned
in 1811, and spent most of his life
in poverty and ill health. He joined
the army in 1827 and was court-martial
led (1830) for deliberate neglect of
duty. He failed to earn a living by
writing, became an alcoholic, and in
1847 lost his wife (commemorated in
his poem Annabel Lee).
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His
fiction and poetry are Gothic
in style and characterized by
their exploration of the macabre,
the fantastic, and the grotesque.
His most famous short stories
include the Gothic romance “The
Fall of the House of Usher”
(1840) and “The Pit and the
Pendulum” (1843), while his
poem include “The Raven” (1845)
and “Annabel Lee” (1849). His
story “The Murders in the Rue
Morgue” (1841) is often regarded
as the first detective story
in English literature. His critical
writings include “The Poetic
Principle” (1850), which anticipated
many of the concerns of the
Aesthetic Movement (“art for
art’s sake”). |
Anton
Pavlovich Chekhov was born
in the small seaport of Taganrog, southern
Russia, the son of a grocer. Chekhov's
grandfather was a serf, who had bought
his own freedom & that of his three
sons in 1841. He also taught himself
to read & write. Yevgenia Morozov,
Chekhov's mother, was the daughter of
a cloth merchant.
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Aristophanes
began to write his comedies by the time,
democracy had already begun to sour
for the Athenians.The people were increasingly
demoralized by the ongoing conflicts
of the Peloponnesian War & the loss
of their greatest hero, Pericles, had
been taken from them & replaced
by unscrupulous politicians such as
Cleon & Hyperbolus. It is little
wonder, therefore, that Aristophanes
laughter is tinged.
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Arthur
Miller was born in Harlem,
New York City; the family moved shortly
afterwards to a six-storey building
at 45110th Street between Lenox and
Fifth Avenues. His father, Isidore Miller,
was an illiterate Jewish immigrant from
Poland. His succesfull ladies-wear manufacturer
and shopkeeper was ruined in the depression.
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More...
August Strindberg was born
in Stockholm. His father, Carl Oscar
Strindberg, proud of a trace of aristocratic
blood, was a shipping agent, but his
business success was relatively modest.
Strindberg's mother, Ulrika Eleanora
Norling, had a proletarian background.
She was a tailor's daughter, who had
been a domestic servant and become Carl
Oscar's mistress. Read
More...
August
Wilson was born on 1945
and grew up in the Hill district of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His childhood
experiences in this black slum community
would later inform his dramatic writings,
including his first produced play, Black
Bart and the Sacred Hills,
which was staged in 1981.
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Authol
Fugrad was Born in the
remote village of Middleburg, Cape Province,
and grew up in Port Elizabeth, the setting
for most of his plays. His full name
is Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard and as
a child he was known as Hally before
he decided he wanted to be called Athol.
His parents were English and Afrikaans,
with English as his mother tongue (he
describes himself as an Afrikaner writing
in English).
Read
More...
Charles
Dickens was born in Landport,
Hampshire, during the new industrial
age, which gave birth to theories of
Karl Marx. Dickens's father was a clerk
in the navy pay office. He was well
paid but often ended in financial troubles.
In 1814 Dickens moved to London, and
then to Chatham, where he received some
education. Read
More...
Daniel
Defoe was born as the son
of Alice and James Foe. His father was
a City tradesman and member of the Butchers’
Company. James Foe's stubborn puritanism
– the The Foes were Dissenters, Protestants
who did not belong to the Anglican Church
– occasionally comes through Defoe's
writing. He studied at Charles Morton's
Academy, London. Read
More...
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