“Catch-22” is a satirical novel by American author Joseph Heller, the son of poor Jewish parents. Heller wanted to be a writer from an early age. His experiences as a bombardier during World War II inspired Catch-22. While sitting at home one morning in 1953, Heller thought of the lines, "It was love at first sight. The first time he saw the chaplain, fell madly in love with him." Within the ne... Read More
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. Since Shaw's death scholarly and critical opinion has varied about his works, but he has regularly been rated as second only to Shakespeare among British dramatists; analysts recognise his extensive influe... Read More
Sir William Gerald Golding, a British novelist, playwright, and poet, won a Nobel Prize in Literature and was awarded the Booker Prize for fiction in 1980 for his novel Rites of Passage. But he is best known for his novel Lord of the Flies. In September 1953, after many rejections from other publishers, Golding sent a manuscript to Faber & Faber. Monteith asked for some changes to the text... Read More
An English writer and social critic Charles Dickens created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. A Tale of Two Cities has been cited as one of the best-selling novels of all time. It has been stated to have sold 200 million copies since its first publication, though this figure has been dismissed as "pure fict... Read More
Charles Dickens was the most popular novelist of his time and remains one of the best-known English authors. Dickens's literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers. His works have never gone out of print, and have been adapted continually for the screen. A Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Rev... Read More
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and social critic. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed readings extensively, was... Read More
Herbert George Wells was an English writer, born at Atlas House, 162 High Street in Bromley, Kent, on 21 September 1866. He was prolific in many genres, writing dozens of novels, short stories, and works of social commentary, satire, biography, and autobiography, and even including two books on recreational war games. Nowadays H.G. Wells is mostly remembered for his innovative science fiction n... Read More
Herbert George Wells was an English writer. He is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is often called a "father of science fiction", along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. Wells's earliest specialised training was in biology, and his thinking on ethical matters took place in a specifically and fundamentally Darwinian context. The World Set Free is a remarkable example of... Read More
John Ernst Steinbeck was an American author. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception." During his writing career, he authored 27 books, including 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories. Ironically he is more popular with critics abroad than in his own... Read More
John Ernst Steinbeck was an American author, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception" in 1962. Most of Steinbeck's work is set in central California, particularly in the Salinas Valley and the California Coast Ranges region. His works frequently explored the themes of fate and injustice... Read More
British philosopher, mathematician, historian, writer, and political activist Bertrand Russell was born on 18 May 1872 at Ravenscroft, Trellech, Monmouthshire, into an influential and liberal family of the British aristocracy. He received his Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought." Russel... Read More
"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them, I shall use my time." - Jack London. Jack Lon... Read More
Jack London wrote an almost incredible number of short stories and novelettes before his premature death at the age of 40, as well as novels, novellas and a considerable number of essays, plays, poems, and articles. Because of early financial difficulties, he was largely self-educated past grammar school. London drew heavily on his life experiences in his writing. He spent time in the Klondike... Read More
Few writers have had such an extensive output of work as Jack London. During his 15-year career, he wrote 49 books, including novels, short-story collections, plays and political pamphlets – a number equalling more than three books a year. Jack London, led a turbulent and dramatic life, and much of his writing was inspired by his own life experiences from the 1890s gold rush in Alaska to the so... Read More
John Griffith London, born John Griffith Chaney, was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of unionization, socialism, and the rights of workers. His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "... Read More
John Griffith London was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer in the world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first writers to become a worldwide celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction. His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both... Read More
Jack London was an American author best known for writing The Call of the Wild. Jack London was his pen name, likely born in San Francisco, California as John Griffith Chaney. Like the restive characters in his works, London sought a variety of experiences as a young man including sailor, hobo and an agitator for jobs during the depression. His tale The Terrible Solomons was first published in... Read More
Jack London, pseudonym of John Griffith Chaney, American novelist and short-story writer whose best-known works - among them, The Call of the Wild and White Fang - depict elemental struggles for survival. During the 20th-century, he was one of the most extensively translated American authors. Though he was a proletarian by background and was his era's most class-conscious writer, London was equ... Read More
John Griffith Chaney, later Jack London, was born into a turbulent bohemian world in San Francisco, the child of Flora Wellman and, she believed, her common-law husband, William Henry Chaney, an itinerant astrologer who deserted her. Flora married John London on 7 September in 1876. Jack heard from a family member at age twenty-one that John was not his father. Perhaps in part because of the ps... Read More
Few writers have had such an extensive output of work as Jack London. During his 15-year career, he wrote 49 books. In the language of today, Jack was a radical, an extremist, a revolutionary, a believer in violence to achieve political aims, a firm believer in the coming downfall of the capitalistic system - a man who would have been delighted with the Bolshevik Russian Revolution of 1917 if h... Read More