Photo: Ulla Montan
Sample of authors
Doctorow, E.L.
American author of Russian-Jewish descent who grew up in the Bronx where his father owned a record store and his mother was a pianist. He was named Edgar after Edgar Allan Poe. Doctorow read philosophy at Kenyon College, Ohio, graduating in 1952. He met his wife, Helen Esther Setzer, during his year at Columbia University. The couple was married in 1954 in occupied Germany where Doctorow served...
Literary figures
George Smiley
Gender: Male
He is rather fat, has been said to liken a toad, and is married to the beautiful and forever unfaithful Lady Ann Sercombe. Besides which, George Smiley is a lethal agent with the British Secret Service in a suite of novels by John Le Carré. Before retiring, he also becomes the director of the secret service. In some of the early books, he is however more active as a detective.