Meny
  • It is 72 years today since Orhan Pamuk was born.

    Turkish author, born and grew up in Istanbul, Nisantasi, in an affluent middle-class family. The father was a civil engineer, as was Orhan’s grandfather, who laid the foundations for the family’s fortune. After graduating from school – the secular American Robert College – Pamuk studied Architecture and Journalism. Until he was 22, he devoted himself to painting and dreamt of becoming an artist. T...

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  • It is 67 years today since Fred Vargas was born.

    Fred Vargas is a pseudonym used by the French historian, archaeologist and crime writer Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau. "Vargas" was a character played by Ava Gardener in The Barefoot Contessa; the name was first used by Audoin-Rouzeau’s twin sister Joëlle, the visual artist Jo Vargas. Their father, Philippe Audoin-Rouzeau, was a journalist and a famous figure in surrealist circles. He was very part...

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  • It is 158 years today since E.W. Hornung was born.

    The English teacher and journalist Ernest William Hornung (Willie to his family) was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s brother-in-law. If Sir Arthur was the father of Sherlock Holmes, the most famous fictional detective in the world, you could say that Hornung created the most famous crook, the gentleman thief A.J. Raffles. Like Holmes, Raffles has occasionally turned up in books by other authors.
    H...

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Sample of Authors

Portrait of Manuel Vázquez Montalbán

Vázquez Montalbán, Manuel
1939 - 2003

Spanish author, journalist, essayist and poet. Vázquez Montalbán was born in Barcelona the same year as General Franco came o...

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Portrait of Stephen King

King, Stephen
1947 -

Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine. His father, Donald Pollock, a vacuum cleaner salesman, sailor and...

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Portrait of Janwillem van de Wetering

Wetering, Janwillem van de
1931 - 2008

Janwillem (actually Jan Willem) van de Wetering was a Dutch author born in Rotterdam to a merchant family. After graduating...

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Portrait image of Eliot Pattison

Pattison, Eliot
1951 -

The American author and lawyer, Joseph Eliot Pattison, was born in Philadelphia. He grew up on a farm run by his father;...

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