Authors A-H Flashcards
Agatha Christie
1890-1976 English author y playwright from Torquay - Considered best-selling novelist of all time - And Then There Were None (1939); Murder on the Orient Express (1934); Death on the Nile (1937); The A.B.C. Murders (1936) - Her play The Mousetrap (1952) is still in its initial run, y is the longest running in history - Introduced characters Hercule Poirot y Miss Marple
Ambrose Bierce
1842-1914 American writer - Short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (or A Dead Man’s Dream - 1890); satirical lexicon The Devil’s Dictionary; collection Tales of Soldiers and Civilians - His motto “Nothing matters” earned nickname “Bitter Bierce” - Disappeared while researching Mexican Revolution
Bill Bryson
1951- American-British author - Notes from a Small Island (1995); A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003); In a Sunburned Country (2000) - Writes humorous non-fiction about travel, language, y science
Brontë Sisters
Three sisters from Yorkshire - Published under male pseudonyms - All died young of tuberculosis
- Charlotte (Currer Bell - 1816-55) - Jayne Eyre (1847); Villette (1853)
- Emily (Ellis Bell - 1818-48) - Wuthering Heights (1847)
- Anne (Acton Bell - 1836-49) - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
1977- Nigerian author - Purple Hibiscus (2003); Half of a Yellow Sun (2006); Americanah (2013) - Awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2008
Daphne du Maurier
1907-89 British author - Rebecca (1938); The Scapegoat (57); The Birds (52); Jamaica Inn
E(rnst) T(heodor) A(madeus) Hoffmann
1766-1822 Prussian author from Königsberg (present-day Kaliningrad) - The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1816 - inspired Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker [1892]); Kreisleriana (1813 - inspired Schubert’s piano composition [1838]); The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr (1819); Master Flea (1822) - His stories also form the basis of Jacques Offenbach’s opera The Tales of Hoffmann (1881), in which Hoffmann appears (heavily fictionalized) as the hero
Edgar Rice Burroughs
1875-1950 American author - Tarzan series (starting with Tarzan of the Apes - 1912); Barsoom (John Carter) series (starting with A Princess of Mars - 1917) - City of Tarzana, CA was built on site of his former ranch
Edith Hamilton
1867-1963 American author - Regarded as greatest woman Classicist - Wrote The Greek Way (1930); Mythology (1942); The Roman Way (1932); The Echo of Greece (1957) - Said to have “brought into clear and brilliant focus the Golden Age of Greek life and thought”
Edna Ferber
1885-1968 American author from Appleton, WI - So Big (1924-Pulitzer); Show Boat (1926 - made into 1927 musical); Cimarron (1929 - made into 1931 Best Picture); Giant (1952 - made into 1956 movie)
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
1803-1873 English author - Immensely popular in his time, y wrote many bestselling novels - Most known for coining the phrases: “the pen is mightier than the sword” (from 1839 play Richelieu); “pursuit of the almighty dollar” (from 1871 novel The Coming Race); “the great unwashed”; y the opening line “It Was a Dark and Stormy Night” (from 1830 novel Paul Clifford) - Namesake of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest held anually by San Jose State Uni. to award deliberately bad opening lines
Edward Gibbon
1737-94 English historian y writer - The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–1789 - six volumes) - Member of Parliament (1774-84)
Elizabeth Bowen
1899-1973 Anglo-Irish author from Dublin - The Last September (1929); The Death of the Heart (1938); The Heat of the Day (1949) - Notable for fiction about life in wartime London
Eoin Colfer
1965- Irish children’s author - Artemis Fowl series, about a teenage criminal mastermind: Artemis Fowl (2001); The Arctic Incident (02); The Eternity Code (03), y more - Wrote 6th installment of Hitchhiker’s Guide series: And Another Thing… (09)
Ernest Hemingway
1899-1961 American author from Chicago - The Sun Also Rises (1926); A Farewell to Arms (1929); Death in the Afternoon (1932); Green Hills of Africa (1935); For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940); The Old Man and the Sea (1951-Pulitzer) - Nobel Prize in Literature 1954 - Served in WW1 as an amulance driver, y was seriously wounded - Worked as journalist in Spanish Civil War - Crashed two airplanes while on safari in Africa, y nearly died - Committed suicide at home in Ketchum, ID at age 61
Geoffrey Chaucer
1343-1400 English poet - Cosnidered the Father of English literature - The Canterbury Tales (1400); The Book of the Duchess (1368); The House of Fame (1380); The Legend of Good Women; Troilus and Criseyde - His work legitimized the literary use of the Middle English vernacular, rather than French or Latin - Served as Clerk of the King’s Work
Giacomo Casanova
1725-1798 Italian adventurer y author from Venice - Wrote autobiography Histoire de ma vie (1822-“Story of My Life”) - Name is now synonymous with “womanizer,” due to his elaborate affairs with many women - Travelled all over Europe living a lavish lifestyle
Hermann Hesse
1877-1962 German-born Swiss novelist y poet -
The Glass Bead Game (1943);
Siddhartha (1922); Steppenwolf (1927);
Narcissus and Goldmund (1930); Demian (1919) -
Nobel Prize Lit 1946
Honoré de Balzac
1799-1850 French author - La Comédie Humaine (1850-The Human Comedy), a collection of stories presenting a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 Fall of Napoleon Bonaparte
Irene Hunt
1907-2001 American author from IL - Children’s writer known for historical novels - Across Five Aprils (1964-about Civil War); Up a Road Slowly (1966-Newberry Medal); No Promises in the Wind (1970)
James Agee
1909-55 American author, screenwriter, y film critic from TN - A Death in the Family (unfinished autobiographical novel-1957-posthumous Pulitzer); Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941 - Non-ficiton about the Depression); The Morning Watch (1951) - Wrote adapted screenplay for The African Queen (1951)
James Baldwin
1924-1987 American author from NYC - Giovanni’s Room (1956); Notes of a Native Son (1955); If Beale Street Could Talk (1974); Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone (1968) - Lived in France for most of his life in protest against discrimination in America
James Herriot (James Alfred “Alf” Wight)
1916-1995 British author y veterinarian - All Creatures Great and Small (1972-became BBC TV series); All Things Bright and Beautiful (1974); All Things Wise and Wonderful (1977); The Lord God Made Them All - Stories about his experiences as a vet in Yorkshire
Jean Cocteau
1889-1963 French writer y filmmaker - Wrote novel Les Enfants Terribles (1929) - Directed films The Blood of a Poet (1930); Les Parents Terribles (1948); Beauty and the Beast (1946) - Close friends with many artists of the time, incl. Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Erik Satie, y Coco Chanel - Nicknamed “The Frivolous Prince”
Jean M. Auel
1936- American author - Earth’s Children series about prehistoric life: The Clan of the Cave Bear (1980); The Valley of the Horses (1982); The Mammoth Hunters - Attended Univ. of Portland
Joel Chandler Harris
1848-1908 American writer from GA - Uncle Remus story collections (featuring Brer Rabbit - starting 1881) - Worked as a journalist for the Atlanta Constitution under the name Joe Harris
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1749-1832 German writer von Frankfurt - Faust (Part One 1808, Part Two 1832); The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774); Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (1795) - Sturm und Drang literary movement - Director of Weimar court theater
John Bunyan
1628-1688 English author y Baptist preacher - The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678 - a Christian allegory); Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners - Spent 12 years in jail for religious reasons
John Dos Passos
1896-1970 American author from Chicago - Manhattan Transfer (1925); The USA Trilogy: The 42nd Parallel (1930), Nineteen Nineteen (1932), The Big Money (1936) - Worked as an ambulance driver during WW1
John Fowles
1926-2005 English author - The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969); The Magus (1965); The Collector (1963) - Taught English on the Greek island Spetses
Joseph Conrad (Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski)
1857-1924 Polish-British author - Heart of Darkness (1899); Lord Jim (1900); Nostromo (1904); Under Western Eyes (1911) - Served in both the French y British Merchant Marines for 20 years
Karen Blixen (Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke)
1885-1962 Danish author - Used the pen name Isak Dinesen - Out of Africa (1937-about her life in Kenya); Seven Gothic Tales; Shadows on the Grass (1960); Babette’s Feast
Kingsley Amis
1922-95 English author - “The finest English comic novelist of the 2nd half of the 20th century” - Lucky Jim (1954); Take a Girl Like You (60); The Green Man (69); The Old Devils (86) - Part of the Angry Young Men literary movement in 50’s UK
L(yman) Frank Baum
1856-1919 American author from NY - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900); The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904); Ozma of Oz (1907); Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (08); The Road to Oz (09); The Emerald City of Oz (10); 14 Oz Series books total
Lois McMaster Bujold
1949- American sci-fi author from OH - Falling Free (1989); The Vor Game (1991); Barrayar (1992); Mirror Dance (1995); Paladin of Souls (2004) - Winner of 4 Hugo Awards y 2 Nebula Awards
Louisa May Alcott
1832-1888 American author y poet from Boston - Little Women (1868-loosely based on her life, y set in her family home in MA); Little Men (1871); Jo’s Boys (1886) - Abolitionist y feminist who remained unmarried throughout her life
Maxim Gorky (Alexei Maximovich Peshkov)
1868-1936 Russian author - The Lower Depths (1902); Twenty-six Men and a Girl (1899); The Song of the Stormy Petrel (1901); Summerfolk (1904); Children of the Sun (1905) - Active in the early Marxist movement, y was close associate of Lenin, before becoming a bitter critic - Spent time in exile, before being invited back by Stalin, with his hometown of Nizhny Novgorod being renamed Gorky in his honor
(John) Michael Crichton
1942-2008 American author from Chicago - The Andromeda Strain (1969); Zero Cool (1969); Five Patients (1970-nonfiction); Congo (1980); Sphere (1987); Jurassic Park (1990); Rising Sun (1992); The Lost World (1995); Next (2006) - Wrote y directed the films Westworld (1973); Coma (1978); The Great Train Robbery (1979) - Books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide
Nadine Gordimer
1923-2014 South African author y political activist - The Conservationist (1974-Booker Prize); Burger’s Daughter (1979); July’s People (1981) - Nobel Prize Lit 1991 - Writing dealt with moral y racial issues in apartheid South Africa
Neil Gaiman
1960- English author - Coraline (2002); Stardust (1999); American Gods; The Graveyard Book - The Sandman comic book series
O. Henry (William Sydney Porter)
1862-1910 American short story author from NC - A Retrieved Reformation (1903); The Gift of the Magi (1905); The Ransom of Red Chief (1910) - Worked as a bank teller y bookkeeper in TX, y was arrested for embezzlement; fled to Honduras, where he coined the term “banana republic,” then returned to TX in 1898 y served 3 years in prison
Octavia E(stelle) Butler
1947-2006 American sci-fi author from CA - Kindred (1979); Xenogenesis series; Parable series; Bloodchild (1995) - Won Hugo y Nebula awards, y MacArthur Fellowship Grant
Patricia Highsmith
1921-95 American author from TX - Strangers on a Train (1950); The Price of Salt (1952); The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955 - part of “The Ripliad”); Ripley Under Ground (1970); Ripley Under Water (1991) - Said of her after her death: “…a mean, cruel, hard, unlovable, unloving human being … I could never penetrate how any human being could be that relentlessly ugly. … But her books? Brilliant.”
Philip K(indred) Dick
1928-82 American author - Ubik (69); Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (68); The Man in the High Castle (62); A Scanner Darkly (77); Flow My Tears the Policeman Said (74); VALIS trilogy (78-85); Second Variety (53); We Can Remember it for You Wholesale (66-became Total Recall)
Ralph Ellison
1914-94 American author - Only published two novels: Invisible Man (1953); Juneteenth/Three Days Before the Shooting (1999-posthumous) - Also wrote collection of critical essays Shadow and Act (64)
Richard Bach
1936- American author from Chicago - Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970); Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977); Out of My Mind (1999) - Noted for his love of aviation and for his books related to flying in a metaphorical context
Richard Ford
1944- American author from MS - Frank Bascombe quartet: The Sportswriter (1986); Independence Day (95-Pulitzer); The Lay of the Land (2006); Let Me Be Frank With You (2014) - Short story collection Rock Springs (1987)
Roald Dahl
1916-1990 British author from Cardiff - James and the Giant Peach (1961); Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964); Fantastic Mr Fox (1970); The BFG (1982); Matilda (1988) - Served as a RAF squadron leader during WWII
Robert A(nson) Heinlein
1907-88 American sci-fi author from MO - Double Star (1956); The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966); Starship Troopers (1959); Stranger in a Strange Land (1961); Time Enough for Love - One of first sci-fi writers to break into mainstream - Record for most Hugo Awards for Best Novel (5)
S(usan) E(loise) Hinton
1948- American author from OK - Best known for young-adult novels - The Outsiders (1967-written while still in high school); Rumble Fish (1975); Taming the Star Runner (1988)
Stella Gibbons
1902-89 English writer - Cold Comfort Farm (1932), a satire of rural-themed novels popular during the 1920’s
Umberto Eco
1932-2016 Italian author y professor of semiotics ( the study of sign processes y meaningful communication) - Wrote The Name of the Rose (1980- Il nome della rosa); Foucalt’s Pendulum (1988); The Island of the Day Before; The Prague Cemetery - Worked at University of Bologna
Willa (Sibert) Cather
1873-1947 American author from VA - Wrote mostly about frontier life on the Great Plains - O Pioneers! (1913); The Song of the Lark (1915); My Ántonia (1918); One of Ours (1922-Pulitzer-about WWI); Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)
William F(rank) Buckley Jr.
1925-2008 American conservative author - Founded National Review magazine - Hosted Firing Line TV show (1966-99) - Wrote God and Man at Yale (1951); Blackford Oakes fictional CIA agent series (Saving the Queen; Stained Glass; Who’s on First, etc) - Widely respected in conservative y libertarian circles
William Gibson
1948- American/Canadian author - Pioneer of the cyberpunk y steampunk genre - Coined the term “cyberspace” - Sprawl triolgy: Neuromancer (1984); Count Zero (1986); Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988) - Burning Chrome (82-short stories, incl. Johnny Mnemonic); The Difference Engine (1990); The Peripheral (2014); Zero History (2010)
Zora Neale Hurston
1891-1960 Afr-American author - Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937); Every Tongue Got to Confess (2001 - posthumous) - Known as the Queen of the Harlem Renaissance
