Authors Q-Z Flashcards
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
1918-2008 Russian author - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962-about the Gulag); Cancer Ward (1968); The Gulag Archipelago (1973); August 1914 (1971) - Nobel Prize in Lit 1970 - Outspoken critic of USSR y communism - Sent to Gulag, then expelled from the country
Ayn Rand (Alisa Zinov’yevna Rosenbaum)
1905-82 Russian-born American novelist y philosopher - The Fountainhead (1943); Atlas Shrugged (57) - Developed philosophy called Objectivism - Significant influence to conservatives y libertarians
Betty Smith
1896-1972 American author from NYC - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943); Joy in the Morning (1963)
Danielle Steel
1947- American author from NYC - Currently the best selling author alive, y the 4th best selling fiction author of all time, with over 800 million copies sold - Going Home (1973); Passion’s Promise (1977); A Perfect Stranger (1983); Message from Nam (1990); Matters of the Heart (2009); Rushing Waters (2016) - All novels have been bestsellers, despite being mostly formulaic romance novels, with lack of critical claim
E(lwyn) B(rooks) White
1899-1985 American author from NY - Stuart Little (1945); Charlotte’s Web (1952); The Trumpet of the Swan (1970) - Co-author of the influential English language style guide The Elements of Style (1959) with William Strunk, often referred to as “Strunk & White”
Edward Stratemeyer
1862-1930 American publisher y author of children’s fiction - Created several popular book series, all published under pseudonyms: The Hardy Boys (1927 - by Franklin W. Dixon); Nancy Drew (1930 - by Carolyn Keene); The Bobbsey Twins (1904 - by Laura Lee Hope); Tom Swift (1910 - by Victor Appleton); The Rover Boys (1899 - by Arthur M. Winfield) - One of the most prolific writers in the world, selling in excess of 500 million copies
Elie Wiesel
1928- Romanian-born Jewish-American author - Night (1960 - about his experiences as a prisoner at Auschwitz) - Won 1986 Nobel Peace Prize for work on the President’s Commisson on the Holocaust - Given Pres. Medal of Freedom y Cong. Medal of Honor
Gore Vidal
1925-2012 American writer from NY - The City and the Pillar (48); Julian (64); Myra Breckinridge (68); Burr (73); Lincoln (84) - Well-known public intellectual - Fueded with fellow writers Capote, William Buckley, y Mailer
Harold Robbins
1916-1997 American author from NYC - One of the best-selling writers of all time, wrote dozens of best-sellers - The Carpetbaggers (1961); The Dream Merchants (1949); Never Love a Stranger (1948); The Adventurers (1966); Where Love Has Gone (1962)
Harriet Beecher Stowe
1811-1896 American author y abolitionist from CT - Wrote very influential novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852 - or Life Among the Lowly - best selling novel of 19th Cent.); A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1853); Old Town Folks (1869)
Henryk Sienkiewicz
1846-1916 Polish author y journalist - Quo Vadis (1896-about early Christians in Nero’s Rome); With Fire and Sword (1884); The Deluge (1886); Fire in the Steppe (1888) - Nobel Prize in Literature (1905)
Herman Wouk
1915- Jewish-American author - The Caine Mutiny (1951-Pulitzer); The Winds of War (71); War and Remembrance (78); This is My God (59); Sailor and Fiddler (2016)
Isaac Bashevis Singer
1902-91 Polish-born Jewish-American author - The Magician of Lublin; A Day of Pleasure; A Crown of Feathers - 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature - All books originally written in Yiddish
Ivan Turgenev
1818-1883 Russian author y playwright - Fathers and Sons (1862-regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century fiction); A Sportsman’s Sketches (1852); Virgin Soil (1877); A Month in the Country (1855-play)
J(erome) D(avid) Salinger
1919-2010 American author from NYC - The Catcher in the Rye (1951); Nine Stories (1953); Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters (1955); Franny and Zooey (1961) - Lived a very private life after early success, published his final original work in 1965, y gave his last interview in 1980
Jin Yong (Louis Cha Leung-yung)
1924- Chinese author from Zhejiang - Known for his fictional novels of the wuxia (“martial arts and chivalry”) genre - Best-selling Chinese author alive, y one of top worldwide - The Book and the Sword (1956); The Young Flying Fox (1962); Sword of the Yue Maiden (1970)
Johann David Wyss
1743-1818 Swiss author - The Swiss Family Robinson (1812), which was edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss, y illustrated by other son Johann Emmanuel Wyss
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John Steinbeck
1902-68 fiction y non author from Salinas, CA - Tortilla Flat (35); Of Mice and Men (37); The Grapes of Wrath (39); Cannery Row (45); East of Eden (52); Travels with Charley (60 - his poodle) - Nobel Prize 1962
J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel) Tolkien
1892-1973 English author - The Hobbit (1937); The Silmarillion (1977-posthumous); The Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring (1954); The Two Towers (1954); The Return of the King (1954) - Served as professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford
Kurt Vonnegut
1922-2007 American author from IN - Slaughterhouse-Five (1969); Player Piano (1952); Cat’s Cradle (1963); The Sirens of Titan (1959); Timequake (1997); Deadeye Dick (1982) - Served in WWII, y survived the Dresden bombing
Laura Ingalls Wilder
1867-1957 American author from WI - Best known for the Little House books, which were a series of 8 autobiographical children’s novels, based on her childhood in a settler y pioneer family - Little House in the Big Woods (1932); Farmer Boy (1933); Little House on the Prairie (1935); On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937)
Laurence Sterne
1713-68 Irish author from County Tipperary - The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759); A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768) - Spent early life as an Anglican clergyman, before starting his writing career at age 46, while suffering with tuberculosis
Mario Vargas Llosa
1936- Peruvian writer y politician - The Time of the Hero (1963); The Green House (1965); Conversation in the Cathedral (1969); Captain Pantoja and the Special Service (1973) - Nobel Prize Lit 2010 - Ran for the Peruvian presidency in 1990, but lost to Fujimori - Claimed on Mexican TV that “Mexico is the perfect dictatorship”
Maurice Sendak
1928-2012 American illustrator y writer of children’s books - Wrote Where the Wild Things Are (1963); In the Night Kitchen (1970);The Nutshell Library (1962); Outside Over There (1981) - Illustrated Little Bear series (1957-68); The Singing Hill (1962)
Mo Yan 莫言 (Guan Moye 管谟业)
1951- Chinese author from Shandong - Red Sorghum Clan (1987); The Republic of Wine (1993); Big Breasts & Wide Hips; Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out (2006) - Nobel Prize in Lit 2012
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
1960- Lebanese-American essayist y risk analyst - Works focus on problems of probability y randomness - The Black Swan (2007); Fooled by Randomness (2005); Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012)
Paul Scott
1920-78 English author - The Raj Quartet: The Jewel in the Crown (66); The Day of the Scorpion (68); The Towers of Silence (71); A Division of the Spoils (75) - Staying On (77-Booker)
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Philip (Milton) Roth
1933-2018 American author from NJ - Goodbye Columbus (1959); Portnoy’s Complaint (1969); Zuckerman Unbound (1981); The Anatomy Lesson (1983); American Pastoral (1997-Pulitzer); The Human Stain (2000) - Won 2011 Man Booker Prize for lifetime achievement
Rabindranath Tagore
1861-1941 Bengali writer y polymath from Kolkata - Gitanjali (1910-poetry collection-aka “Song Offerings”); Jana Gana Mana (1911-national anthem of India); Amar Shonar Bangla (national anthem of Bangladesh); Ghare-Baire (“The Home and the World”) - Nobel Prize Lit in 1913 (1st non-European)
Richard (Nathaniel) Wright
1908-1960 African-American author - Native Son (1940); Uncle Tom’s Children (1938); Black Boy (1945); The Outsider (1953); Black Power (1954) - Moved to Paris in 1946, where he became a permanent American expatriate
Rick Riordan
1964- American author from TX - Percy Jackson and the Olympians series: The Lightning Thief (2005), The Sea of Monsters (2006)The Titan’s Curse (2007), etc.; The Heroes of Olympus series (2010-14); The Kane Chronicles series (2010-12); The 39 Clues series (2008-11)
Robert Penn Warren
1905-1989 American poet y novelist from KY - All the King’s Men (1946-Pulitzer); Night Rider (1939) - Poetry collections: Promises (1958-Pulitzer); Now and Then (1979-Pulitzer) - Only person to win Pulitzers for poetry y fiction - Charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers
Samuel Richardson
1689-1761 English author y printer - Best known for his three epistolary novels: Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded (1740); Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady (1748-one of the longest novels in English); The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753)
Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
1783-1842 French author - One of the earliest y foremost practicioners of realism - Le Rouge et le Noir (1830-The Red and the Black); La Chartreuse de Parme (1839-The Charterhouse of Parma); The Pink and the Green (1837)
Terry Pratchett
1948-2015 English author of comic fantasy novels - Best known for his Discworld series of 41 novels - The Colour of Magic (1983); The Light Fantastic (1986); The Carpet People (1971); Good Omens (1990) - The UK’s best-selling author of the 1990s - Knighted in 2009
T(erence) H(anbury) White
1906-64 English author - Best known for his novels about King Arthur - The Sword in the Stone (1938); The Once and Future King (1958); The Book of Merlyn (1977)
Thomas (Clayton) Wolfe
1900-38 American author from NC - Look Homeward, Angel (1929); Of Time and the River (1935); You Can’t Go Home Again (1940) - Died of tuberculosis at age 38
Tom (Kennerly) Wolfe
1930-2018 American author y journalist from VA - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968); The Painted Word (1975); The Right Stuff (1979); The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) - Associated with New Journalism (using unconventional literary techniques)
Upton Sinclair
1878-1968 American writer - Dragon’s Teeth (1943-Pulitzer); The Jungle (1906); The Brass Check (1919); King Coal (1917) - Outspoken socialist who wrote muckracking novels y attacked industrialists
(Adeline) Virginia Woolf
1882-1941 English author - Mrs Dalloway (1925); To the Lighthouse (1927); The Waves (1931); Orlando (1928); A Room of One’s Own (1929) - Pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device - Took her own life by drowning, at the age of 59
Walter Scott
1771-1832 Scottish author - Ivanhoe (1820); Rob Roy (1817); Old Mortality; The Lady of the Lake; The Heart of Midlothian - President of the Royal Society (1820-32)
William Styron
1925-2006 American author - Lie Down in Darkness (1951); The Confessions of Nat Turner (67-Pulitzer); Sophie’s Choice (79); Darkness Visible (90)
