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Sylvia Plath was born in the fall of 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts to parents of Austrian and German descent. Destined to become one of the foremost writers of her time and genre, she was born into an intellectual household. Her father was an entomologist, professor of biology, and scientific author. Plath herself began showing her…
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez, born on March 6th, 1927, was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, journalist, and screenwriter who cemented himself in history as one of the most significant and influential authors of the 20th century, particularly in the Spanish language. In 1972, he was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for literature…
Named by Harold Bloom as one of the four great American novelists of his time (alongside Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth, and Don DeLillo), Cormac McCarthy published twelve novels over the course of his lifetime, spanning the Southern Gothic, Western and post-apocalyptic genres. Economic in style, his fiction was dark and often violent, featuring characters who,…
American journalist and novelist Ernest Hemingway‘s legacy to American literature lies in his economical and understated writing style, which he termed the “iceberg theory” and writers who came after him either attempted to emulate or avoid. After his reputation was established with the publication of The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway essentially became the spokesperson for…
Born in the fall of 1896, F. Scott Fitzgerald, is widely regarded as the greatest novelist of the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald’s struggles in love, work, and fame became the fundamental motifs and themes of his novels. Despite the losses he suffered, the success of his novels in the years following his early death immortalized his…
In celebration of International Women’s Day, we invite you to browse some of the most notable works by female authors that have graced our bookshelves in recent years: First published in 1818, Frankenstein is not only the “most famous English horror novel” but also, by some critics’ reckoning, “the first genuine science fiction…
Miss Jane Austen, born in late 1775, lived a life of relative obscurity. Now revered as an exceptional English novelist, Austen’s work provides a thorough social commentary on the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen’s plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favorable social…
Ayn Rand, born in 1905 as Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum, was a Russian-born American writer who emigrated to the U.S. in 1925. Upon gaining permanent residency in 1929, she became a famous novelist and philosopher. Her analysis of the human condition and the role of reason in human affairs made her books of lasting influence on…
Born in Ireland in 1882, James Joyce is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century. His novel Ulysses (1922) is a landmark in which the episodes of Homer’s Odyssey are paralleled in a variety of literary styles, particularly stream of consciousness and his other well-known works include A…
John le Carré, born in October of 1931 as David John Moore Cornwell, was a British intelligence officer and and novelist during the latter half of the 20th century. After serving in British intelligence during the 1950s and 60s, le Carré‘s fame as a novelist in post-war Britain was established with his third novel, The…
In 1982, a novel called Memorial do Convento was published in Portugal. A love story set against 18th-century Inquisitorial Lisbon, the novel captured the imagination of many readers, garnering widespread acclaim. Its author, then sixty year old José Saramago, was not known for literature, but for journalism. With this novel, his fourth to be published,…
Thursday, September 21st marked Stephen King‘s seventy-fifth birthday. Born in 1947 in Maine, King was raised by his mother who, with her two sons, moved several times before settling in Durham, Maine. King’s love for horror blossomed in his childhood, when he discovered a collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories in an attic. As he entered…
September 13th marks the birthday of Roald Dahl, one of the most popular authors of children’s literature of the 20th century. Born in Wales in 1916, Dahl was a first generation Englishman who spent most of his life in the United Kingdom. His famous stories, such as Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and…
Born on July 10, 1871 in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War, famed French novelist Marcel Proust was born into a France torn by internal conflict. Though Paris was gripped by political turmoil and France’s modernization put pressure on the class system, Proust and his educated aristocratic parents were largely unaffected. Marcel, however, was a…
Nikos Kazantzakis, born in 1883 on the island of Crete, had a tremendous desire for truth, a sharp intellect to seek it out, and an adventurous disposition that brought him around the world. His fiction largely reflects his philosophical training and religious values, while his work as a translator reflects his concern for the education and…
One of the greatest writers of the 20th century, Clive Staples Lewis, or C.S. Lewis, has become a household name. With such works as The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters, and Mere Christianity, his works remain highly influential among writers and creatives, since the publication of his earliest works in the 1930s. Lewis was inspired…
One of the most enduring stories of the modern era, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit remains one of the most popular stories in the English language and its publication in 1937 sparked a creative explosion in the genre of speculative fiction, paving the way for its sequel The Lord of the Rings and numerous adaptations for…
Saturday, March 12th 2022 marks the centennial birthday of one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, Jack Kerouac. “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who…
In celebration of Black History Month, we invite you to browse some of the rarest, earliest, and most important works of African American literature currently in our collection. The earliest book published by an African American, Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was published in 1773, three years before American…
Celebrated annually during the final week of September, Banned Books Week was launched in the 1980s, following the highly popular 1982 American Booksellers Association BookExpo America trade show in Anaheim, California which showcased over 500 banned books. The week-long event spotlights both current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools, celebrates the…
One of the most celebrated figures of the Harlem Renaissance, poet, novelist and social activist Langston Hughes is widely considered one of the most important American writers of the 20th century. Through his poetry and fiction, Hughes sought not only to portray the experience of working-class blacks in America, but redefine, expand, and celebrate African…
International bestselling writer Haruki Murakami is best known for his magical realist novels that explore issues deeply rooted in the human experience. He has often been criticized by Japanese literary circles for being ‘un-Japanese’ because of the heavy influence of Western literature on his writing style. Opposing the Japanese ideal of the strong, independent…
One of the most awarded American authors of his generation, Philip Roth created some of the most provocative novels exploring American identity through a masterful blending of realism and fiction. Born in Newark, New Jersey on March 19, 1933 Roth attended Bucknell University and later earned a master’s degree in literature from the University of…
Today, Tuesday, January 19, 2021, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of great American novelist Patricia Highsmith, best known for her classic psychological thrillers Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Born in Fort Worth, Texas on January 19, 1921, Highsmith had a troubled relationship with her mother and was sent to…
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