Author Story List
Concise introductions to a author's life, family, works, and controversies. This list is mainly composed of English writers but also includes some in other languages whose works are widely circulated in the English-speaking world. In addition to classic writers, the list also selects a few contemporary writers whose works are commonly read by schools and students.
| Author Story List |
Aldous Huxley: A Visionary of Dystopian Fiction
Aldous Leonard Huxley was born on July 26, 1894, in Godalming, England, into a highly intellectual and distinguished family. His father, Leonard Huxley, ... 
Alexandre Dumas: The Master of Adventure
Alexandre Dumas, one of the most famous French authors, was born on July 24, 1802, in Villers-Cotterêts, France. His full name was Dumas Davy de la ...
Anne Frank: The Writer of The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank was born on June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt, Germany, to Otto and Edith Frank. She had an older sister, Margot. The Franks were a well-to-do ...
Arthur Conan Doyle: The Creator of Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, was born on May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh, Scotland. He grew up in a large family ...
Ayn Rand: A Writer with Bold Ideas
Ayn Rand, born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum, was born on February 2, 1905, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. She grew up in a middle-class Jewish family, and ...
Booker T. Washington: A Man Up From Slavery
Booker T. Washington was one of the most influential African American leaders of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born into slavery on April 5, ...
Bram Stoker: The Life and Legacy of the Author of Dracula
Abraham "Bram" Stoker was born on November 8, 1847, in Clontarf, a coastal suburb of Dublin, Ireland. His early years were marked by a serious illness, ...
Charles Dickens: The Champion of Victorian Literature
Charles Dickens, one of the greatest novelists of the 19th century, was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England. He was the second of eight ...
Charlotte Brontë: A Trailblazer in Literature
Charlotte Brontë, one of the most famous English novelists of the 19th century, was born on April 21, 1816, in Thornton, Yorkshire, England. She was the ...
D. H. Lawrence: Challenge Norms and Explore Desires
David Herbert Lawrence, commonly known as D. H. Lawrence, was born on September 11, 1885, in the coal-mining town of Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, England. ...
Edith Wharton: A Literary Icon of Gilded Age America
Edith Wharton, born Edith Newbold Jones on January 24, 1862, in New York City, was a prominent American novelist, short story writer, and designer. She ...
Elie Wiesel: Witness to History and Voice of Conscience
Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928, in Sighet, a small town in what was then part of Romania, now Ukraine. He was raised in a close-knit Jewish ...
Emily Brontë: The Writer of Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë was born on July 30, 1818, in the small village of Thornton, Yorkshire, England. She was the fifth of six children born to Patrick Brontë, ...
Ernest Hemingway: An adventurous Literary Figure
Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He was the second of six children in the family of Clarence ...
Frances Hodgson Burnett: A Beloved Children Literature Author
Frances Hodgson Burnett was born on November 24, 1849, in Cheetham, Manchester, England. She was the third of five children in the Hodgson family. Her ...
Franz Kafka: A Literary Enigma
Franz Kafka was born on July 3, 1883, in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, into a middle-class Jewish family. His father, Hermann Kafka, ...
Frederick Douglass: Equality Requires both Courage and Conviction
Frederick Douglass, one of the most influential African American figures of the 19th century, was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in ...
F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Voice of the Jazz Age
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. He was named after his distant relative, Francis Scott Key, ...
Fyodor Dostoevsky: A Cornerstone of World Literature
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, one of Russia’s most influential novelists, was born on November 11, 1821, in Moscow. He was the second of seven ...
George Bernard Shaw: A Playwright Crying for Social Reform
George Bernard Shaw, one of the most influential playwrights, critics, and intellectuals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was born on July 26, ...
George Orwell: A Voice Say No to Communism
George Orwell, whose real name was Eric Arthur Blair, was born on June 25, 1903, in Motihari, India. At the time, India was part of the British Empire, ...
Hans Christian Andersen: A Storyteller's Life
Hans Christian Andersen was born on April 2, 1805, in the small town of Odense, Denmark. His family was poor but loving. Hans's father, a shoemaker, ...
Harper Lee: The Quiet Storyteller
Harper Lee, one of America's most beloved authors, was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama. Her full name was Nelle Harper Lee, and she was ...
Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Literary and Social Pioneer
Harriet Beecher Stowe was born on June 14, 1811, in Litchfield, Connecticut, into a prominent religious and intellectual family. She was the seventh of ...
Henrik Ibsen: A Master of Modern Drama
Henrik Ibsen, often called the "father of modern drama," was born on March 20, 1828, in a small town called Skien in Norway. His family was quite ...
Herman Melville: The Literary Visionary Behind Moby-Dick
Herman Melville was born on August 1, 1819, in New York City to Allan and Maria Gansevoort Melville. His father was a merchant who faced financial ...
H. G. Wells: A Visionary of Science Fiction
Herbert George Wells, commonly known as H.G. Wells, was born on September 21, 1866, in Bromley, Kent, England. He was the youngest of four children in a ...
Homer: The Legendary Poet of Ancient Greece
Homer, one of the most influential poets of ancient Greece, remains an enigmatic figure in literary history. Little is known about his life, and much of ...
Ivan Turgenev: A Bridge between Romanticism and Realism
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was born on November 9, 1818, in Oryol, Russia, into a wealthy noble family. His father, Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev, was a ...
Jack London: A Radical Writer to Tell Adventure Story
Jack London, born John Griffith Chaney on January 12, 1876, in San Francisco, California, was one of the most celebrated American writers of his time. ...
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: The Brothers Who Preserved Fairy Tales
1. Life
Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm and Wilhelm Carl Grimm, commonly known as the Brothers Grimm, were born in Hanau, Germany, Jacob on January 4, 1785, and ...
James Fenimore Cooper: A Window into Early American Spirit
James Fenimore Cooper was born on September 15, 1789, in Burlington, New Jersey, into a family that played a significant role in early American society. ...
James Joyce: A Literary Pioneer
James Joyce, one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, was born on February 2, 1882, in Dublin, Ireland. His full name was James ...
Jane Austen: A Sharp and Anonymous Writer
Jane Austen, one of the most beloved authors in English literature, was born on December 16, 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire, England. She was the seventh ...
J. D. Salinger: The Life and Legacy of the Reclusive Writer
Jerome David Salinger was born on January 1, 1919, in New York City. He was the second child of Sol Salinger, a successful Jewish cheese importer, and ...
John Steinbeck: A Literary Giant of American Realism
John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. He was the third of four children and the only son of John Ernst ...
Jonathan Swift: A Passionate Advocate for Justice
Jonathan Swift, one of the most distinguished satirists in the English language, was born on November 30, 1667, in Dublin, Ireland. His father, also ...
Joseph Conrad: The Writer of Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad, born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski on December 3, 1857, in Berdychiv (then part of the Russian Empire, now Ukraine), was a Polish ...
Kate Chopin: A Feminist Literary Pioneer
Kate Chopin, born Katherine O’Flaherty on February 8, 1850, in St. Louis, Missouri, was an American writer whose work explored themes of femininity, ...
Kenneth Grahame: His Children Literature Cherished for Generations
Kenneth Grahame was born on March 8, 1859, in Edinburgh, Scotland. His early life was marked by tragedy, as his mother passed away from scarlet fever ...
Leo Tolstoy: A Life of Literature and Philosophy
One of the greatest writers in history, Leo Tolstoy, was born on September 9, 1828, in Yasnaya Polyana, a family estate in Russia. His full name was Lev ...
Lewis Carroll: The Master of Wonderland
Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was born on January 27, 1832, in Daresbury, England. He was the eldest son in a large ...
L. Frank Baum: The Creator of Oz
Lyman Frank Baum, better known as L. Frank Baum, was born on May 15, 1856, in Chittenango, New York. He was the seventh of nine children born to Cynthia ...
Louisa May Alcott: The Voice of American Girlhood
Louisa May Alcott, one of America’s most beloved authors, was born on November 29, 1832, in Germantown, Pennsylvania. She was the second of four ...
Margaret Mitchell: The Writer of Gone with the Wind
Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell was born on November 8, 1900, in Atlanta, Georgia, into a family deeply rooted in Southern history and culture. Her father, ...
Mark Twain: The Voice of American Humor and Wit
Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was born on November 30, 1835, in the small town of Florida, Missouri. He was the sixth of ...
Mary Shelley: A Tale of Literary Genius
Mary Shelley, the renowned author of Frankenstein, was born on August 30, 1797, in London, England. She came from a family of intellectuals and writers. ...
Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Literary Genius of American Romanticism
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts, into a family with deep Puritan roots. His ancestors played a significant role in ...
Niccolò Machiavelli: A Republican or An Advocate for Tyranny
Niccolò Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469, in Florence, Italy, during the height of the Italian Renaissance. He came from an old, though not ...
Nikolai Gogol: A Satire and Surrealism Writer
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was born on March 31, 1809, in the Ukrainian village of Sorochyntsi, then part of the Russian Empire. He was the son of Vasily ...
Oscar Wilde: A Genius Ended in Scandal and Exile
Oscar Wilde, one of the most celebrated playwrights and authors of the 19th century, was born on October 16, 1854, in Dublin, Ireland. He was the second ...
Ray Bradbury: Writing for Intellectual Freedom
Ray Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois. He grew up in a loving family that encouraged his creative interests. As a child, ...
Robert Louis Stevenson: A Literary Journey into Adventure and Duality
Robert Louis Stevenson was born on November 13, 1850, in Edinburgh, Scotland, into a family of engineers. His father, Thomas Stevenson, was a prominent ...
S. E. Hinton: The Trailblazer of Young Adult Fiction
Susan Eloise Hinton was born on July 22, 1948, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Growing up in a working-class neighborhood, she was an avid reader from an early age. ...
Sinclair Lewis: A Literary Giant Lighting His Time
Sinclair Lewis, born Harry Sinclair Lewis on February 7, 1885, in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. ...
Stephen Crane: Capture the Raw and Painful Truths of Life
Stephen Crane was born on November 1, 1871, in Newark, New Jersey, the fourteenth and youngest child of Mary Helen Peck Crane and Jonathan Townley Crane ...
Thomas Hardy: A Writer Beyond Victorian Era
Thomas Hardy, one of England’s most celebrated novelists and poets, was born on June 2, 1840, in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset. He was the eldest of four ...
Upton Sinclair: The Voice of Social Justice
Upton Sinclair, an influential American writer, journalist, and social reformer, was born on September 20, 1878, in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the only ...
Victor Hugo: A Titan of French Literature
Victor Hugo was born on February 26, 1802, in Besançon, France. He was the third son of Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo, a general in Napoleon’s army, and ...
Virgil:The Poet of Ancient Rome Emperor
Virgil, whose full name was Publius Vergilius Maro, was born on October 15, 70 BCE, in a small village called Andes, near Mantua in northern Italy. His ...
Virginia Woolf: A Modern Feminism Writer
Virginia Woolf, born Adeline Virginia Stephen on January 25, 1882, in London, England, was one of the most influential modernist writers of the 20th ...
Voltaire: An Influential Enlightenment Writer
François-Marie Arouet, better known by his pen name Voltaire, was born on November 21, 1694, in Paris, France. He was the youngest of five children in a ...
Walter Scott: A Founder of the Historical Novel Genre
Sir Walter Scott was born on August 15, 1771, in Edinburgh, Scotland, into a respected family. His father, Walter Scott Sr., was a solicitor, and his ...
W. E. B. Du Bois: With A Soul of Black People
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, commonly known as W. E. B. Du Bois, was born on February 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He grew up in a ...
Willa Cather: A Literary Voice of the American Frontier
Willa Cather was born on December 7, 1873, in Back Creek Valley, Virginia, but her family moved to Nebraska when she was nine years old. The vast ...
William Golding: Exploring the Darkness Within
William Golding, the famous British author and Nobel Prize winner, was born on September 19, 1911, in Newquay, Cornwall, England. He grew up in a small ...
William Shakespeare: The Bard of Avon
William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He was the son of John Shakespeare, a successful glove-maker and ...