Lawrence, David Herbert 1885 1930 en 50 111960 David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 - 2 March 1930) was an important and controversial English writer of the 20th century, whose prolific and diverse output included novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, travel books, paintings, translations, literary criticism and personal letters. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialisation. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, sexuality, and instinctive behaviour. Lawrence's unsettling opinions earned him many enemies and he endured hardships, official persecution, censorship and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile he called his "savage pilgrimage." At the time of his death, his public reputation was that of a pornographer who had wasted his considerable talents. E. M. Forster, in an obituary notice, challenged this widely held view, describing him as "the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation." Later, the influential Cambridge critic F. R. Leavis championed both his artistic integrity and his moral seriousness, placing much of Lawrence's fiction within the canonical "great tradition" of the English novel. He is now generally valued as a visionary thinker and a significant representative of modernism in English literature, although some feminists object to the attitudes toward women and sexuality found in his works. Source: Wikipedia Lewis, Sinclair 1885 1951 en 3 16218 Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 — January 10, 1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930 he became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humour, new types of characters." His works are known for their insightful and critical views of American society and capitalist values. His style is at times droll, satirical, and yet sympathetic. Source: Wikipedia Ferber, Edna 1885 1968 en 8 8420 Edna Ferber (15 August 1885 - 16 April 1968), was an American novelist, author and playwright. Ferber's novels generally featured strong female protagonists, although she fleshed out multiple characters in each book. She usually highlighted at least one strong secondary character who faced discrimination ethnically or for other reasons; through this technique, Ferber demonstrated her belief that people are people and that the not-so-pretty persons have the best character. Due to her imagination in scene, characterization and plot, several theatrical and film productions have been made based on her works, including Show Boat, Giant, Saratoga Trunk, Cimarron (which won an Oscar) and the 1960 remake. Two of these works - Show Boat and Saratoga Trunk - were developed into musicals. When composer Jerome Kern proposed turning the very serious Show Boat into a musical, Ferber was shocked, thinking it would be transformed into a typical light entertainment of the 1920s, and it was not until Kern explained that he and Oscar Hammerstein II wanted to create a different type of musical that Ferber granted him the rights. Saratoga (musical) was written at a much later date, after serious plots had become acceptable in stage musicals. In 1925, she won the Pulitzer Prize for her book So Big, which was made into a silent film starring Colleen Moore that same year. An early talkie movie remake followed, in 1932, starring Barbara Stanwyck and George Brent, with Bette Davis in a supporting role. It was the only movie Stanwyck and Davis ever appeared in together, and Stanwyck played Davis' mother-in-law, although only a year older in real life, which allegedly displeased her, as did the attitude of the hoydenish Davis. A 1953 remake of So Big starred Jane Wyman in the Stanwyck role, and is the version most often seen today. Ferber was a member of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of wits who met for lunch every day at the Algonquin Hotel in New York. Ferber and another member of the Round Table, Alexander Woollcott, were long-time enemies, their antipathy lasting until Woollcott's death in 1943, although Howard Teichmann states in his biography of Woollcott that this was due to a misunderstanding. According to Teichmann, Ferber once described Woollcott as "a New Jersey Nero who has mistaken his pinafore for a toga." Ferber was portrayed by Lili Taylor in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. In 2002 in her hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin, the U.S. Postal Service issued an 83-cent commemorative stamp as part of the "Distinguished Americans" series. Artist Mark Summers, well known for his scratchboard technique, created this portrait for the stamp referencing a black-and-white photograph of Ferber taken in 1927. Source: Wikipedia Allain, Marcel 1885 1970 fr 2 2983 Marcel Allain (1885-1970) was a French writer mostly remembered today for his co-creation with Pierre Souvestre of the fictional arch-villain and master criminal Fantômas. The son of a Parisian bourgeois family, Allain studied law before becoming a journalist. He then became the assistant of Souvestre, who was already a well-known figure in literary circles. In 1909, the two men published their first novel, Le Rour. Investigating Magistrate Germain Fuselier, later to become a recurring character in the Fantômas series, appears in the novel. Then, in February 1911, Allain and Souvestre embarked upon the Fantômas book series at the request of publisher Arthème Fayard, who wanted to create a new monthly pulp magazine. The success was immediate and lasting. After Souvestre’s death in February 1914, Allain continued the Fantômas saga alone, then launched several other series, such as Tigris, Fatala, Miss Téria and Férocias, but none garnered the same popularity as Fantômas. In 1926, Allain married Souvestre’s girl-friend, Henriette Kistler. In total, Allain wrote more than 400 novels in his prolific career. Wylie, Ida Alexa Ross 1885 1959 en 4 2136 Ida Alexa Ross Wylie, better known as I.A.R. Wylie, was one of the most respected authors of her generation. She was an established poet and novelist honored by the journalistic and literary establishments of her time, and known around the world. Her dozen novels sold well enough to earn her a living, but Wylie's non-fiction (including her autobiographical work) was equally well-received, and she was unusual as an author in that she enjoyed both popular and critical success. Born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1885, she was taken by her parents to London in 1888, where her mother died soon after. She was raised by her father, Alexander Coghill Wylie, who utilized his own notions of bringing up children -- she was kept out of school and given large numbers of books to read, and she was taught to rely on her instincts until she was in her teens. She spent three years in finishing school in Belgium, and then studied in England, followed by years of studying in Germany, where she also taught and began writing. She became involved in the women's suffrage movement in England during the early teens, and made her first visit to America, which became her permanent home decades later in 1917. Wylie's wide range of education turned her into a true citizen of the world, and an author and traveler. These elements became a central virtue in her stories, taking place in various locales. Wylie's writing career took off in the teens, and her novel, The Red Mirage, was brought to the screen in 1915 as The Unknown. Four more of her stories were turned into movies over the next five years, but she fully hit her stride in the decade that followed. In 1920, Wylie published her first major novel, Toward Morning, which dealt with life in Germany. One of her later books, To the Vanquished, was an account of the changes that took place in Germany during the Nazi occupation. She also traveled to the Soviet Union and later wrote Furious Young Man, which is the story of a British youth who is frustrated with the shortcomings of his homeland's society and embraces communism. Nine movies based on her work (including a fresh adaptation of The Red Mirage as The Foreign Legion) were filmed during the '20s, and 10 more in the '30s. The most memorable screen adaptation of a Wylie novel, however, was Keeper of the Flame (1942), with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. The film is not a comedy, but one of the most sophisticated thrillers ever to come out of Hollywood -- a startling work issued from a major studio in wartime, dealing with the investigation of a deceased, wealthy and supposedly ultra-patriotic man whose unsavory secrets are revealed. The suspense elements in Keeper of the Flame rival the work of Alfred Hitchcock, and it contains political elements that seem almost subversive. It marked the peak of Wylie's influence as an author in Hollywood. Two more movies based on her work would follow in the '50s -- Phone Call From a Stranger (1952) and Torch Song (1953). She receded in prominence through the last years of her life. Wylie was the kind of female public figure that Katharine Hepburn often played onscreen. In 1946, she was one of 11 women in public life cited for her achievements by the Women's National Press Club. She was something of a literary celebrity for more than three decades, and from 1935 onward, she resided in the United States in the area around Princeton, NJ, with the exception of a short stint in Hollywood. Source:Allmovie.com Hall, Austin 1885 1933 en 1 799 Austin Hall (c. 1885 - 1933) was an American short story writer and novelist. He began writing when, while working as a cowboy, he was asked to write a story. He wrote westerns, science fiction and fantasy for pulp magazines. Source: Wikipedia