Biography of Roy Claxton Acuff
Country music singer, musician, and songwriter, born in Maynardville, Tennessee, USA, 15 September 1903 and died on 23 November 1992 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA with congestive heart failure. Roy Claxton Acuff was a crooning fiddle … read more
Biography of Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman was born in New York City on 31 July, 1912, the fourth child and only son of working class Jewish immigrants from a Hungarian community in what is now Ukraine. When he was … read more
Biography of Sankha Ghosh
Sankha Ghosh was born in 1932 and lives in Calcutta; retired in 1992 from Jadavpur University’s Bengali Depart- ment as a Professor; visited Iowa University, U.S.A. on Writers Program in l967-68; Poet-in-Residence at Visva-Bharati University … read more
Biography of Manik Banerjee
Manik Banerjee made his first appearance in Vangasri with his Divaratrir Kavya (A Poem of the Day and the Night) published as a book in 1935 and followed by Putul Nacher Itikatha (The Chronicles of … read more
Biography of Bibhutibhushan Banerjee
Bibhutibhushan Banerjee had been writing short stories which appeared in Pravasi since 1922 but those did not attract much notice before the publication of his first novel Pather PAnchali (A Pedestrian’s Rhymes, 1929) in the … read more
Biography of Betty Friedan
Betty Friedan, writer and feminist leader, born in Peoria, Illinois, USA. A summa cum laude graduate from Smith (1942), she was awarded fellowships for working toward a doctorate in psychology, but abandoned this under the … read more
Biography of James Michener
Writer, born in New York City, New York, USA. A foundling, he was raised by his adoptive parents, Edwin and Mabel Michener, in Doylesville, PA. He studied at Swarthmore College (1929 BA) and at European … read more
Biography of Gertrude Stein
Writer and art patron, born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, USA. The daughter of a wealthy merchant, she lived in Europe with her family (1874-9), and upon their return the family settled in Oakland, CA. She attended … read more
Biography of Langston Hughes
Poet, writer, playwright, and librettist, born in Joplin, Missouri, USA. After publishing his first poem, ‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ (1921), he attended Columbia University (1921), but left after one year to work on a … read more
Biography of Galway Kinnell
Poet and writer, born in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. He studied at Princeton (1948 BA), and the University of Rochester (1949 MA), travelled widely, and taught at many colleges. Based in Sheffield, VT he was … read more
Biography of Edgar Allen Poe
Poet and writer, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was abandoned by his father when a baby and his mother died before he was three, so he was taken as a foster child into the … read more
Biography of Dolly Parton
Singer, songwriter, actress. Born Dolly Rebecca Parton on January 19, 1946 in Locust Ridge, Tennessee. Raised in a poor family with 12 children, Parton learned to escape her life by making up songs. By age … read more
Biography of Benjamin Franklin
printer, writer, scientist, statesman. Born January 17, 1706, in Boston, Massachusetts. The 15th child in his family, Franklin went to work at age 10 in his father’s chandlery, then in a brother’s printing house. Ambitious … read more
Biography of William Kennedy
Novelist and screenwriter, born in Albany, New York, USA. He studied at Siena College, NY, and served in the US army (1950-2), before becoming a journalist and eventually a full-time writer. Ironweed (1983), his best-known … read more
Biography of Carl Sandburg
Poet, born in Galesburg, Illinois, USA. After trying various jobs, fighting in the Spanish-American War, and graduating from Lombard College, he became a journalist in Chicago, and started to write for Poetry. His work reflects … read more