John Buchan (1875 - 1940)

British Peer, Author. Born in Perth, Scotland, the eldest son of Reverend John Buchan and Helen Masterson. He attended the University of Glasgow on scholarship where he began writing both prose and poetry, and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate prize for poetry. He passed the bar in 1901 and worked on the […]

Martin Buber (1878 - 1965)

Martin Buber (Hebrew: מרטין בובר‎‎, German: Martin Buber, Yiddish: מארטין בובער‎; February 8, 1878 – June 13, 1965) was an Austrian-born Israeli Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism centered on the distinction between the I–Thou relationship and the I–It relationship. Born in Vienna, Buber came from a family […]

Valery Bryusov (1873 - 1924)

Author. A leader of the Russian Symbolist movement. Although active mainly as a poet, Valery Bryusov is probably best known today for his historical novel “The Fiery Angel” (1908). Set during the Spanish Inquisition, this gloomy,  sexually-charged book had its origins in a real-life love triangle between Bryusov,  poet Nina Petrovskaya,  and Andrei Bely,  the […]

William Cullen Bryant (1794 - 1878)

“Thanatopsis” is William Cullen Bryant’s most famous poem, which Bryant may have been working on as early as 1811. In 1817 his father took some pages of verse from his son’s desk, and at the invitation of Willard Phillips, an editor of the North American Review who had previously been tutored in the classics by […]

Bernice Morgan Bryant (1906 - 1976)

Author. Best known for the following books ‘Dan Morgan, Boy of the Wilderness’,and ‘P’s and Q’s for Boys and Girls'(which was the Book of the Month for Parent’s Magazine). (bio by: Laurie)

Ford Richardson Bryan (1912 - 2004)

Author/Historian. As a 4th cousin of Henry Ford I, he authored many articles on the Ford Family and Henry Ford, in the Dearborn Historian, and the Ford Legend. He worked 33 years as a Spectrochemical Analyst for Ford Motor Company. When he became a volunteer at The Henry Ford in 1981, he found a lot […]

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)

Poet. Born Elizabeth Moulton-Barrett at Cohnadatia Hall in Durham, England,, family wealth from Jamaican sugar plantations gave Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her eleven brothers and sisters a privileged childhood. In her teens, she contracted a lung disorder, the nature of which is still speculated upon, and was treated as an invalid by her parents. In […]

Thomas Browne (1605 - 1682)

Author and Physician. Born in the parish of St Michael le Querne in London, educated at Oxford. He wrote ‘Religio Medici’, a literate attempt to reconcile the disciplines of science and religion. An authorised version was published in 1643. In the late 50’s he wrote ‘Urn Burials’, a reflection on mortality, and the curious ‘Garden […]

Sylvia Celeste Browne (1936 - 2013)

Psychic, Spiritual Medium, Author. Sylvia Celese Browne appeared regularly on television and radio, and hosted an hour-long Internet radio show on Hay House Radio. She was the subject of frequent criticism for making psychic predictions that were later proven false. She was the author of dozens of books on paranormal and spiritual topics. She discussed […]

Malcolm Wilde Browne (1931 - 2012)

Award-Winning Reporter and Photographer. Malcolm Wilde Browne, who spent most of his career writing for The New York Times, was working as a chemist in New York in the 1950s when he was drafted to go to Korea in 1956 where he drove a tank and was later assigned to write for the military newspaper, […]

George Forrest Browne (1833 - 1930)

George Forrest Browne (4 December 1833 – 1 June 1930) was an English bishop, the first Anglican Bishop of Stepney from 1895[1] until 1897 when he was appointed Bishop of Bristol. Browne was born in 1833[3] and educated at St Peter’s School, York and St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, gaining his BA as 30th wrangler in 1856. […]

William Wells Brown (1814 - 1884)

William Wells Brown (circa 1814 – November 6, 1884) was a prominent African-American abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian in the United States. Born into slavery in Montgomery County, Kentucky, near the town of Mount Sterling, Brown escaped to Ohio in 1834 at the age of 20. He settled in Boston, where he worked for […]

John Henry Brown (1820 - 1895)

John Henry Brown was born in Pike County, Missouri Territory, the son of Henry S. Brown and Margaret Jones Brown. He received little formal schooling but apprenticed as a youth in a printer’s office and various newspapers in Missouri. At age 17, Brown moved to the Republic of Texas and soon thereafter worked for a […]

Hablot Knight “Phiz” Brown (1815 - 1882)

British Book Illustrator. He began his career as an apprentice at the engraving firm of Findon Brothers, London.  Engraving was laborious work and he soon progressed to working on etchings and watercolors.  In 1833 he won the Society of Arts’ medal for his etching “John Gilpin’s Ride”.  In 1834 he went into business as an […]

George Douglas Brown (1869 - 1902)

George Douglas Brown was the illegitimate son of a farmer and a woman of Irish descent. He went to school at Ochiltree, Coylton, and Ayr, his academic performance allowing him to study Classics at the University of Glasgow and at Balliol College, Oxford. However his studies were interrupted by the illness of his mother; he […]

Estelle Aubrey Brown (1877 - 1958)

Author. He is best known for her works “A Woman of Character,” “With Trailing Banners,” and “Around Two Worlds.” She also wrote short stories and articles in leading magazines. (bio by: Laurie)

Clara Spalding Brown (1970 - 1935)

Author. Married to a mining engineer in Tombstone, Arizona, he became a journalist and author who detailed events the that part of the Western Frontier, and was present in the town during the famous “Shootout at the OK Corral”. She published the work “Life at Shut-In Valley and Other Pacific Coast Tales”, and in 1998 […]

Christy Brown (1932 - 1981)

Artist, Author. His life was the subject of the 1989 motion picture “My Left Foot,” starring actor Daniel Day-Lewis.  Born in Crumlin, Dublin, Ireland, Christy Brown was the tenth of twenty-two children (only thirteen would survive) of a poor Catholic family whose father was a bricklayer and mother was a schoolteacher.  Born with a severe […]

Charles Brockden Brown (1771 - 1810)

Author. Charles Brockden Brown is regarded as America’s first professional author. Born in Philadelphia,  his ancestors were Quakers who came over from England on the same ship with William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. In 1797 he quit his law studies and moved to New York City,  where he hoped to make a living as […]

Joan Brossa (1919 - 1998)

For him, expression had priority over content, and Joan Brossa managed to give his poetry the appearance of plays on words. His lyrical work is connected with the theatre while the totality of his literature (more of 80 books, all written in the Catalan language) is impregnated with the theatrical dimension as he always employed […]

Hans Adolph Brorson (1694 - 1764)

Hans Adolph Brorson (20 June 1694, Randerup – 3 June 1764, Ribe) was a Danish Pietist bishop and hymn writer. Brorson belonged to a clerical family: both of this brothers were energetic and successful Pietist vicars. He began publishing hymns in 1732 while a pastor in southern Jutland. His most important work was Troens rare klenodie […]

Walter R. Brooks (1886 - 1958)

Author. He is best known for the “Freddy the Pig” children’s book series.

Van Wyck Brooks (1886 - 1963)

Author and Critic. Van Wyck Brooks received a Pulitzer Prize for his literary history “The Flowering of New England.” He was the son of Charles Brooks, a New York stock broker and Sarah Ames Brooks lived in Plainfield, New Jersey.  He graduated from Harvard in 1908 after completing the four year course of studies in […]

Juanita Leone “Pulsipher” Leavitt Brooks (1898 - 1989)

Author. A native of Bunkerville, Nevada, she was a historian whose expertise was the American West and Mormon history. A lifetime member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, she was a graduate of the BYU and Columbia University. She later served as a member on the Board of Directors for the Utah […]

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (1917 - 2000)

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was an American poet and teacher. She was the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer when she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1950, for her second collection, Annie Allen. Throughout her career Brooks received many more honors. She was appointed Poet Laureate […]

Rupert Chawner Brooke (1887 - 1915)

Rupert Chawner Brooke made friends among the Bloomsbury group of writers, some of whom admired his talent while others were more impressed by his good looks. Virginia Woolf boasted to Vita Sackville-West of once going skinny-dipping with Brooke in a moonlit pool when they were in Cambridge together. Brooke belonged to another literary group known as […]

Charlotte Bronte (1816 - 1855)

British Novelist and Poet. Charlotte Bronte was the oldest of the three Bronte sisters who became renowned authors, the others being Emily and Anne Bronte. Additionally, she was also an accomplished artist. She was born the fourth of six children in Thornton, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Patrick and Marie Bronte. Her […]

Anne Bronte (1820 - 1849)

British Novelist and Poet. Anne Bronte was one of the three Bronte sisters who became renowned authors, the others being Charlotte and Emily Bronte. Even though she wrote and published only two novels, she would become a major literary figure in her own right. She was born the youngest of six children in Thornton, West […]

Louis Bromfield (1896 - 1956)

Author, FarmerBorn in Mansfield, Ohio to a third-generation farmer, Louis Bromfield went to school in Mansfield and spent his boyhood working as a cub reporter for the Mansfield newspaper and working on his grandfather’s farm. He attended Cornell and Columbia Universities, majoring in agriculture and journalism. However, he left before graduation to serve in World […]

Richard Brome (1970 - 1652)

Dramatist. England’s last important comic playwright of the Jacobean period, he was one of the “Sons of Ben”, a group of followers of Ben Jonson. His finest plays are broad satires of middle-class life in London. They include “The City Wit” (1628), “The Northern Lass” (1629), “The Weeding of Covent Garden” (1632), “The Sparagus Garden” […]