Josef Brodsky (1940 - 1996)

Poet. Born a photographer’s son in Leningrad, Russia, although the family primarily lived on the income brought in by his mother. As a young child he and his family survived the Siege of Leningrad. After the war he began attending school, though he dropped out at the age of fifteen and began working at the […]

Fawn McKay Brodie (1915 - 1981)

Author,  Historian. One of the founders of the genre of history known variously as “psychohistory” or “psychobiography”. Fawn McKay was born into a respected, though poor, Mormon family. She demonstrated academic prowess from an early age, attended Weber College for two years, and received her B.A. in English from the University of Utah in 1934. […]

David Salzer Broder (1929 - 2011)

Journalist. In his time he was considered the dean of the Washington press corps, having written for the Washington Post since 1966. Broder covered every presidential race from Eisenhower to Obama, and won a 1973 Pulitzer Prize for commentary for his coverage of the Watergate scandal. He also taught at the University of Maryland’s school […]

Max Brod (1884 - 1968)

Close friend of Franz Kafka, he also served as an editor on all of Kafka’s  major works. He was also a novelist  and essayist in his own right (German language).

Hermann Broch (1886 - 1951)

Hermann Broch was born in Vienna to a prosperous Jewish family and worked for some time in his family’s factory, though he maintained his literary interests privately. He was predestined to work in his father’s textile factory in Teesdorf, therefore, he attended a technical college for textile manufacture and a spinning and weaving college. In 1909 […]

Thomas Broadhurst (1970 - 1936)

Playwright. He wrote the plays ‘Evangeline'(1913) and ‘Pleasant Sins’ (1919), which was made into the movie “Damaged Love”(1931).  (bio by: Ginny M)  Family links:  Spouse:  Iva Broadhurst (1875 – 1949)* *Calculated relationship

Ivana Mazuranic Brlic (1874 - 1938)

Author. Known as the “Croatian Hans Christian Andersen,” she was born into privilage at Ogulin, Croatia to the famous Mazuranic family whose noted members were historians, politicians, writers and poets. Her grandfather was Ivan Mazuranic, “Viceroy” in the Austro-Hungarian empire and the author of many Croatian epic poems. At the age of eighteen, she married […]

Vera Brittain (1893 - 1970)

British pacifist, feminist, poet, and novelist. She was born at Newcastle under Lyme, Staffordshire. Her father, Thomas Brittain, was a wealthy paper manufacturer, and her mother Edith Bervon. Vera was educated at home by a governess, then at a boarding school in Surrey and finally at Somerville College, Oxford. In 1914 Vera met and fell […]

Arthur Brisbane (1863 - 1936)

In 1882, Arthur Brisbane began work as a newspaper reporter and editor in New York City, first at the Sun and later Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. Hired away from Pulitzer by William Randolph Hearst, he became editor of the New York Journal and Hearst’s close friend. His syndicated editorial column had an estimated daily […]

William Clark Brinkley (1917 - 1993)

Writer and Journalist. He was an American writer and journalist, best known for his novels Don’t Go Near the Water (1956), which Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer adapted to an eponymous 1957 film, and The Last Ship (1988), which TNT adapted as an 2014–2015 television series. After graduating from the University of Oklahoma in 1940, Brinkley went on to […]

Francis Brinkley (1841 - 1912)

Diplomat, educator and writer. Francis Brinkley first went to Japan in 1867 as assistant attache to the Japanese Legation. He and his son, Jack Ronald, greatly contributed to the culture and education in Japan. Brinkley was born at Leinster, Ireland. His grandfather was a bishop and professor of astronomy in Dublin University. Brinkley studied at […]

Andre Brink (1935 - 2015)

Andre Brink was born in Vrede, in the Free State. Brink moved to Lydenburg, where he matriculated at Hoerskool Lydenburg in 1952 with seven distinctions, the second student from the then Transvaal to achieve this feat and studied Afrikaans literature in the Potchefstroom University of South Africa. His immense attachment with literature carried him to […]

John Brimhall (1928 - 2003)

John Brimhall (November 22, 1928 – December 2, 2003) was an American musical arranger and author of books on music composition, theory, and performance. Brimhall is perhaps best known for his easy arrangements of classical and American popular music for piano students. He studied at Loyola University, the University of San Francisco and Stanford University. Brimhall is […]

Leighton Brill (1893 - 1977)

American screenwriter of the 1940s. (bio by: A.J. Marik) Cause of death: Pneumonia

Dr Rużar Briffa (1906 - 1963)

Poet. Considered to this day as a major figure in Maltese literature, Rużar Briffa was born in Valletta in 1906 and received his first education at St. Elmo’s Elementary State School and the Valletta Lyceum. Obtaining the matriculation certificate, in 1923 he started teaching at elementary schools, however a year later he decided to further […]

Robert Seymour Bridges (1844 - 1930)

Poet Laureate. He was born in Walmer, Kent and was educated at Eton and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He went on to study medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital which he later practised. In 1882 he abandoned medical practice to devote himself to writing.  Two years later, on September 3, 1884, he married Monica Waterhouse. They […]

Clemens von La Roche Brentano (1778 - 1842)

Author and one of the major poets of late romanticism. Many of his poemswere made into folk songs and he collaborated with his brother-in-law Achim von Arnim in a compilation of folk songs which was called “Des Knaben Wunderhorn” (The boy’s miracle horn) and has remained well known until today

Gerald Brenan (1894 - 1987)

Noted Author. His books include “El Laberinto Español” and “Sur de Granada.” He lived and died in Alhaurín el Grande (Granada). At the time of his death, his body was donated to the Medicine Faculty of Málaga for medical research and later cremated and buried. (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)  Family links:  Spouse:  Gamel […]

Bertolt Brecht (1898 - 1956)

Playwright.  Family links:  Parents:  Berthold Friedrich Brecht (1869 – 1939)  Sophie Brezing Brecht (1871 – 1920)  Spouses:  Helene Weigel-Brecht (1900 – 1971)  Marianne Zoff (1893 – 1984)*  Children:  Hanne Brecht Hiob (1923 – 2009)* *Calculated relationship

Richard Gary Brautigan (1935 - 1984)

Writer, poet, novelist. Works include “Revenge of the Lawn,” “The Abortion: A Historical Romance 1966,” “Trout Fishing In America,” “A Confederate General From Big Sur,” “Dreaming of Babylon,” and “So The Wind Won’t Blow It All Away.” Cause of death: suicide by gunshot to the head

Lilian Jackson Braun (1913 - 2011)

Author. A respected Detroit journalist, she is remembered for her 29 best-selling “The Cat Who…” mystery novels. Raised in a variety of places before settling in Michigan, she began working for the “Detroit News” and as a department store advertising copywriter while in her teens. Eventually Braun joined the “Detroit Free Press” where she was […]

Fernand Braudel (1902 - 1985)

Historian.

Bobbi Brat (1962 - 1988)

Singer/songwriter. Born in 1962, Bobbi did time living on the streets but was lauded for never losing a basic decency. Bobbi was well-known on the California punk scene in the late seventies and early eighties and was highly respected. She was called tough, beautiful, kind, talented, and an incredible singer. Bobbi was one of the […]

Robert Brasillach (1909 - 1945)

Author. Prolific novelist, poet and playwright author of several acclaimed novels and co-author, with Maurice Bardèche, of “L’Histoire Du Cinéma,” the first prominent survey of film. He was also editor of the major fascist and anti-semitic newspaper in Paris. Tried and executed for treason by a firing squad, he was the only writer of any […]

Charles Brasch (1909 - 1973)

New Zealand poet. In 1947 he launched Landfall, a literary journal that gained an international reputation and influenced New Zealand’s cultural life.

William Cowper Brann (1855 - 1898)

Writer, Publisher. He wrote and published ‘The Iconoclast’ magazine out of Waco, Texas in the 1890s. Circulation was in every state and 20 foreign countries. He was shot in the back by an irate Baptist on a downtown Waco street. He turned, pulled his pistol and killed his assassin. Baptists disliked Brann because he ridiculed […]

Georg Brandes (1842 - 1927)

Biographer, wrote biographies about Goethe and Kierkegaard.

Millen Brand (1906 - 1980)

Novelist, Poet, Screenwriter. He is best known for the critically-acclaimed, best-selling novel “The Outward Room”(1937), and the Oscar-nominated screenplay (with Frank Partos) for ”The Snake Pit”(1948). Born Elmer Millen Brand in Jersey City, New Jersey, he was the son of Elmer Brand and Carrie E. Myers. In 1929, he graduated from the Columbia University School […]

Mary Lydia Bolles Branch (1840 - 1922)

Author. Writer of stories for children. Some of her books are “The Kantor Girls,” “The Old Hempstead House,” “Home of Eighth Generations,” and “The Manner of Life of Nancy Hempstead.” (bio by: Laurie)  Family links:  Parents:  John Rogers Bolles (1810 – 1895)  Mary Hempstead Bolles (1811 – 1859)  Spouse:  John Locke Branch (1837 – 1908) […]

Anne Dudley Bradstreet (1612 - 1672)

Poet. Born Anne Dudley to nonconformist parents Thomas Dudley and Dorothy Yorke Dudley in Northampton, England. Her father was the steward for the Earl of Lincoln and afforded his daughter an unusually complete education. About 1620 she married Simon Bradstreet, her father’s assistant. On March 29, 1630, Bradstreet and her family sailed for the New […]