Anniversaries, 16 April
Anatole France
Anatole France, born in Paris as Anatole François Thibault, was a French novelist and poet. He grew up among books above his father’s bookshop at Quai Malaquais. Anatole France read copiously throughout his life, but was less serious about his formal education. He was an average student at a private Jesuit school – where he cultivated a strong aversion to the Catholic faith – and later at university where he read literature and philosophy. Instead of obeying his father and becoming a civil serva...
Anniversaries, 16 April
Auguste Groner
Auguste Groner was an Austrian author, newspaper editor and pioneering woman author of crime fiction. Die Goldene Auguste is a triennial prize awarded by the European branch of the American association Sisters in Crime and many of Groner's stories have been published since 2000 in both English and German.
She was born in Vienna as Auguste Kopollik, the daughter of a wealthy civil servant who made sure she received a good education in art and music. She also trained as a teacher and worked at...
Photo: Hulton Deutsch/Corbis Historical via Getty Images (1949)
Sample of authors
Blackwood, Algernon
British writer Algernon Blackwood was born in the South East London district of Shooter’s Hill. In 1871 his family relocated to nearby Crayford. Both parents were stout Calvinists. In his teens, Blackwood broke away from their faith and embraced Buddhist teachings, thus forming a life-long penchant for oriental mysticism, occultism and theosophy. He studied at Wellington College in Berkshire a...