Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Anne Tyler, author of The Accidental Tourist, was born in Minneapolis Minnesota on October 25th, 1941. She grew up in rural North Carolina in a Quaker commune. Tyler did not attend a traditional school until she was 11 years old, instead going to the tiny schoolhouse that the mountain children attended in the mornings and in the afternoons going to homes within the commune to learn from those within the community.
It's commonly known that “Frankenstein” was the creation of nineteen-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Goodwin (later, Shelley) in a contest to create the scariest ghost story as a guest at the Lord Byron’s Italian villa. However, there may be significantly more to the story. There were four separate European scientists who may perhaps have played muse to Mary: Luigi Galvani, Giovanni Aldini, Andew Ure, and perhaps most influentially, Johann Konrad Dippel.
Even the earliest recorded tales have elements of horror, fear, and despair, and the archetypes of horror have likely lasted much longer. The vampire archetype, for example, can be traced all the way back to the ancient civilization of Sumer; the vampire-like being Emikku would inhabit the bodies of people who had died violently or who were buried improperly.
From modern-day dinosaurs to soapy hospital dramas, Michael Crichton is probably the creative mind behind at least one of your favorite guilty pleasures in novels, movies, or television shows. In 1994, he became the first writer to have his work land at number one in film, television, and book sales all at the same time. His most well-known creations – Jurassic Park and "ER" – reflect the frequent genres and themes he chose: action, science fiction, medicine, and biotechnology.
The ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography, given every fourth year to the most outstanding scholarly book about books and worth $10,000, is one of the most prestigious prizes in the field of bibliography.
October is the month of goblins, ghosts, and ghouls. While these imaginary creatures are surely scary, another sort of monster has fascinated and frightened us since 1886. That year, Robert Louis Stevenson published Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The tale has gripped generations of readers because it reminds us that we all have monsters lurking within.
Despite James Boswell’s great efforts, he is really only known for two things: his outstanding biography of Samuel Johnson, and that he contracted various venereal diseases at least 17 times.
Few characters have captured our imagination like Bram Stoker's Dracula - the fearsome figure who makes frequent appearances around Halloween. However, Stoker's depiction of Dracula wasn't quite accurate, and neither are many interpretations of the character that we find today.
A Washington Post reviewer declared William Boyd's Solo the "boldest departure of the James Bond series." When Boyd took up the mantle of the James Bond legacy, he used the privilege to reinterpret the character of 007.
Born in Cuba on October 15, 1923, Italo Calvino became one of Italy’s most famous writers. He was one of a family of scientists; his parents, Mario and Eva, were botanists and his brother, Floriano, became a geologist. When Calvino returned to Italy as a young boy, he faced considerable familial pressure to pursue a life of science.
