James Jones (6 November, 1921 – 9 May, 1977)was an American author, mostly known for his award winning novel From Here to Eternity.

Captain Frederick Marryat (10 July, 1792 – 9 August, 1848) was a Royal Navy officer, and a novelist who pioneered historical naval fiction.

His literary reputation was not only based on criticism, but also on the poetry Mr. Blackmur wrote.

Ralph Ellison (1 March, 1914 – 16 April, 1994) was an award winning novelist, critic and scholar known for his novel Invisible Man. Books by Ralph Ellison* Born in Oklahoma City, OK, he was the grandson of slaves. His middle name was Waldo, and yes, he was named after Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ellison played his first musical instrument, a cornet, at the age of 8 years old. After high school, Mr. Ellison enrolled in the Tuskegee Institute as a music major. Unfortunately for the music world, but fortunately for the literary world, Mr. Ellison never finished his studies, but stayed in New York City to write. When World War II broke out, Mr. Ellison joined the U.S. Merchant Marine as a cook, fighting in the North Atlantic. Even though he had some communist sympathies, after the war he lost his faith as he felt the party betrayed African Americans. In 1952 his first novel, Invisible Man, was published to much success. It stayed on the best-seller list for 16 weeks and won the National Book Award. In 1967 a major house fire destroyed 300 pages of Mr. Ellison’s second novel. Even though he later wrote more than 2,000 pages, the…

When his poetry book, El cencerro de cristal, didn’t sell Güiraldes threw the unsold copies into a well. His wife, Adelina del Carril, fished them out and now they are sought after collectibles.

When Madame Bovary was serialized in a newspaper, the French government sued the author and publisher on charges of immorality. The government lost.

William Butler Yeats (13 June, 1865- 28 January, 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, and prose writer. He is considered one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century.

Maxim Gorky (28 March, 1868 – 18 June, 1936) was an important Russian writer and political activist.

January 17 is the birthday of one of the most famous man in American History, Benjamin Franklin ( 17 January, 1706 – 17 April, 1790). I read Benjamin Franklin’s Biography by Walter Isaacson a few years ago and it is, to this day, a favorite of mine. Many people know that Mr. Franklin was a printer, but here are a few interesting facts about his printing career and love of books & libraries.

Today marks the burning down of the historic Globe Theatre in London, 1613. The theatre was built by Lord Chamberlain’s Men, part of which was, of course, William Shakespeare.