
Sample of authors
MacLean, Alistair
The Scottish author Alistair Stuart MacLean was born in Shettleston, Glasgow, in a Gaelic-speaking family as Alasdair MacGill-Eain (his Gaelic name was anglicised by the British authorities). His father was a Church of Scotland minister. While the author was still a baby, the family moved to a farm near Daviot in the Highlands. After the death of his father, his mother returned to Glasgow with...

Sample of authors
Pattison, Eliot
The American author and lawyer, Joseph Eliot Pattison, was born in Philadelphia. He grew up on a farm run by his father; his mother was a bank official. As a child, he devoured books and often disappeared into the forest to read. An aunt who was a librarian in the American army used to supply him with literature from the various countries where she was stationed. Pattison himself says that the...