Photo: 1929 Bassano/Camera Press / TT
Sample of authors
Maugham, W. Somerset
William Somerset Maugham was a British author born in Paris. His father was a lawyer at the British Embassy there. When Maugham was eight years old, his mother died of tuberculosis, two years later his father died of cancer and the boy was sent to live with his uncle, the Vicar of Whitstable in Kent. Maugham suffered from a serious stammer, he was shy and avoided speaking in public; unlike his...
Photo: Santi Visalli / Getty Images (1967)
Sample of authors
Stout, Rex
The American author Rex Todhunter Stout was born in Noblesville, Indiana, as the sixth of nine children to John and Lucetta Todhunter Stout who were both Quakers. When he was only a few months old, the family moved to Topeka, Kansas. As a child, Stout was good at mathematics and languages and he was later admitted to the University of Kansas at Lawrence, but his family could not afford to pay...