Photo: Ulf Andersen / Getty Images (1991)
Sample of authors
Škvorecký, Josef
The Czech author, editor, translator and (film)scriptwriter Josef Škvorecký was born in Náchod, in Bohemia. He is considered to be one of the most important names in Czech literature, together with Jan Neruda, Jaroslav Hašek and Karel Čapek. One reason is that he described the problems and traumas of his home country in a convincing manner, while never hiding his interest in Western popular cult...
Painting by Henry L. Gates (1927)
Sample of authors
Doyle, Arthur Conan
Scottish author with Irish ancestry, born in Edinburgh. His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, worked as a civil servant, but was also a painter and illustrator. He was sickly, become seriously alcoholic over the years and was admitted into psychiatric care in 1885. He died in 1893. It was Arthur’s mother, Mary, born Foley, who instead held the family together, struggling to give her son a good e...