Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was a free-born African-American poet and novelist who, during the 19th century, was a leading light in the “Underground Railroad”. This was a network of routes, safe houses and people sympathetic to the plight of fleeing slaves. She worked alongside William Still of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society to help fugitives across the border to British North America (now known as ...
Francis Beaumont was an English poet and playwright of the Jacobean era who also had brief ambitions to be a lawyer, though these came to nothing in the end. He is probably best known for his collaborations with dramatists such as John Fletcher with whom he wrote a number of comedies and tragedies for the London stage. He was born sometime around the ...
Francis Hastings Doyle was a 19th century British poet, prominent lawyer and government official who, on the death of his father in 1839, became Sir Francis, 2nd Baronet. He was born Francis Hastings Charles Doyle on the 21st August 1810 close to the west Yorkshire town of Tadcaster. His family enjoyed comfortable circumstances with his father, also called Francis, being a distinguished officer ...
Francis Bret Harte was an American poet, playwright, journalist, literary critic and short story writer. Many of his pieces featured characters from the California Gold Rush such as the miners themselves and their gambling habits. He travelled widely across America and in Europe, gathering inspiration for future projects all the time. He was born Francis Brett Hart on the 25th August 1836 in Albany, ...
Francis Miles Finch was a US poet, academic and judge. He also served under President Ulysses Grant as a collector of internal revenue for the Twenty-sixth District, New York but this appointment lasted only four years when Finch resigned his post. His most famous literary work would probably be the poem The Blue and the Gray which is the story of reconciliation and unity after the ...
Frederic Manning was an Australian-born poet and novelist who lived most of his life in England. He was born on the 22nd July 1882 in Sydney into a large family of eight children, His father was the politician Sir William Patrick Manning whose ancestors had emigrated from Ireland. Frederic was educated at home and suffered with asthma from his infancy. Although the family were Roman Catholics ...
Francis Hopkinson was an 18th century American poet, song writer and politician whose major claim to fame would be that he was the designer of the first American flag following the War of Independence. He was also a high ranking lawyer, sitting as a judge and he also filled a number of positions in the fledgling government. He was born in September 1737 in Philadelphia. ...
Geoffrey Grigson was a 20th century English poet and literary critic whose cutting critical reviews of other writers’ work often made him enemies. Additionally he was a naturalist and literary magazine editor during the 1930s. His own poetic output was considerable, numbering some thirteen collections published during his long life time, and he often used the pseudonym Martin Boldero. He was born Geoffrey Edward ...
Edwin James Brady was an Australian poet, short story writer and journalist. A committed nationalist, he took an active interest in the Labour party and wrote a number of articles on socialist and economic issues of the day. He was born on the 7th August 1869 at Carcoar in New South Wales, the son of Irish immigrants. His father, Edward John, had originally ...
Marilyn Hacker is an American poet, literary critic and academic who was until fairly recently a Professor of English at the City College of New York, but is now retired. An acknowledged master of the "French forms" in poetry she has also translated a number of French works into English. She was born on the born 27th November 1942 in the Bronx district of New York City, ...
