Washington Allston was an American poet and artist who was, perhaps, best known for being a pioneer in the American Romantic movement of landscape painting. As an artist he was an exponent of bold colours and dramatic scenes while his poetry was well liked during his lifetime. Some called him the "American Titian", in honour of his Venetian Renaissance style of painting. He spent ...
William Edward Harney, more often known as Bill Harney, was an Australian outback writer whose work often featured the lives of the Northern Territories Aboriginal people. He lived a tough, uncompromising life, overcoming poverty and hardship whenever he could. He was born on the 18th April 1895 in Charters Towers, Queensland. His parents had emigrated from England and the education of their three children ...
Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov was a Russian poet, philosopher, playwright and translator who also acted as a literary critic. His work, up to around the 1920s, can be placed amongst that of prominent Russian Symbolist writers and artists. He was born on the 28th February 1866 in Moscow. He did well at school, graduating with a gold medal, and this earned him the right to ...
Vladimir Mayakovsky was a Russian poet and playwright who also acted on stage and in films. He was also the editor of a literary journal called LEF. Prior to the 1917 Revolution he was part of the short-lived Russian Futurist movement. His work suggested that he was very much pro-Lenin and pro-Communist Party. He did, however, find himself at odds with their overbearing tendency ...
Viggo Stuckenberg was a Danish poet and novelist whose short life spanned the second half of the 19th century and the first few years of the 20th. As a young man he wrote in lyrical style, mostly portraying pastoral subjects. Later on he favoured the Expressionism and Realism movements in literature although critics have said that he could not truly be considered a part of those movements. He was ...
Wali Muhammad Wali was a South Asian classical Urdu poet who is known by a number of names including Wali Deccani, Wali Gujarati and Wali Aurangabadi, the latter name relating to his place of birth. He is considered to be the father of Urdu poetry, specifically because he was the first to compose the poetic form known as Ghazals using the Urdu language. This ancient poetic ...
Vance Palmer was an Australia-born poet, playwright, novelist, essayist and radio broadcaster who wrote a number of politically-themed pieces on Australian nationalism and worldwide fascism. He was also a leading literary critic, contributing many articles to various magazines and newspapers. He was born Edward Vivian Palmer on the 28th August 1885 in Bundaberg, Queensland, the son of a school master. He was educated at ...
Vasily Zhukovsky was a leading Russian poet during the first half of the 19th century whose skills brought him to the attention of the ruling Romanovs. He was employed as a tutor, firstly teaching Russian to the German-born Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna. Later on he taught her son, the boy who would go on to become Tsar Alexander II. He is famous ...
Victor James Daley was an Irish-born Australian poet and journalist whose assignments included such publications as the Sydney Punch and The Bulletin. His lyrical style was a stark contrast to the more popular “bush balladists” around at the end of the 19th century. He was considered to be part of the Irish Literary Revival, also known as the Celtic Twilight, which saw ...
Victoria Sackville-West, better known as ‘Vita’, was a colourful figure throughout the first half of the 20th century. A prize-winning author, she wrote a great deal of poetry along with a number of novels and books about gardening techniques. She passed on many of her gardening tips through a weekly column in The Observer newspaper. When her husband, Harold Nicolson, was knighted ...
