Sir Denham was an poet who was much in favour in royal circles. He was eventually elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London, a scientific body of men that was instigated during the reign of Charles II. Doubt surrounds Denham’s year of birth with some records suggesting 1614, while others say 1615. It is known that he came into the world in Dublin ...
Sir John Davies was an English poet who also served as a Member of Parliament on different occasions during the first two decades of the 17th century. As a prominent lawyer he was Attorney General for Ireland while laying down a number of legal principles that passed into the statute books for the whole British Empire. He was born in early April 1659, ...
William Davenant, whose name is sometimes spelled D'Avenant, was a 17th century English poet and playwright. He lived at a turbulent time in English history with his writing career spanning the Civil War, the Interregnum period between the execution of Charles I and the Restoration, and beyond. He was a leading figure in the English Renaissance theatre and was also a favoured ...
This distinguished English poet, novelist and literary critic had strong political views and actually became well known as an anarchist. Despite this though he attained a knighthood and was decorated for his First World War service. As well as poetry, Read wrote a number of books on art and, with a leaning towards art as an educational tool, he was among the ...
Sir Richard Fanshawe, 1st Baronet was a prominent 17th century English poet, politician and diplomat. Between the years 1661-1666he was a Privy Councillor serving in the House of Commons. During the Civil War he took the Royalist side and was a staunch supporter of King Charles II during the hostilities and he remained so later, when the king was in exile. Besides his ...
The 11th century Song dynasty poet and essayist Su Tung-po is also sometimes referred to as Su Shi or Su Tungpo. He was a multi-talented man, with art, calligraphy and gastronomy added to his literary skills. He had a keen interest in pharmacology and was an important political figure, working against the New Policy party that was led by Wang Anshi. His many ...
Raymond Clevie Carver was a 20th century American poet who was also a major contributor to the resurgence of short story writing in his country which happened during the 1980s. He was born on the 25th May 1938 in the mill town of Clatskanie, Oregon. He spent his formative years though in Yakima, Washington. It was a working class family with his father earning a ...
Raymond Knister was a 20th century Canadian writer whose poetry, novels and short stories, mostly about rural Canada, were much appreciated for their realism. Despite his brief spell on earth his was seen as a distinctively modern voice in the literary history of his country. He was born John Raymond Knister on the 27th May 1899 in the small town of Ruscom, Ontario. Little ...
Rémy Belleau, his Christian name sometimes spelled Rémi, was a 16th century French Renaissance poet. Many of his poems appeared to be paradoxical praise for simple concepts found in everyday life and he also wrote about precious stones. He was born into a noble family some time during the year 1528 in Nogent-le-Rotrou which is a small town in northern France, in the Eure-et-Loir department. ...
Sully Prudhomme, the French essayist and poet in 1901, had the honour of winning the first Nobel Prize for Literature. Born René François Armand Prudhomme on the 16th March 1839 in Paris, little is recorded about his upbringing but it is known that he was originally studying engineering but he changed streams and studied philosophy instead. When he later took an interest in the Parnassus school of poetry, it ...
