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Royal Literary Fund
The Royal Literary Fund (RLF) is a benevolent fund that gives assistance to published British writers in financial difficulties. Founded in 1790, and granted a royal charter in 1818, the Fund has helped an extensive roll of authors through its long history, from the most famous to the most obscure, whose cases are judged to be deserving. It also operates a Fellowship scheme, placing established writers in universities to encourage writing skills, and to monitor standards of writing in the higher education world. History The Fund was founded in 1790 by Reverend David Williams, who was inspired to set up the Fund by the death in debtors' prison of a translator of Plato's dialogues, Floyer Sydenham. Ever since then, the charity has received bequests and donations, including royal patronage. In 1818 the Fund was granted a royal charter, and was permitted to add "Royal" to its title in 1845. The Royal Literary Fund has given assistance to many distinguished writers over its history, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Kemp (playwright)
Edward Thomas Kemp (born 9 October 1965) is an English playwright and theatre director. He was Director of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) from 2008 to 2021. Early life Kemp was born in Oxford, the son of Eric Kemp (then an Oxford theologian, later Dean of Worcester and Bishop of Chichester) and his wife Patricia , daughter of Kenneth Kirk (also an Oxford theologian, latterly Bishop of Oxford). Kemp was a chorister at Worcester Cathedral and a pupil at the King's School, Worcester. He trained with the National Youth Theatre, and studied English Language and Literature at New College, Oxford. Directing After university, Kemp worked with the National Youth Theatre, before becoming an assistant director at the Chichester Festival Theatre, then with the Compass Theatre Company founded by Sir Anthony Quayle. From 1991 to 1996, Kemp was Staff Director at the Royal National Theatre, where he worked with directors including Steven Pimlott, Richard Eyre and Sir Nicholas Hyt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the twentieth century. Joyce's novel ''Ulysses (novel), Ulysses'' (1922) is a landmark in which the episodes of Homer's ''Odyssey'' are paralleled in a variety of literary styles, particularly stream of consciousness. Other well-known works are the short-story collection ''Dubliners'' (1914) and the novels ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' (1916) and ''Finnegans Wake'' (1939). His other writings include three books of poetry, a play, letters, and occasional journalism. Born in Dublin into a middle-class family, Joyce attended the Jesuit Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare, then, briefly, the Congregation of Christian Brothers, Christian Brothers–run O'Connell School. Despite the chaotic family li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Browning
Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian literature, Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings and challenging vocabulary and syntax. His early long poems Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession, ''Pauline'' (1833) and Paracelsus (poem), ''Paracelsus'' (1835) were acclaimed, but his reputation dwindled for a time – his 1840 poem Sordello (poem), ''Sordello'' was seen as wilfully obscure – and took over a decade to recover, by which time he had moved from Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelleyan forms to a more personal style. In 1846, he married fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Elizabeth Barrett and moved to Italy. By her death in 1861, he had published the collection Men and Women (poetry collection), ''Men and Women'' (1855). His Dramatis Personæ (poetry collection), ''Dramatis Personae'' (1864) and book-leng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray ( ; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist and illustrator. He is known for his Satire, satirical works, particularly his 1847–1848 novel ''Vanity Fair (novel), Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and the 1844 novel ''The Luck of Barry Lyndon'', which was Barry Lyndon, adapted for a 1975 film by Stanley Kubrick. Thackeray was born in Calcutta, British India, and was sent to England after his father's death in 1815. He studied at various schools and briefly attended Trinity College, Cambridge, before leaving to travel Europe. Thackeray squandered much of his inheritance on gambling and unsuccessful newspapers. He turned to journalism to support his family, primarily working for ''Fraser's Magazine'', ''The Times'', and ''Punch (magazine), Punch''. His wife Isabella suffered from mental illness. Thackeray gained fame with his novel ''Vanity Fair'' and produced several other notable works. He unsuccessfully ran f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school at age 12 to work in a boot-blacking factory when his father John Dickens, John was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. After three years, he returned to school before beginning his literary career as a journalist. Dickens edited a weekly journal for 20 years; wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and nonfiction articles; lectured and performed Penny reading, readings extensively; was a tireless letter writer; and campaigned vigor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (3 August 186714 December 1947), was a British statesman and Conservative politician who was prominent in the political leadership of the United Kingdom between the world wars. He was prime minister on three occasions, from May 1923 to January 1924, from November 1924 to June 1929 and from June 1935 to May 1937. Born to a prosperous family in Bewdley, Worcestershire, Baldwin was educated at Hawtreys, Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He joined the family iron- and steel-making business and entered the House of Commons in 1908 as the member for Bewdley, succeeding his father Alfred. He was Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1917–1921) and President of the Board of Trade (1921–1922) in the coalition ministry of David Lloyd George and then rose rapidly. In 1922, Baldwin was one of the prime movers in the withdrawal of Conservative support from Lloyd George; he subsequently became Chancellor of the Exchequer in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dr Livingstone
David Livingstone (; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, and an explorer in Africa. Livingstone was married to Mary Moffat Livingstone, from the prominent 18th-century Moffat missionary family. Livingstone came to have a mythic status as a Protestant missionary martyr, working-class " rags-to-riches" inspirational story, scientific investigator and explorer, imperial reformer, anti-slavery crusader, and advocate of British commercial and colonial expansion. As a result, he became one of the most popular British heroes of the late 19th-century Victorian era. Livingstone's fame as an explorer and his obsession with learning the sources of the Nile was founded on the belief that if he could solve that age-old mystery, his fame would give him the influence to end the East African Arab–Swahili slave trade. "The Nile sources", he told a friend, "are valuable only as a m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lord Palmerston
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865), known as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman and politician who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to 1865. A member of the Tory, Whig and Liberal parties, Palmerston was the first Liberal prime minister. He dominated British foreign policy from 1830 to 1865, when Britain stood at the height of its imperial power. He held office almost continuously from 1807 until his death in 1865. He began his parliamentary career as a Tory, defected to the Whigs in 1830, and became the first prime minister from the newly formed Liberal Party in 1859. He was highly popular with the British public. David Brown argues that "an important part of Palmerston's appeal lay in his dynamism and vigour". Temple succeeded to his father's Irish peerage (which did not entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords, leaving him eligible to sit in the House of Commons) as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party. In a career lasting over 60 years, he was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for 12 years, spread over four non-consecutive terms (the most of any British prime minister) beginning in 1868 and ending in 1894. He also was Chancellor of the Exchequer four times, for over 12 years. He was a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for 60 years, from 1832 to 1845 and from 1847 to 1895; during that time he represented a total of five Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, constituencies. Gladstone was born in Liverpool to Scottish people, Scottish parents. He first entered the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons in 1832, beginning his political career as a High Tory, a grouping that became the Conservative Party (UK), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Catherine Rowsell
Mary Catherine Rowsell (29 December 183915 June 1921) was an English novelist, author of children's fiction, and dramatist. Her education in Belgium and Germany resulted in books based on German folk tales, and on French historical figures. Most of her children's books were set around well-known historical events. Early life Rowsell was born on 29 December 1839 and baptised in St. Dionis Backchurch on 22 January 1840. Her father was Charles John Rowsell (28 March 180228 January 1882), an accountant who may have patented the Graphoscope and certainly patented improvements to it. Her mother was Sarah Lewis (buried 18 August 1897), and her parents were married on 6 June 1829, in St. Nicholas, Brighton, Sussex, England. Her uncle was the popular preacher Thomas James Rowsell, and her aunt Sarah Rowsell was married to the architect Sir Charles Barry. Rowsell was educated at Queen's College, London in Harley Street, and later in Brussels and Bonn. This enabled her to write books ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anne Burke (writer)
Anne Burke (fl. 1780-1805) was an Irish novelist in the Gothic genre. She was one of the earliest women writers of Gothic fiction. Life and work Anne Burke had been a governess and was widowed with a son. She took up writing to support herself and her family. Becoming a writer did not provide the wealth she had hoped for. She applied for relief several times to the Royal Literary Fund from whom she received a total of 13 guineas. As a governess she hoped to set up a school despite having had to nurse her son through smallpox. She wrote multiple successful novels in the Gothic style, though she was known too for her melodramatic style. Her novel ''Adela Northington'' was just one of the huge rise in numbers of new publications in 1796. It was a huge jump from the previous year. ''Ela: or The Delusions of the Heart'' was one of the books translated into multiple other languages. It was reprinted several times. This book may have been an influence on Ann Radcliffe’s '' The Rom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mervyn Peake
Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was a British writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the '' Gormenghast'' books. The four works were part of what Peake conceived as a lengthy cycle, the completion of which was prevented by his death. They are sometimes compared to the work of his older contemporary J. R. R. Tolkien, but Peake's surreal fiction was influenced by his early love for Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson rather than Tolkien's studies of mythology and philology. Peake also wrote poetry and literary nonsense in verse form, short stories for adults and children ('' Letters from a Lost Uncle'', 1948), stage and radio plays, and '' Mr Pye'' (1953), a relatively tightly structured novel in which God implicitly mocks the evangelical pretensions and cosy world-view of the eponymous hero. Peake first made his reputation as a painter and illustrator during the 1930s and 1940s, when he live ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
