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Knox Burger
Knox Breckenridge Burger (November 1, 1922 – January 4, 2010) was an editor, writer, and literary agent. He published Kurt Vonnegut's first short story and with his wife he founded Knox Burger & Associates, a literary agency.Bruce Weber, Knox Burger, Agent and Book Editor, Dies at 87, ''New York Times'', January 12, 2010available here./ref> Early life Burger was born in New York City and lived in early life in Westchester County. Carl Burger, his father, was an illustrator. While serving in World War II, Burger contributed to ''Yank, the Army Weekly, Yank'', the Army weekly 1943–1944. In a B-29 Superfortress, B-29 bomb squadron in the Marianas, Burger covered a number of missions over Japan, and was transferred to the ''Yank'' Saipan bureau late summer 1945 just before the Japanese surrender. Burger moved north to Tokyo, where he was, for a few months, the editor of the Far East edition of ''Yank'', and wrote numerous stories about the occupation. Burger, like his father, the a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut ( ; November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American author known for his Satire, satirical and darkly humorous novels. His published work includes fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and five nonfiction works over fifty-plus years; further works have been published since his death. Born and raised in Indianapolis, Vonnegut attended Cornell University, but withdrew in January 1943 and enlisted in the United States Army, U.S. Army. As part of his training, he studied mechanical engineering at the Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Institute of Technology and the University of Tennessee. He was then deployed to Europe to fight in World War II and was captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. He was prisoner of war, interned in Dresden, where he survived the Bombing of Dresden in World War II, Allied bombing of the city in a meat locker of the slaughterhouse where he was imprisoned. After the war, he married Jane Marie Cox ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck ( ; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception". He has been called "a giant of American letters." During his writing career, he authored 33 books, with one book coauthored alongside Edward Ricketts, including 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories. He is widely known for the comic novels ''Tortilla Flat'' (1935) and ''Cannery Row (novel), Cannery Row'' (1945), the multigeneration epic ''East of Eden (novel), East of Eden'' (1952), and the novellas ''The Red Pony'' (1933) and ''Of Mice and Men'' (1937). The Pulitzer Prize–winning ''The Grapes of Wrath'' (1939) is considered Steinbeck's masterpiece and part of the Western canon, American literary canon. By the 75th anniversary of its publishing date, it had sold 14 million copies. Much of Steinbec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gorky Park (novel)
''Gorky Park'' is a 1981 crime novel written by American author Martin Cruz Smith.O'Brien, Timothy L. ''The New York Times'' (August 6, 2007)"Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko series: A trail of clues to the Russian soul"Wroe, Nicholas, ''The Guardian'' (March 26, 2005)"Crime Pays" Set in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, ''Gorky Park'' is the first book in a series featuring the character Arkady Renko, a Moscow homicide investigator. Two subsequent books, '' Polar Star'' and ''Red Square'', are also set during the Soviet era. Seven further books starring Renko take place after the fall of the Soviet Union. These are '' Havana Bay'', set in communist Cuba; '' Wolves Eat Dogs'', which follows Renko in the disaster of Chernobyl; '' Stalin's Ghost'', in which Arkady returns to a Russia led by Vladimir Putin; '' Three Stations''; ''Tatiana''; ''The Siberian Dilemma''; and ''Independence Square''.See, Carolyn, ''The Washington Post'' (September 3, 2010)Three Stations,' the new th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis L'Amour
Louis Dearborn L'Amour (; né LaMoore; March 22, 1908 – June 10, 1988) was an American novelist and short story writer. His books consisted primarily of Western novels, though he called his work "frontier stories". His most widely known Western fiction works include '' Last of the Breed'', ''Hondo'', '' Shalako'', and the Sackett series''.'' L'Amour also wrote historical fiction ('' The Walking Drum''), science fiction ('' The Haunted Mesa''), non-fiction (''Frontier''), and poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into films. His books remain popular and most have gone through multiple printings. At the time of his death, almost all of his 105 existing works (89 novels, 14 short-story collections, and two full-length works of nonfiction) were still in print, and he was "one of the world's most popular writers". Life and career Early life Louis Dearborn LaMoore was born in Jamestown, North Dakota, on March 22, 1908, the seventh child of Emily Dearb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Cruz Smith
Martin Cruz Smith, born Martin William Smith (November 3, 1942), is an American writer of mystery and suspense fiction, mostly in an international or historical setting. He is best known for his series featuring Russian investigator Arkady Renko, so far ten novels, who was introduced in 1981 with '' Gorky Park'' and most recently appeared in ''Independence Square'' (2023). Early life and education Martin William Smith was born in Reading, Pennsylvania to John Calhoun Smith, a jazz musician, and Louise Lopez, an American Indian of Pueblo descent, jazz singer, teacher, Amerindian rights militant, and Miss New Mexico 1939. Martin was educated at Germantown Academy, in Ft Washington, Pennsylvania, then at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing in 1964. He is of partly Pueblo, Spanish, Senecu del Sur and Yaqui ancestry. Career Smith worked as a journalist from 1965 to 1969 and began writing fiction in the early 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Caunitz
William J. Caunitz (January 25, 1933 – July 20, 1996) was a New York City Police Department officer who used his own experiences on the police force to write best-selling thrillers. His first novel ''One Police Plaza'' was made into a television film starring Robert Conrad. The 1991 feature film ''Homicide'', directed by David Mamet, was adapted from his second book ''Suspects''. Biography and career Caunitz was born in Brooklyn and graduated from Erasmus Hall High School. His father was a professional piano player and his mother, a housewife. He served in the United States Marine Corps from 1949 to 1953. After working for an insurance company in New Jersey as a map clerk; in 1955 he joined the NYPD in his twenties. He first worked as a patrolman, and eventually rose through the ranks to become a lieutenant, followed by an assignment as a detective squad commander. He graduated from City College with a bachelor's degree, and in 1972, he earned a master's degree in history from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald Westlake
Donald Edwin Westlake (July 12, 1933 – December 31, 2008) was an American writer with more than one hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers, with an occasional foray into science fiction and other genres. Westlake created two professional criminal characters who each starred in a long-running series: the relentless, hardboiled Parker (published under the pen name Richard Stark), and John Dortmunder, who featured in a more humorous series. He was a three-time Edgar Award winner and, alongside Joe Gores and William L. DeAndrea, was one of few writers to win Edgars in three different categories (1968, Best Novel, ''God Save the Mark''; 1990, Best Short Story, "Too Many Crooks"; 1991, Best Motion Picture Screenplay, '' The Grifters''). In 1993, the Mystery Writers of America named Westlake a Grand Master, the highest honor bestowed by the society. Personal life Westlake was born in Brooklyn, New York, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald McCaig
Donald McCaig (May 1, 1940 in Butte, Montana – November 11, 2018) was an American novelist, poet, essayist and sheepdog trainer. Early life and education McCaig was born in Butte, Montana and served in the United States Marine Corps for two years. He received a BA in philosophy from Montana State University in 1963 and subsequently completed postgraduate studies in shepherding and sheepdogs. Career He had a brief but successful career on New York's Madison Avenue before moving to a sheep farm in Bath County, Virginia, Bath County, near Williamsville, Virginia, Williamsville in the western mountains of Virginia with his wife, Anne. His 1998 novel, ''Jacob's Ladder'', and his 2008 novel, ''Canaan'', won the ''Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction''. ''Jacob's Ladder'' also won the Library of Virginia Fiction Award, the John Esten Cooke Award for Southern Fiction, and the W.Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction. His last work was ''Ruth's J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morris West
Morris Langlo West (26 April 19169 October 1999) was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels ''The Devil's Advocate (West novel), The Devil's Advocate'' (1959), ''The Shoes of the Fisherman (novel), The Shoes of the Fisherman'' (1963) and ''The Clowns of God'' (1981). His books were published in 27 languages and sold more than 60 million copies worldwide. Each new book he wrote after he became an established writer sold more than one million copies. West's works were often focused on international politics and the role of the Roman Catholic Church in international affairs. In ''The Shoes of the Fisherman'' he described the election and career of a Slav as Pope, 15 years before the historic election of Karol Wojtyła as Pope John Paul II. The sequel, ''The Clowns of God'', described a successor Pope who resigned the papacy to live in seclusion, 32 years before the abdication of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013. Early life West was born in St Kilda, Victoria, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MacKinlay Kantor
MacKinlay Kantor (February 4, 1904 – October 11, 1977), born Benjamin McKinlay Kantor, was an American journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He wrote more than 30 novels, several set during the American Civil War, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1956 for his 1955 novel, ''Andersonville''. He also wrote the novel ''Gettysburg'', set during the Civil War. Early life and education Kantor was born and grew up in Webster City, Iowa, with his older sister, Virginia. His mother, Effie (McKinlay) Kantor, worked as the editor of the ''Webster City Daily News'' during part of his childhood. His father, John Martin Kantor, was a native-born Swedish Jew descended from "a long line of rabbis, who posed as a Protestant clergyman". His mother was of English, Irish, Scottish, and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. (Later, MacKinlay Kantor wrote an unpublished novel called ''Half Jew''.) republished on ''Mystery File'' Kantor's father had trouble keeping jobs and ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Tevis
Walter Stone Tevis Jr. (; February 28, 1928 – August 9, 1984) was an American novelist and screenwriter. Three of his six novels were adapted into major films: '' The Hustler'', ''The Color of Money'' and '' The Man Who Fell to Earth''. A fourth, '' The Queen’s Gambit'', was adapted into a miniseries with the same title and shown on Netflix in 2020. His books have been translated into at least 18 languages. Early life Tevis was born in San Francisco, California, in 1928 to Anna Elizabeth "Betty" (née Bacon) and Walter Stone Tevis, an appraiser, growing up in the Sunset District, across the street from Golden Gate Park. His sister, Betty, was born in 1925. He developed a rheumatic heart condition, so his parents placed him in the Stanford Children's Convalescent home (where he was given heavy doses of phenobarbital), for a year, during which time they returned to Kentucky, where the Tevis family had been given an early land grant in Madison County. Walter traveled across ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horace McCoy
Horace Stanley McCoy (April 14, 1897 – December 15, 1955) was an American writer whose mostly hardboiled stories took place during the Great Depression. His best-known novel is '' They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'' (1935), which was made into a movie of the same name in 1969, fourteen years after McCoy's death. Early life McCoy was born in Pegram, Tennessee. During World War I he served in the United States Army Air Corps, flying several missions behind enemy lines as a bombardier and reconnaissance photographer. He was wounded and received the Croix de Guerre for heroism from the government of France. Post-war From 1919 to 1930, he worked as a sports editor for the ''Dallas Journal'' in Texas. In 1924, he did the play-by-play of a baseball game for radio broadcast. In the late 1920s he began getting stories published in various pulp mystery magazines. He performed as an actor with the Dallas Little Theater. He had a prominent role in Philip Barry's ''The Youngest''. He de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
