A-Z of Authors Last Names

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Sylvia Plath 1932 - 1963 (pseudonym Victoria Lucas)

American novelist, poet, short story writer
Cambridge educated
Abusive marriage with Ted Hughes
Inspired by the Yorkshire Moors, Top Withens and Emily Brontë
Struggled with anxiety and clinical depression
Suicide at age 30 (same age as Emily)

Famous for:
The Bell Jar (1963)

Anna Quindlen

J.K. Rowling

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley 1797 - 1851

Novelist, poet, editor
Daughter of William Godwin (philosopher) and Mary Wollstonecraft (feminist writer)
At age 16 became the romantic partner of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was a married polygamist
Travelled to Italy and Switzerland with Shelley, Lord Byron and her half-sister Claire Clairmont
Ostracised by her family and impoverished by Shelley's addictions, bankruptcies and infidelities
Gave birth to four children; all but the fourth died in infancy
Widowed at age 25

Most Famous Work:
Frankenstein (1818) - published when she was 21

Amy Tan

Jules Verne.

Forgot U-John Updike, author of the Rabbit series

W-P.G. Wodehouse

Malcolm X

Yeats, W.B.

Zusak, Markus

The Book Thief

Alcott, Louisa May

Little Women

* I couldn't resist *

Charlotte Brontë (1816 - 1855) (pseudonym Currer Bell)

Novelist, essayist and poet from age 8
Older sister of Branwell, Emily and Anne Brontë
Extremely nearsighted
Could write with her eyes closed
Created childhood paracosms based on Tory politics
Wrote in microprint (a whole story on 1x1" scrap of wallpaper)
She was a governess, although she despised children
Educated in Brussels
Fluent in French
High strung, possibly autistic
Witnessed deaths of her mother and two older sisters in childhood
Discovered the genius of Emily, and encouraged Emily to publish
Witnessed deaths of Branwell, Emily and Anne within eight months 1848 - 1849
In love with Ellen Nussey and her professor, Constantin Héger
Worshipped WM Thackeray and The Duke of Wellington
Posthumous editor of Emily and Anne
Kept a lifelong journal and all correspondence with Ellen Nussey (30 years)
Died during her first pregnancy, from starvation and nausea - aged 38

Novels:
The Professor
Jane Eyre
Shirley
Villette
Emma (unfinished)

Juvenilia:
The Young Men's Magazine, Number 1 – 3 (August 1830)
The Spell
The Secret
Lily Hart
The Foundling
The Green Dwarf
My Angria and the Angrians
Albion and Marina
Tales of the Islanders
Tales of Angria (including five short novels)
Mina Laury
Stancliffe's Hotel
The Duke of Zamorna
Henry Hastings
Caroline Vernon
The Roe Head Journal Fragments

Poetry:
Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846)

Essays:
Compilations of her French devoirs are published

Letters:
Her lifelong correspondence with Ellen Nussey is published

Cleary, Beverly

Author of the Beezus and Ramona books, also Henry Huggins, Ellen Tebbits, Mitch and Amy and many others

Recently celebrated her 102nd birthday

She didn't like to read as a little girl, but became an acclaimed author of children's books

Dahl, Roald

well known children's books author

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
The witches
Esio Trot
The BFG

as well as

Someone Like You
Kiss kiss
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More,

Ellison

Either Ralph, or Harlan .

Fitzgerald, F. Scott

The Great Gatsby