1.

George Orwell (1903 1950)

Biography:
George Orwell was born under the name Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari, Bengal, India in 1903. His father
worked as a civil servant for the British consulate. The Blair family moved from colonial India back to
England when Eric was just a young boy, and he remained there until after his lackluster academic career
was over. Unable to attend more college because of his lack of winning scholarships, Orwell moved back to
India and secured a job working as an administrator for the Indian Imperial Police. Orwell worked this job
for only a few years as he began to notice the inequities inherent to colonial rule.
Returning to England, Orwell moved from job to job before finally deciding he wanted to write
professionally. He took his penname George Orwell and began to write his first novels including Out in
Paris and London and Burmese Days. It was during this phase of his life that he met and married a woman
named Eileen OShaugnessy and his socialist views began to solidify in the wake of several worldwide
events. After realizing his political views, Orwell left for Spain where he fought with the United Workers
Marxist Party militia. Here he realized that he did not concur completely with the Russian brand of
communism, but rather favored the English variety of socialism. Shortly after this experience, he served for
the British in World War II as a correspondent and it was after this that he wrote Animal Farm. Shortly after
this, he released 1984 which finally gave him the critical and even commercial success he was looking for.
Unfortunately, the majority of his recognition came too late with his death (from tuberculosis) in 1950.
Masterpiece:
1984
In 1984, Winston Smith lives in London which is part of the country Oceania. The world is divided into
three countries that include the entire globe: Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. Oceania, and both of the
others, is a totalitarian society led by Big Brother, which censors everyones behavior, even thoughts.
Winston is disgusted with his oppressed life and secretly longs to join the fabled Brotherhood, a supposed
group of underground rebels intent on overthrowing the government. Winston meets Julia and they secretly
fall in love and have an affair, something which is considered a crime. Winston encounters OBrian, an
inner party member, who gives Winston his address. OBrian gives the impression that he is a member of
the Brotherhood. Winston and Julia both went to OBrians house, and together they were introduced to the
Brotherhood. OBrian is actually a faithful member of the Inner-Party and this is a trap for Winston. Winston
and Julia are sent to the Ministry of Love, which is a rehabilitation center for criminals accused of thought
crime. There, Winston was separated from Julia, and tortured until his beliefs coincide with those of the
Party. Winston denounces everything he believed in, even his love for Julia, and was released back into
public where he wastes his days at the Chestnut Tree drinking gin.
2. John Steinbeck (1902 1968)
Biography:
John Ernst Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California, in 1902. He worked his way through college at
Stanford University but never graduated. In 1925, he went to New York, where he tried for a few years to
establish himself as a freelance writer, but he failed and returned to California. After publishing some
novels and short stories, Steinbeck first became widely known with Tortilla Flat (1935), a series of
humorous stories about Monterey paisanos.
Steinbecks novels can all be classified as social novels dealing with the economic probelsm of rural
labor, but there is also a streak of worship of the soil in his books, which does not always agree with his
matter-of-fact sociological approach. In 1939 he published what is considered his best work, The Grapes of
Wrath, the story of Oklahoma tenant farmers who, unable to earn a living from the land, moved to
California where they became migratory workers.
Among his later works are East of Eden (1952), The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), and Travels with
Charley (1962), a travelogue in which Steinbeck wrote about his impressions during a three-month tour in a
truck that led him through forty American states. He died in New York City in 1968.
Masterpiece:

The Grapes of Wrath

Tom Joad, a prison parolee, meets Jim Casy, a preacher who has given up his calling. They go to
Toms home looking for his family, but the Joad farm and all those around it are deserted. They are told the
Joads are living with Toms Uncle John. Arriving at Uncle Johns house, they learn the family has lost their
farm and are making preparations to sell their belongings and move to California in search of promised
work.
With Casy accompanying them, the Joads encounter many hardships on the road west, and the family
crumbles. Grampa dies the first night he is separated from his beloved land. Granma dies while they are
crossing the Arizona desert. Noah and Connie give up and leave the family. The further west they go, the
more resistant and unfriendly the people are.
In California, the family goes from camp to camp in a futile search for work and their living conditions
worsen. Jim Casy organizes a strike against the unfair low wages being paid and he is killed. Tom kills
Jims murderer and goes into hiding. He leaves the family to continue Casys work. The Joads move to a
cottonfield where the pay is better.
Rose of Sharon delivers a stillborn baby during a fearful storm. The family has to abandon their boxcar
home to escape the resultant flood. Taking refuge in a hillside barn, they discover a young boy and his
near-dead, starving father who is saved when Rose feeds him from her milk-filled breasts.
3. James Joyce (1882 1941)
Biography:
The author James Joyce was born on February 2, 1882 in Dublin. He was the oldest of twelve children
born to John Stanislaus Joyce and his wife Mary Jane.
James was supposed to become a priest. He attended several Jesuit schools, and studied philosophy
and languages at the University College, Dublin. Announcing his intention to study medicine, Joyce moved
to Paris in 1902.
This is where he first came into contact with the literature of symbolism and realism. Because of
financial reasons, Joyce had to return to Dublin.
He worked as a teacher, and the next year he met his future wife, Nora Barnacle, with whom he would
leave his homeland forever. In 1914, Joyce published his first literary work, The Dubliners, a volume of
short stories. His autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man appeared in 1916 and
became a source for his masterpiece Ulysses.
Ulysses was considered outrageous and scandalous to contemporaries, who objected to the sexually
charged language. His later work, Finnegans Wake, which appeared in 1939, was considered by
contemporary critics as unreadable, due to the complexity and opacity of the form and content.
Joyce worked as a journalist and language teacher for the Berlitz schools during his time. Joyce was
financially supported much of his life by his brother Stanislaus and by his patroness Harriet Shaw Weaver.
Almost blind and suffering from the complications of an operation on a perforated ulcer, James Joyce
died on January 13, 1941 in Zurich.
Masterpiece:
Finnegans Wake
Finnegans Wake is an expression of the dreaming collective psyche as it relives the major conflicts of
myth and history. This psyche is divided into the two sexual principles, the major representations of which
are Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker (HCE) and Anna Livia Plurabelle (ALP). As the archetypal husbandfather, HCE (Haveth Childers Everywhere/Here Comes Everybody) is burdened with guilt over an
indiscretion in Dublins Phoenix Park. This obscure event is central to the entire dream. A lone man
encounters two girls and performs an obscure offense, an incident witnessed by three soldiers or boys, and
news of it spreads by the gossipy Four Old Men. The retellings through rumor, gossip, and popular song
render everything about this Original Sin unreliable, except that it happened. Protesting his innocence,
HCE goes to sleep. In his dreams, however, he encounters previous versions of his crime, which,
encrusted with sexual and scatological innuendo, further cloud the precise nature of the offense.
News of this sin is carried throughout the dreambook of history through rumors and documents,
lectures and arguments, accusations and recriminations. Interrogators appear in fours, accompanied by

twelve bystanders: variously jurymen, apostles, mourners, and drinkers. As HCE is identified with the
Dublin landscapefrom Chapelizod to Howth Castle and Environshis wife is the personification of the
River Liffey (Livia) flowing through that landscape. She is the universal wife-mother and, like all the rivers of
the world, constantly in flux.
The three soldiers and their familial equivalents, Shem and Shaun, represent the younger generation
taking advantage of HCEs and ALPs age to displace them. Even while so doing, however, Shem and
Shaun, the contrary twins, in their various manifestations, represent the contention between opposite
character types: introvert and extrovert, artist and man of affairs, relativist and dogmatist. While Shem is an
irresponsible bohemian and exile, Shaun is a dull, bourgeois hypocrite. Their sister Issy is the divisive
ingenue of Finnegans Wake, in contrast with her mother, whose influence is unitive.
4. Cormac McCarthy (1933 - )
Biography:
Born on July 20, 1933, Cormac McCarthy was the third child in a family of six children. His fathers
name was Charles Joseph and mothers name was Gladys Christina McGrail McCarthy. Initially he was
named Charles, but later he changed it to Cormac meaning son of Charles.
In 1937, he along with his family moved to Knoxville where his father worked as a lawyer for Tennessee
Valley Authority. He was a Roman Catholic and went to Catholic High School for his early education. Later
on, he went to University of Tennessee where he studied liberal arts.
McCarthy further became a part of US Air Force in 1953 and served at Alaska for two years of the four
years in Air force. It was in Alaska where he got the chance to host a radio show.
He returned to the University of Tennessee in 1957 and started his literary career with short stories
such as A Drowning Incident and Wake for Susan. Both of them got published in the students literary
magazine known as THE PHOENIX. He used to call himself C. J. McCarthy, Jr. During his stay at
university, he won the Ingram-Merrill Award for creative writing in 1959 and 1960. It was there he married
Lee Holleman, a student at University. McCarthy left the university without completing his graduation and
went to Chicago where he worked as an auto-mechanic and also started work on his very first novel. On
his return to Tennessee, his marriage was going through a rough patch, it could no longer be sustained,
and therefore he and his wife separated. He had one son. His wife also wrote several books including
Desires Door.
His first novel, The Orchard Keeper, was published in 1965 which won him the Faulkner Award. In
1966, he got the Rockefeller Foundation Grant. He and Anne then toured Europe and settled on the island
of Ibiza, where he started working on his second novel. In 1967, McCarthys family moved to Washington
D.C. where his father worked as the Principle Attorney in a Law firm. A year later, his second novel, Outer
Dark, was published. Two years later, he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship i.e. in 1969.
McCarthy continued his literary career with novels Child Of God published in 1973, Suttree also
published 1973, Blood Meridian, Or, the Evening Redness in the West published in 1985, All The Pretty
Horses published in 1979, The Crossing published in 1994, and Cities of the Plain published in 1998.
Masterpiece:
No Country for Old Men
The novel No Country for Old Men follows three central characters: Llewellyn Moss, a young hunter
who happens upon a drug deal gone bad; Anton Chigurh, a psychopathic killer; and Ed Tom Bell, a local
Texas sheriff. The seemingly simple plot is that Moss finds (in the midst of a lot of dead bodies) a suitcase
filled with over $2 million in cash. He takes the suitcase and is on the run throughout the story. Chigurh,
who is somehow involved in the money exchange with the drug dealers, has one purpose in mind: getting
the money back, no holds barred. Bell is the unlikely and unsuccessful hero of the story. He tries to save
Mosss life.
Considering the way the novel is written, readers might find themselves rooting for Moss. He is the
little guy in the company of some very big criminals. Moss is also young and thinks he can outsmart the
big guys. Through the use of his intelligence and a bit of good luck, Moss keeps slipping away. However,

he realizes that there is no turning back. He has entered an underground world from which there is only
one exithis death.
Sheriff Bell, meanwhile, has committed himself to protecting the people who live within his jurisdiction.
He knows that Moss is in over his head. Bell, along the way, realizes that he too is in over his head. He
tries to get Moss to turn himself in. But Moss is slippery, and Bell cannot quite get to him in time.
Chigurh is at least as intelligent as Moss and Bell and a thousand times more evil. Chigurh is a
coldhearted man, eager to kill anyone who tries to cross his path. A Washington Post reviewer hit the nail
on the head when he called McCarthys book, a profoundly disturbing and gorgeously rendered novel.
5. John Grisham (1955 - )
Biography:
A lawyer by profession and an author by fame, John Grisham is the brilliant American writer of
numerous novels best known for his legal thrillers. He was born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro,
Arkansas to parents who were never formally educated but encouraged their son to pursue an education
and prepare himself for college. Grisham settled with his parents in Southaven where he spent his younger
years.
A young Grisham could not have imagined of becoming a writer since he had not developed any
interest in writing until after starting a professional career in law. John drifted through three different
colleges before finally obtaining a degree. He attended the Mississippi State University in 1971 and
received a BS degree in accounting and in 1981 graduated from the University Of Mississippi School Of
Law to become a tax lawyer. However, he changed his mind and shifted interest in general civil litigation.
Earning a Juris Doctor degree, John specialized in criminal law. He established a small legal practice of his
own upon returning to Southaven. Grisham served Mississippi House of Representatives after being
elected in 1983. He was later promoted to the position of Vice Chairman Apportionment and Elections
Committee.
A case Grisham has been closely observing inspired him to start writing his first novel, A Time to Kill
(1989). Rejected by 28 publishers, the book finally found an unknown publisher who agreed to publish a
limited number of copies. Without the benefit of marketing by an established publisher, John was forced to
directly request booksellers to stock his book. Despite a sale of only 5000 copies, Grisham quickly began
work on a second novel, The Firm. He closed his office in Southaven, deciding not to seek a re-election in
the legislature. John moved to Oxford, Mississippi with his family to give them more time and concentrate
on his writing. The Firm (1991) secured the position of the bestselling novel of 1991 and maintained its
place on The New York Times bestsellers list for 47 weeks.
Grisham continued to writer legal thrillers and produced brilliantly written works such as The Client
(1993), The Chamber (1994), The Runaway Jury (1996), The Partner (1997), The Street Lawyer (1998),
The Testament (1999), The Summons (2002), The Last Juror (2004), The Broker (2005), The Appeal
(2008), The Associate (2009), The Confession (2010) and The Litigators (2011). 2001 onwards, Grisham
broadened his scope of writing from law to other subjects, particularly his lifelong passion of baseball. A
Painted House (2001) was his first non-legal book followed by Skipping Christmas (2001), Bleachers
(2003) and Playing for Pizza (2007).
Masterpiece:
The Runaway Jury
The Runaway Jury follows the case of Celeste Wood, the widow of Jacob Wood, who has died from
lung cancer after years of smoking three packs of Bristols a day, versus Pynex, one of the Big Four tobacco
companies in the United States.
Although the case has been filed four years ago, we enter the story just weeks before jury selection,
when both sides are frantically trying to discover as much about the potential jurors as they possibly can.
The tobacco companies have already won many of these cases before, mainly due to a secret account
called The Fund. The Fund holds millions of dollars to be spent defending these lawsuits. A man named
Rankin Fitch controls The Fund and stops at nothing to get the result that he wants. In contrast to the other
cases, the lawyer for the plaintiff, Wendall Rohr, is also well funded and assisted by seven other lawyers.

The jury is selected, and the trial begins in Judge Harkin's court. One day in court, a woman named
Marlee hands one of the deputies a note to pass on to Fitch. The note contains information about what the
eleventh juror, Nicholas Easter, will be wearing the next day. After following Easter the next day, Fitch
discovers that she is right. After a couple of days, Marlee contacts Fitch, again correctly predicting the jury's
movements, which begin to get stranger and stranger. She continues to have contact with Fitch, and as
time goes on, he learns that she has someone, Easter, on the inside, and Fitch realizes that Easter can
control not only the jury's movements, but also the individual jurors' status. Despite appearing to have
Marlee on his side, Fitch also buys some insurance by way of bribery and pressure on several of the jurors.
As the trial winds to a close, Marlee makes a deal with Fitch - 10 million dollars for the verdict. She and
Easter have proved to this point that they are able to manipulate the people on the jury, even making
decisions as to who is actually on it, so Fitch has no reason to doubt her. They make a deal. However, Fitch
has not been able to find any concrete information on Marlee's background, despite his constant digging.
Finally, some information surfaces - Marlee's parents both died of lung cancer. Fitch receives this
information too late
The jury returns with a decision for the plaintiff to the tune of four hundred two million dollars, a
landmark verdict that opens the tobacco companies up for what could be thousands of other lawsuits.
Flush with their ten million, Nicholas and Marlee meet up in the Cayman Islands, where Marlee uses the
money to buy and trade tobacco shares, taking advantage of the blow that has just hit the industry. She
makes an additional eight million dollars, and in a surprise meeting with Fitch, gives the ten million back.
For them, the verdict was all that they were looking for.
6. Thomas Harris (1940 - )
Biography:
This much is known about Thomas Harris. He was born in Jackson, Tennessee, in 1940, but at a very
young age, his family moved to his fathers hometown of Rich, Mississippi, so his father could become a
farmer. He lived and attended school there until he left for Baylor University in Waco, Texas. While pursuing
an English major by day and working as a reporter at the News-Tribune by night, he met and married a
fellow student named Harriet. They had one daughter, Anne, before they divorced in the 1960s.
Harris began to pursue his writing career at this point, sending macabre stories to magazines like True
and Argosy. According to friends, these stories exhibited many typical Harris trademarks, most notably his
incredible attention to detail. When he graduated in 1964, he spent a brief period of time traveling through
Europe before he began a job working for the Associated Press in New York, where he was a generalassignment reporter from 1968 to 1974. It was this job that would give him valuable insights into the world
of crime, which he covered daily. It also led to the writing of his first novel.
Black Sunday, published in 1975, is the story of a group of Arab terrorists who with the aid of a Vietnam
veteran commandeer the Goodyear Blimp and use it in an attempt to bomb the Super Bowl. The idea for
the story was concocted by Harris and two other reporters from work, Sam Maull and Dick Riley. They
initially researched and began writing together, but eventually Harris took over the project. The book was
sold to Putnam, and the three split the advances. It was Harris, however, who would reap the rewards of
the novel. The novel received mixed reviews but became a bestseller and a popular movie, and suddenly,
Harris had a new career on his hands.
After the books release, he devoted himself full-time to writing fiction. Unlike some suspense writers
who crank out a new book each fall, Harris spends an exorbitant amount of time researching each book,
striving for perfection. For that reason, his next novel, Red Dragon, was not completed until six years later
in 1981. The novel tells the story of an FBI agents search for a serial killer. More importantly, it introduced
Harris most popular character to the world: psychiatrist turned psychotic Hannibal The Cannibal Lecter, a
man with a unique idea about what a prime cut of meat is. Red Dragon was turned into a popular movie by
Michael Mann and paved the way for Harris most popular novel, The Silence of the Lambs.
Masterpiece:
The Silence of the Lambs
The Silence of the Lambs is author Thomas Harris' third book, and the second in a trilogy of books devoted
to the FBI's hunt for serial killers. Since the advent of FBI criminal profiling, Harris' works are among the

most popular works of fiction dedicated to this subject. The Silence of the Lambs is Harris' most famous
work, and has also been turned into a blockbuster movie starring Anthony Hopkins as serial killer, Dr.
Hannibal Lecter. In this book, Lecter's character is the antagonist to the main character, FBI trainee Clarice
Starling. Starling must walk a delicate line in negotiating with the slippery Lecter, hoping to obtain his help
in catching another serial killer, nicknamed "Buffalo Bill," because he skins his female victims.
Starling is plucked out of the FBI Academy by her mentor, Jack Crawford, to track down Buffalo Bill before
he kills again. The novel takes Clarice on a journey from Lecter's dank cell in the bowels of the Baltimore
State Hospital for the Criminally Insane to the slab where Buffalo Bill's latest body lies. The pressure
intensifies when Bill kidnaps the daughter of U.S. Senator Ruth Martin. As the only female assigned to the
investigation, Starling is able to use her feminine perspective to understand Bill's victims, and how he
selects them. However, each day she spends on his trail puts Starling in greater danger of being flunked
out of the academy, and not even Crawford can prevent this from happening. In the end, Starling rises to
the occasion, and the green trainee single-handedly tracks down Buffalo Bill. She must then descend into
the horrifying basement dungeon, where he traps his victims, to save Catherine Martin.
7. Philip K. Dick (1928 1982)
Biography:
Philip Kindred Dick was one of the most important writers of genre fiction in the 20th century. Though he
and his writing were largely unrecognized by the general public, his popularity as an author and
commentator on twentieth century America increased greatly after the production of several of his stories
and novels into popular films, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report.
Philip Dick was born to Dorothy and Joseph Dick in Chicago. Philip was born a twin, though his sister Jane
died just a few weeks after their birth. The Dicks moved often during Philips early life before he and his
mother settled in Berkeley, California where Philip attended high school. Philip briefly attended the
University of California, Berkeley, before dropping out rather than participate in mandatory ROTC training.
Dicks first published writing appeared in the early 1950s when he sold several of his short stories to
science fiction and genre magazines. He spent much of his early career, and in fact much of his later life as
well, in poverty, able to live only off the meager earnings that his stories would fetch from serial magazines
and publications. In 1963, his novel The Man in the High Castle was the Hugo Award as outstanding
science fiction. This did not translate into mainstream success, however, and Dick was never able to
persuade large publishing houses to publish his fiction. Dick married five times, all ending in divorce.
Later in his life, Dick struggled with deteriorating mental health and excessive drug use. He had several
lucid visions that he referred to as religious experiences. Many of these visions would make it into his
stories and fiction. A Scanner Darkly, one of his most famous short stories, was an expression of the
paranoia and borderline insanity that he experienced in these years.
Dick died from a massive stroke in Santa Ana, California just weeks before his novel Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep? was released as the film Blade Runner. Many of his stories and several novels from lost
manuscripts have appeared since his death. Currently, 44 novels and over 120 of his short stories have
been published.
Masterpiece:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
In this novel, Dick furthers His exploration of his staple obsessions' What is reality? What does it mean to
be human in a digital, mechanized world? Where, if anywhere, does one draw a line between the value of
real and artificial life? Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? takes place on a post-nuclear apocalyptic
Earth, where eight androids-artificially constructed humanoid robots have recently arrived after killing their
human masters on Mars. Androids are not allowed on Earth and Mercer, the religious cult figure of the
book, has declared that killers must be killed. The increasing difficulty of distinguishing androids from

humans disturbs Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter called in to "retire" the fugitives. In a world where animal
life is prized so highly that people buy artificial sheep to tend, why should androids be treated any
differently? In examining these questions, the novel provides a brilliant pause for reflection on the meaning
of human life and humanity's responsibility for the environment it is so determined to destroy
8. Dan Brown (1964 - )
Biography:
Dan Brown who is renowned all over the world for his best selling novel, The Da Vinci Code was born on
22nd June, 1964.
He was the eldest of three children in Exeter, New Hampshire. He did his schooling from Phillips Exeter
Academy, which was considered to be a highly exclusive school. His father was a mathematics instructor in
the same school. His mother on the other hand was a music professor; chiefly involved in practicing very
revered music. Even though Dan Brown attended open-enrollment schools, till he entered 9th grade, he
nevertheless lived with his family and also pro-actively took part in college related activities, which were
also influenced greatly by Christian norms and traditions; such as singing carols in the Church and going to
College Camp.
After graduating from school, Brown then went to Amherst College to obtain a degree in English and
Spanish. He graduated in the year of 1986 and then later spent numerous years trying to get himself
established as a singer cum songwriter and pianist, but unfortunately was met with very minimal success.
Notwithstanding, these attempts did allow him to relocate to Los Angeles where he took up the profession
of teaching Spanish at Beverley Hills Preparatory School; in order to get a steady income. He also met his
lady love, Blythe Newlon over there, who was actually twelve years his senior and served as the Artistic
Director of the National Academy of Songwriters. With the development of their relationship, Newlon used
the power of her position to promote Dans career. However, it so happened that despite Browns talent,
four of his music CDs were produced and backers started speaking of him as the next Barry Manilow. But
because of his slightly reclusive nature, he was unable to garner sufficient acclaim for his talent and further
his musical career. Therefore during the year of 1993, he decided to return back to England and managed
to get an English teaching job at Phillips Exeter Academy. Newlon also accompanied him.
In 1997, Dan Brown came out with his first thriller, Digital Fortress. He went on to write Angels and Demons
and Deception Point. His masterpiece, The Da Vinci Code was published in March 2003 and sold nearly
6000 copies on its very first day and reached the New York Times Best Seller List in its very first week.
Masterpiece:
The Da Vinci Code
The curator of the Louvre Museum in Paris is murdered among a number of mysterious clues, codes, and
ciphers. Harvard symbologist, Robert Langdon, is summoned to help solve the mysterious murder. His
investigation brings him together with French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu.
Together, Langdon and Neveu embark on a high-paced, danger-around-every-corner adventure to discover
the dead curators prior involvement in a secret society known as the Priory of Sion. The societys historical
members include the famous artist, Leonardo da Vinci -- thus the name of the Dan Brown novel and Ron
Howard film.
The murder investigation ultimately becomes a quest by Langdon and Neveu to uncover an ancient
conspiracy about a well-known religious relic -- the Holy Grail of Jesus Christ. It turns out that the Priory of
Sion has spent centuries protecting the truth about Jesus Christ and the Roman Catholic Church. The
quest is to discover that truth hidden from the public since the time of Christ.
9. Ray Bradbury (1920 - )

Biography:
Ray Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois, to Leonard Spaulding Bradbury and
Esther Marie (Moberg) Bradbury. His father was a lineman for the electric company. He was greatly
influenced by his Aunt Neva, a costume designer and dressmaker, who took him to plays and encouraged
him to use his imagination. At the age of twelve, after seeing the performance of a magician named Mr.
Electrico at a carnival, Bradbury began to spend hours every day writing stories. Bradbury's family moved
to Arizona briefly before settling in Los Angeles, California, in 1934. Bradbury continued to write and also
spent a great deal of time reading in libraries and going to the movies.
After graduating from high school in 1938, Bradbury was turned down for military service because of bad
eyesight. He earned a living selling newspapers while working on his writing. He sold his first story in 1943,
and others were published in such magazines as Black Mask, Amazing Stories, and Weird Tales. Dark
Carnival (1947) is a collection of Bradbury's early stories of fantasy (fiction with unusual plots and
characters). Themes such as the need to retain human values and the importance of the imagination are
found in these stories. Many of these pieces were republished with new material in The October Country
(1955).
The publication of The Martian Chronicles (1950), an account of man's colonization of Mars, established
Bradbury's reputation as an author of quality science fiction. The Martian Chronicles contain tales of space
travel and adapting to an environment, and combines many of Bradbury's major themes, including the
conflict between individual and social expectations (that is, freedom versus confinement and going along
with the crowd) and the idea of space as a frontier wilderness. The Martian Chronicles also reflects many
issues of the post-World War II era, such as racism (unequal treatment based on race), censorship
(preventing the viewing of materials such as books or films that are considered harmful), and the threat of
nuclear war. In another collection of short stories, The Illustrated Man (1951), the stories are based on the
tattoos of the title character.
Masterpiece:
Fahrenheit 451
Guy Montag starts out as a politically correct fireman who loves doing his job, which is burning books. Hes
married and lives a normal lifestyle in a society where reading is illegal, and being intellectual is frowned
upon. On his way home from work one day, he meets a curious young lady named Clarisse, who
confesses that she loves reading and nature. Clarisse gves Montag a newfound desire to change societys
way of thinking for the better, and eventually the curiosity spreads to Montag and he begins to steal books.
His wife and boss eventually find out what hes doing, so firemen raid his home, finding and burning down
all the books. Knowing something like this would happen, Montag flees for his life. In the end, Montag is
rescued by a community of people, each of whom introduces themself as the title of a book theyve
memorized.
10. Chuck Palahniuk (1962 - )
Biography:
Chuck Palahniuk was born in Pasco, Washington on February 21, 1962. Most of his childhood was spent
living in a mobile home in Burbank, Washington. However, after the divorce of his parents, Palahniuk and
his siblings were sent to live with their maternal grandparents on a cattle ranch in Eastern Washington
State. Palahniuks father began a relationship with another woman whose ex-boyfriend murdered the
couple. Palahniuks mother died of cancer.
During his twenties, Palahniuk studied at the University of Oregons School of Journalism graduating in
1986. During his college years, Palahniuk interned at the National Public Radio member station KLCC in
Eugene. After graduation, Palahniuk moved to Portland, Oregon where he entered the workforce as a
journalist working for local newspapers. However, he abandoned journalism to work as a diesel mechanic
for truck manufacturer Freightliner, a job he would keep until development of his writing career. He returned

to journalism only after establishing himself as an accomplished novelist. During his years of struggle,
Palahniuk also volunteered at a shelter and hospice where he grew very close to a patient who passed
away. He did not continue volunteering after the death of his patient friend.
Palahniuk began writing fiction in his thirties while attending writers workshops, hosted by Tom Spanbauer,
who inspired Palahniuks minimalistic writing style. His initial works were rejected publication mostly
because of the amount of disturbing content. However, Palahniuk managed to get one of his short stories
published in a compilation in 1995.The story later became an inspiration and evolved into Palahniuks most
famous novel, Fight Club. While the short story had a difficult time finding a publisher, its conversion into a
novel experienced the opposite. Fight club was accepted and published in 1996. For his exceptional writing
in Fight club, Palahniuk was presented the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award as well as the
Oregon Book Award for Best Novel in 1997.
The success of Fight Club gained the attention of filmmakers at Twentieth Century Fox who wanted to
adapt the novel to screen. When Palahniuk was approached with the offer he appointed Edward Hibbert as
a literary agent who helped Palahniuk negotiate a deal with Twentieth Century Fox. Fight Club the movie
was released in 1999. Although the film did not succeed in making it big at the box office, it later developed
popularity gaining a cult following.
Masterpiece:
Fight Club
Fight Club, written by Chuck Palahniuk, is a novel about a man who struggles with the life he lives. The
unnamed main character suffers from insomnia. In the beginning of the story, he copes with his insomnia
by falsely admitting that he has cancer and attending support group sessions. The sessions allow him to
feel included, as well as witness suffering greater than his own. When a woman, Marla, discovers his
secret, he no longer feels welcome at the support groups so he is forced to find a new outlet for his
insomnia. This is when he meets Tyler Durden. Tyler Durden works with the protagonist to establish the
popular Fight Club, in which men fight in the basement of bars. The purpose of the fighting, they prove, is
not simply to beat up another man. The men fight against everything their lives have become, and fight
against their fears.
Throughout the story, Tyler Durden escalates Fight Club into a mission to destroy the world. The
protagonist has a confusing bout with reality to ultimately discover that, when he sleeps, he is Tyler Durden.
The novel proceeds with the realization that, all along, the main character has struggled with a personality
disorder and has been completing the acts of injustice to intensify Fight Club himself. The main character,
unable to cope, attempts to kill himself. The last few pages describe him waking up in a mental hospital
and being told by alliances that they expect Tyler Durden back. The story is a compelling depiction of a
struggling man in search of solace.