1892-1973




American writer who was born in West Virginia, USA. She grew up among Chinese children by American missionary parents in Chinkiang, and lived in China until 1932.

There she wrote about China for American magazines. Her novel 'The Good Earth' won the Pulitzer Prize and established Buck as the foremost Western interpreter of China. In 1935 she moved to the USA where she became involved with humanitarian work.

She published over seventy books. In 1938 she received the Nobel prize in lterature.

1888-1965



American poet, playwright, and critic; born in St. Louis, Mo. He studied philosophy at Harvard , the Sorbonne, and Oxford. He lived mostly in England but made occasional visits to the U.S.A. In London he was editor of a publishing firm, in which capacity he discovered and supported many modern writers.

His literary criticism, in such works as 'The Sacred Wood' and 'Homage to John Dryden', established the tastes of a whole generation and he became the literary doyen of his age.

Recognition came to him with the publication of 'The Wasteland' - a commentary on the inhumaity of the modern city.

Among his plays, 'Murder in the Cathedral' - based on the murder of Thomas Becket - became very popular. In 1948 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.

1897-1962




American novelist, born in New Albany, Miss. He published his first poems in his early twenties, and during the next few years spent time in New Orleans, travelled to Europe, but then lived most of his life near his birthplace at Oxford, Miss.

He wrote two novels before he began to write the experimental novel 'The Sound and the Fury' which was influenced by the stream of consciousness technique of Joyce.

He also created a historical saga centered on five families in a fictional Yoknapatawpha County. He brought to life characters of the US South, describing the toll taken by white Southerners' treatment of Blacks.

1885-1951



American novelist, born in Sauk Center, Minn. He was educated at Yale, worked as a journalist in California and New York.

His first successful novel, 'Main Street' (1920), became a textbook on American provincialism, and his next novel, 'Babbitt' - is a study of the spiritual emptiness of Middle Western life.

The name Babbitt became to be known to represent the self - congratulatory businessman whose horizons were bounded by his village limits. Lewis spent the last two decades of his life traveling around the US. and Europe - he died in Rome.