Collectible Book Authors - Read About Your Favorite Author

This list of Collectible Book Authors is by no means a definitive list. There will undoubtedly be some authors that are not listed here - yet. What I have tried to do here is to just list a few of my favorite authors, and give a little bit of their history and how they came to write such wonderful books. At the end of each author's article there is a small bibliography consisting of a few of their best and most popular work. There is no doubt that this list will also omit some of your favorite works too, I apologize if that is the case. Feel free to let me know if that is the case, I would be only too happy to accommodate your preferences.

Authors in Name Order

AMIS, Kingsley - Huxley was born in Godalming, Surrey, UK, the third son in an illustrious family. His father was a schoolmaster and writer, his mother founded a school called Prior's Field School. Her uncle was a poet and critic. Aldous' grandfather was a well-known zoologist, and two of his brothers became well-known biologists....read more

ASIMOV, Isaac - Born in Petrovichi, Russia, Isaac Asimov and his family immigrated to the United States in 1923. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York City. He never learned Russian, as his family conversed primarily in Yiddish and English. As he got older, he worked in the family candy store, along with his brother and sister. Science fiction caught his eye at an early age....read more

AUSTEN, Jane - Jane Austen was the seventh child and second girl born to the Reverend George Austen and his wife, Cassandra. She grew up in a household that valued learning and creativity, though when she reached the age of eight, she and her sister were sent to boarding school. Like other girls in her class, Jane learned French, dancing, and music....read more

BURKE, Edmund - Born in Dublin, Ireland, Edmund Burke was known for his writings, his sympathies with the American Revolutionaries, and his political theories. During his lifetime, he garnered praise from liberals and conservatives alike, though today he is considered to be one of the founders of modern conservatism. Graduating from Trinity College in Dublin in 1748, he founded the Edmund Burke Club....read more

CARROLL, Lewis - Born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the author we know as Lewis Carroll began life as the son of a conservative clergyman with the Anglican church. The third child in a family of eleven children, he was a gifted student in mathematics, a talent that won him a position with the Christ Church Mathematical Lectureship....read more

CUMMINGS, EE - EE Cummings, or Edward Estlin Cummings, was born in his family home in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1894. He began writing poetry when he was still very small, already using his distinctive punctuation style for which his poetry became known. It is said that he wrote one poem every day from the age of eight to twenty-two....read more

DOYLE, Arthur - Arthur Doyle, born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the third of ten children, full name Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle enjoyed a childhood full of stories told by his mother. At the age of nine, he was sent off to a Jesuit preparatory school....read more

ELIOT, George - George Elliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, also known as Marian, was the third child born to her family. Her parents were farmers, and she grew up with her father managing the Arbury Estate in Warwickshire, England. She loved to read, and her father indulged her in the type of education few girls of her station were privy to....read more

ELIOT, T.S. - Thomas Stearns Eliot, later known as TS Eliot, was born in America, but moved to the UK at the age of 25. He became a British citizen in 1927. His early education included Harvard University, where he completed his bachelor's degree in record time....read more

EMERSON, Ralph Waldo - Ralph Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1803. His father was a Unitarian minister. There were eight children born in his family, but only five made it to adulthood. Ralph's father died just before his 8th birthday....read more

FRANK, Anne - Ann Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany, but the family moved to Amsterdam after the Nazi party came to power in 1933. Her family lived in an apartment and the girls went to school. Anne was known as an outgoing child, and she already had dreams of writing and acting when she was grown. The Netherlands were invaded by Germany in 1940....read more

GIBRAN, Khalil - Khalil Gibran was born in Lebanon in 1883. In 1895, he arrived in the United States with his mother, two sisters and half-brother, settling in South Boston, Massachusetts. During school registration, Gubran Khalil Gubran's name was altered to Khalil Gibran. Khalil's artistic talent was recognized early....read more

HARDY, Thomas - Thomas Hardy was born in a small hamlet in Stinsford, in Dorset, England. His father was a builder and stonemason, and his mother was fairly well-read; she spent his early years educating him herself until he started school at the age of eight....read more

HERBERT, AP - Alan Patrick Herbert was born in Ashtead, Surrey. His mother died when he was seven. He was the oldest of three brothers, one of whom he lost in World War I, and the other he lost in World War II. A. P. went to college, first at Winchester College, and later at New College....read more

HUGO, Victor - Victor Hugo was the illegitimate son of Joseph Leopold Sigisbert Hugo and Sophie Trebuchet. His father was active in the military, so the family moved frequently to keep up with him. His mother taught him for years, raising him with her Catholic Royalist views....read more

HUXLEY, Aldous - Aldous Huxley was born in Godalming, Surrey, UK, the third son in an illustrious family. His father was a schoolmaster and writer, his mother founded a school called Prior's Field School. Her uncle was a poet and critic. Aldous' grandfather was a well-known zoologist....read more

JAMES, CLR - CLR James, or Cyril Lionel Robert James, was born in Trinidad. He grew up the child of parents who were the first generation to live without slavery. His father was a teacher and his mother loved books. As a child, he had two influences that made a great impact on his life....read more

JEROME, Jerome K. - Jerome was the fourth child born into the family of a poor ironmonger. His father gave him the repetitive name, then later amended his own to be the same. The family lived in poverty. While Jerome wished to someday be a politician or man of letters, his future was....read more

JOHNSON, James Weldon - James William Johnson was born in Florida, to a successful head waiter at a well-known restaurant and the first black school teacher in the state. James was the second of three children, and he enjoyed music and literature....read more

KING, Stephen - Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine. His father abandoned the family when he was two years old, but his mother did everything she could to provide for her children. He attended school in Lisbon Falls, Maine, where he already expressed an interest in reading horror novels and comics....read more

KIPLING, Rudyard - Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India, to parents who were serving there. At the age of five, he and his younger sister were sent to England to board with an English family. Rudyard later commented that the cruelty and neglect suffered there may have contributed to his literary success.... read more

LEVI, Primo - Primo Levi was born in Turin, Italy in 1919. He was a small, delicate child, but very intelligent. In 1930, he entered the Massimo d'Azeglio Royal Gymnasium, the youngest, shortest, and only Jew in his year.... read more

LORDE, Audre - Audre Lorde was born in New York City. Her parents had emigrated from the Caribbean. As a child, she decided to drop the y from her first name to create a symmetry in the two names by ending them both with an e. read more

MAILER, Norman - Norman Mailer was born in New Jersey. He and his two sisters were raised in Brooklyn, New York. He enrolled in Harvard University in 1939 to study aeronautical engineering. While in college, he started dabbling in writing....read more

MAUGHAM, William - William Maugham was born into a family of distinguished English lawyers. His father handled the legal affairs of the British embassy in France, his grandfather co-founded the English Law Society... read more

MERTON, Thomas - Born in Prades, France, Thomas Merton came from an international family. His mother was an American artist, his father was from New Zealand. During World War I, the family moved to the United States, where his younger brother was later born.... read more

NIN, Anais - Anais Nin was born in France, though both her parents were from Cuba. She spent most of her childhood in Europe. When her parents separated, she went to New York City with her mother and two brothers. At age 16, Anais found work as an artist's model....read more

PAZ, Octavio - Octavio Paz was born in Mexico City, Mexico. He grew up there with his mother, his aunt and his paternal grandfather. His grandfather was a novelist and publisher. Due to the family's support of Emiliano Zapata, they went into exile in the United States after he was assassinated....read more

PLATH, Sylvia - Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Her father was a professor from Germany, and her mother was a first generation American, whose family had come from Austria. She published her first poem at the tender age of eight, in the Boston Herald... read more

POE, Edgar Alan - Edgar Alan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts to a theatrical family. His mother died when he was quite young, and his father had abandoned them. He was cared for by John and Frances Allan in Virginia, but was never formally adopted....read more

RAND, Ayn - Ayn Rand, born Alisa Rosenbaum in St. Petersburg, Russia, was the eldest of three girls in her Jewish family. They were not particularly religious. Ayn was only 12 when the Russian Revolution began.... read more

SANDBURG, Carl - Carl Sandburg began life in Galesburg, Illinois. He was the second born of seven children. At 13, he dropped out of school to drive a milk wagon. He did a variety of odd jobs, including ice harvesting, shoe shining, wheat threshing, and the laying of bricks.... read more

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