Bataille, Georges Albert Maurice Victor (1897–1962)
Georges Bataille (September 10, 1897–July 9, 1962) was a French writer who synthesized ideas from many disciplines. He converted to Catholicism at the start of…
Search Results 1 - 25 of 42
Ball, Hugo (1886–1927)
Born in Pirmasens on February 22, 1886, the German writer Hugo Ball is best known as the co-founder, with Tristan Tzara, of the Cabaret Voltaire…
Jones, David (1895–1974)
David Jones, the poet, painter and engraver, was born in Brockley, Kent, in 1895. He was the youngest son of James Jones, a printer’s overseer…
Boulanger, Lili (1893–1918)
Lili Boulanger was a French composer and the first woman to win the Prix de Rome in musical composition. Born into a musical family and…
Messiaen, Olivier (1908–1992)
Olivier Messiaen was one of the foremost composers of the twentieth century, with a distinctive compositional style of great emotional intensity. This style drew on…
Maritain, Jacques (1882–1973)
Jacques Maritain was a leader among those who attempted to update and transform Catholic teaching for the modern world. Born to a Protestant republican, he…
Dangar, Anne (1885–1951)
Anne Dangar is a singular figure in the Australian experience of modernism. Forgotten in her homeland throughout the 20th century due to her long-term residence…
Schoeman, Karel (1939–)
Although Karel Schoeman is not as well-known as his South African contemporaries André Brink, Nadine Gordimer, J. M., Coetzee and Breyten Breytenbach, he is one…
Coffey, Brian (1905–1995)
Brian Coffey was an Irish modernist poet whose life and work are closely associated with fellow Irishmen Samuel Beckett (1906–1989), Denis Devlin (1908–1959), and George…
Werfel, Franz (1890–1945) [REVISED AND EXPANDED]
Franz Viktor Werfel was a Jewish-born Austrian novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, and translator best known in the Anglophone world for his works of historical fiction,…
Claudel, Paul (1868–1955)
Both the power of Paul Claudel’s writing and the controversial character of his politics were so well known in their time that Auden, in the…
McKay, Festus Claudius ‘Claude’ (1889–1948)
Claude McKay was a Jamaican poet, novelist, essayist, activist, and editor. He is best known for his involvement in the New Negro movement of the…
St John, Christopher (1871–1960)
Christabel Marshall, later Christopher St John, studied at Somerville College in Oxford before moving to London, where she worked as a secretary to Lady Randolph…
Jacob, Max (1876–1944)
The poet and painter Max Jacob was a major figure in the Parisian artistic movements of the early twentieth century. With his friends Guillaume Apollinaire…
Hall, Radclyffe (1880–1943)
Radclyffe Hall was a British novelist, poet, and lyricist. A contemporary of the Bloomsbury Group and proponent of Havelock Ellis's sexological theories, Hall is best…
Bahr, Hermann (1863–1934)
Hermann Barr was an Austrian author, essayist, critic, editor, dramaturg, and director. His wide-ranging career spanned most of the fin de siècle’s major literary trends,…
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (1918/1919–1933) is a term used to describe the German Reich (Deutsches Reich) after the end of World War I and after the…
Fujita, Tsuguharu (藤田嗣治) (1886–1968)
Fujita Tsuguharu was a Japanese oil painter who spent most of his career in France. He is known in the West for female nudes and…
Werfel, Franz (1890–1945)
Franz Viktor Werfel was a Jewish-born Austrian novelist, poet, and playwright best known for his works of historical fiction, including The Forty Days of Musa…
Greene, Graham (1904–1991)
Henry Graham Greene, born in Hertfordshire and educated at Oxford, was a prolific novelist whose life and career spanned most of the 20th century. In…
Sassoon, Siegfried (1886–1967)
Siegfried Sassoon was a poet, memoirist, novelist, and World War One soldier. His pre-war poetry, heavily influenced by Edward Marsh and the Georgian school of…
Collins, Janet (1917–2003)
Magical on stage, elusive off stage, Janet Collins was an enigmatic and complex presence in twentieth-century dance. As the first full-time African American ballerina at…
MacGreevy, Thomas (1950–1963)
Thomas MacGreevy was a poet, art and literary critic, and Director of the National Gallery of Ireland (1950-63). MacGreevy was born in 1893, during the…
Delsarte, François (1811–1871)
A performer and teacher of voice and movement, François Delsarte developed a theory of expression that influenced modern dance, actor training, poetic recitation, silent film,…
Synge, John Millington (1871–1909)
J. M. Synge (pronounced “Sing”) is best known for his plays, first staged at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, that vividly depicted rural life in Ireland. His…