Short biography of Alfred Lord Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson was born on August 6,1809 in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England, where his father was the rector. Alfred Tennyson is one of the most well-loved Victorian poets. He was the fourth of twelve children. Alfred was a talented and bright boy, and the fine physique and manly good looks which characterized him as an adult were noticeable even at an early age.

At the age of twelve he wrote a 6,000-line epic poem. His father, the Reverend George Tennyson, tutored his sons in classical and modern languages. Until he was eleven, Tennyson attended a grammar school in the nearby town of Louth, of which he later had very unhappy memories. From then on, he remained at home, where he studied under the close supervision of his scholarly father.

Tennyson escaped home in 1827 to attend Trinity College, Cambridge. In that same year, a small volume entitled Poems by Two Brothers, containing works by Alfred and Charles Tennyson, as well as a few short contributions by Frederick Tennyson, was published in Louth. Although the poems in the book were mostly juvenilia, they attracted the attention of the “Apostles," an undergraduate literary club led by Arthur Hallam. In 1828, Tennyson enrolled at Trinity College, Cambridge. Despite his intelligence and good looks, he was excessively shy and was quite unhappy.

Hallam’s sudden death in 1833 greatly affected the young poet. The long elegy In Memoriam and many of Tennyson’s other poems are tributes to Hallam. Queen Victoria was a fervent admirer of Tennyson’s writings and made him the Baron Tennyson of Aldworth in the County of Sussex and of Freshwater in the Isle of Wight in 1884.

At the age of 41, Tennyson had established himself as the most popular poet of the Victorian era. The money from his poetry (at times exceeding 10,000 pounds per year) allowed him to purchase a house in the country and to write in relative seclusion.

Alfred Tennyson married Emily Sellwood on June 13, 1850 in the village of Shiplake. Both knew each other since childhood days, but didn’t come close until Tennyson’s brother Charles married Emily’s younger sister, Louisa.

All his life Tennyson continued to write poetry. His later volumes include Maude, A Monodrama (1853),Enoch Arden (1864), Ballads and Poems (1880), Tiresias and Other Ballads (1885), Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886), Demeter and Other Poems (1889), and The Death of Oenone (published posthumously in 1892). He also wrote a number of historical dramas in poetic form, among which areQueen Mary (1875), Harold (1877), Beckett (1884), and The Foresters (1892). Tennyson published the first poems of Idylls of the Kings, which sold more than 10,000 copies in one month. In 1884.

At the age of 83, Tennyson died at Aldworth House, his home in Surrey, on October 6, 1892 He was buried at Westminster Abbey. Later, a memorial was erected for him in All Saints' Church, Freshwater.

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Short biography of Sunil Gangopadhyay

Sunil Gangopadhyay was born on September 7, 1934 at Faridpur in what is now Bangladesh. He (Shunil Gônggopaddhae), is an Indian poet and novelist. A prolific and versatile writer, Sunil Gangopadhyay  got his Master's degree in Economics from the Calcutta University in 1954. He is currently associated with the Ananda Bazar group, a major publishing house in Calcutta.

Sunil Gangopadhyay was the founder editor of the popular seminal magazine named Krittibas, which started publishing from the year 1953. Author of well over 200 books, Sunil is a prolific writer who has excelled in different genres but declares poetry to be his "first love".

As in poetry, Sunil is known for his unique style in prose. Arjun, Pratidwandi, filmed by Satyajit Ray (English title: The Adversary), Aranyer Din-Raatri (also filmed by satyajit Ray - The Days and Nights of the Forest), Ekaa ebong Koyekjon are some of his well known works of fiction.

Sunil has written (and still writes) in many other genres including travelogues, children's fiction, short stories, features and essays. Among his pen-names are: Nil Lohit, Sanatan Pathak, and Nil Upadhyay.

Another of his popular novel - Sei Somoy (translated into English by Aruna Chakravorty as Those Days) received the Indian Sahitya Akademi Award in 1985. Sei Somoy continues to be a best seller more than two decade after its first publication. As in poetry, Sunil is known for his unique style in prose. His first novel was 'atmaprakash' and it was also the first writing from a new comer in literature published in the prestigious magazine- 'desh' (1965).

He married Swati Bandopadhyay on 26 February 1967. Their only son, Souvik, who stays in Boston, was born on 20 November 1967.

Sunil Gangopadhyay has written over 35 novels of this popular series, most of which appeared in Anandamela magazine.

One of Sunil Gangopadhyay's cult poems, Smritir Shohor has been turned into a song for the film Iti Mrinalini (2011) directed by Aparna Sen. . Sunil Gangopadhay breathed his last on 23 October 2012.

                                                               

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Short biography of Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy was born June 2, 1840, in the village of Upper Bockhampton, located in Southwestern England, the eldest son of Thomas Hardy and Jemima (Hand) Hardy. His father was a stone mason and violinist. His father also worked as a builder. His mother enjoyed reading and relating all the folk songs and legends of the region. Between his parents, Hardy gained all the interests that would appear in his novels and his own life: his love for music and architecture, his interest in the lifestyles of the country folk, and his passion for all sorts of literature.

Thomas received his initial schooling from his mother at home. But when he was at the age of eight, Hardy began to attend Julia Martin's school in Bockhampton.  He learned French, German, and Latin by teaching himself through those books that he found in Dorchester, the nearby town. Most of his education came from the books. His primary school education lasted until he was sixteen, at that time he was sent to an apprenticeship with John Hicks, a local architect. By 1862, Hardy left for London to work as a draftsman in the office of Arthur Blomfield. Despite his work, Hardy would study with the Greek scholar Horace Moule in the evening.

From 1867, Hardy wrote poetry and novels. Hardy's novels were published in serial forms in magazines that were popular in England and America. His first popular novel was Under the Greenwood Tree, published in 1872. The next great novel, Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) was so popular that with the profits, on that time he was able to give up architecture and marry Emma Gifford. The Poor Man and the Lady (1867-68), was rejected by several publishers, but one editor, George Meredith encouraged him. Hardy wrote short stories, poems, and plays for the rest of his life. Two further volumes of poetry and short stories appeared, The Dynasts: A Drama of the Napoleonic Wars (1903-08) and Winter Words (1928), a volume of verse.

In December 1927, Hardy fell sick with pleurisy and eventually he died on January 11,1928,at the age of 87. Hardy's body was buried at Westminster Abbey in Poet's Corner.

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Short biography of Robert Browning

Robert Browning was born on May 7, 1812, in Camberwell, London, England. His father, who worked as a bank clerk, was also an artist, scholar, antiquarian, and collector of books and pictures. His mother was an accomplished pianist, gave him a love of music, while her strong and simple religious faith provided him with a lifelong belief in the existence of God.

Robert was a bright child creating "masterpieces" of jam and pencil at the age of two and attending day school as "an infant."At the age of fourteen,Browning went to primary school.His parents decided that he should be educated at home, attended to by various tutors in music, drawing, dancing, and horsemanship. The Brownings were a small, close-knit family, and Robert spent much time reading in his father's library of over seven thousand volumes. Robert was very attached to all species of animals, hosting a wide variety of pets in his childhood.In 1828,Browning entered the University of London and left after only one session.

Browning started to write verses at the age of six.His first published work was Pauline.  In 1840 he published Sordello, which was widely regarded as a failure. This major step in Browning's poetic development was evident in his next long poem, Paracelsus (1835), whose hero was a Renaissance  alchemist. After the disappointing reception of both Strafford and Sordello, Browning turned to the dramatic monologue. He experimented with and perfected this form in the long poem Pippa Passes (1841) and two collections of shorter poems, Dramatic Lyrics (1842) and Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845).

Robert Browning died on the same day that his final volume of verse, Asolando, was published, in 1889 and he was buried at Westminster Abbey.

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Short biography of Edward Morgan Forster

Edward Morgan Forster was born in London on the first day of 1879. Edward Morgan Forster was the only child of Edward Morgan Llewellyn Forster who was an architect by profession and Alice Clara Lily. Both his parents died in his childhood leaving him with a legacy of 8000 Pounds. This money helped him in his livelihood and enabled him to follow his ambition of becoming a writer. Forster was educated as a dayboy at the Tonbridge School in Kent where the theater got named after him. He then attended King's College, Cambridge, which greatly broadened his intellectual interests and provided him with his first exposure to Mediterranean culture, which counterbalanced the more rigid English culture in which he was raised.

After graduating from King’s college he started his career as a writer; his novels being about the varying social circumstances of that time. In his first novel ‘Where Angels Fear to Tread’, which was published in 1905. Between 1905 and 1924, Forster published five novels, most notably “Howards End” and “A Passage to India.” For the following 46 years, however, until his death in 1970, he wrote no more novels, merely a few short biographies, some essays and literary journalism.

 However, Forster's first major success was Howards End (1910), a novel centered on the alliance between the liberal Schlegel sisters and Ruth Wilcox, the proprietor of the titular house, against her husband, Henry Wilcox, an enterprising businessman. Forster spent three wartime years in Alexandria doing civilian work and visited India twice. After he returned to England, inspired by his experience in India, he wrote A Passage to India (1924).

In 1911 Forster  published several short stories with a rustic and unpredictable writing tone. These include “The Celestial Omnibus” and “The Eternal Moment”. He also wrote for many magazines like “The Athenaeum”. Forster was one of those Englishmen who found freedom, inspiration and relief in places like India and Egypt. The old age of this great Englishman was much cheered up by trips to America, by the sly knowledge that he had a hidden manuscript, by the rooms he was given at King’s College, Cambridge, which were his main residence between his mother’s death and his own death.

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Short biography of George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was born July 26, 1856, in Dublin, Ireland. His parents were George Carr Shaw (1815-1885), a retired civil servant, and 'Bessie' Lucinda Elizabeth nee Gurly (1830-1913), amateur mezzo soprano singer.He had two older sisters,Lucinda Frances and Elinor Agnes.

His education was irregular, due to his dislike of any organized training. In 1876 he moved to London, where he wrote regularly but struggled financially but  his mother essentially supported him while he spent time in the British Museum reading room, working on his first novels..In London, he established himself as a leading music and theatre critic in the eighties and nineties.Unfortunately, despite the time he spent writing them, his novels were dismal failures, widely rejected by publishers. Shaw soon turned his attention to politics and the activities of the British intelligentsia and became a prominent member of the Fabian Society.

The year after he joined the Fabian Society, Shaw landed some writing work in the form of book reviews and art, music and theater criticism, and in 1895 he was brought aboard the Saturday Review as its theater critic. His other novels are Cashel Byron's Profession (1882), An Unsocial Socialist (1887),The Irrational Knot (1880), and Love Among the Artists (1881).

 His earliest dramas were called appropriately Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant(1898). Among these, Widower's Houses and Mrs. Warren's Profession savagely attack social hypocrisy, while in plays such as Arms and the Man and The Man of Destiny the criticism is less fierce.

Shaw won an Academy Award for the screenplay. Since he had won the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature, his Oscar win made him the only person to receive both awards.Pygmalion went on to further fame when it was adapted into a musical and became a hit, first on the Broadway stage (1956) with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, and later on the screen (1964) with Harrison and Audrey Hepburn.

Shaw died in 1950 at age 94.It is a great loss in the history of English literature.

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Short biography of Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in Broadbridge Heath ,England,on August 4,1792.His father was Timothy Shelley and  his mother was Elizabeth Pilfold.He was the eldest of seven children born to them.He is one of the epic poets of the 19^th century.

By the age of 6,he was sent to study under the local Vicar,Evan Edwards and in 1802,he entered Sion House Academy in Isleworth. In the fall of 1810, Shelly entered University College, Oxford. It seemed a better academic environment for him.Throughout his education,Percy remained an average student  and his performance in academics could be hailed as ‘poor and disappointing’

 In 1809,he published at his own expense Original Poetry By Victor and Cazire . Percy Bysshe Shelley is one of the epic poets of the 19th century, and is best known for his classic anthology verse works such as Ode to the West Wind and The Masque of Anarchy. He is also well known for his long-form poetry, includingQueen Mab and Alastor.

He developed an attachment for his cousin,Harriet Grove,composing several poems of regret when they are separated by their respective fathers.  In August of 1811, Shelley eloped with Harriet Westbrook, a 16-year-old woman his parents had explicitly forbidden him to see. His love for her was centered on a hope that he could save her from committing suicide. They eloped, but Shelley was soon annoyed with her and became interested in a woman named Elizabeth Hitchener, a schoolteacher.In 1816,Shelley’s previous wife Harriet killed herself. After his marriage to Mary, Percy became acquaintance with the great poet Lord Byron and the two consolidated a strong friendship which would last until his death.

On July 8, 1822, just shy of turning 30, Shelley drowned while sailing his schooner back from Livorno to Lerici, after having met with Leigh Hunt to discuss their newly printed journal, The Liberal. Shelley’s bodied was cremated on the beach in Viareggio, where his bodied had washed ashore. Mary Shelley, as was the custom for women during the time, did not attend her husband’s funeral.It  is a great loss in the history of English literature.

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