Niall Fallon 
John Kennedy Toole (1937 to 1969) was an American novelist from New Orleans whose comic novel “A Confederacy of Dunces” was published in 1980, eleven years after his death, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981. His only other novel, “The Neon Bible”, written when he was 16, followed in 1989. Toole was … Read more
Christopher Isherwood (1904 to 1986) was an English-born novelist, playwright and diarist who became an American citizen in 1946. He is best known for “Goodbye to Berlin” (1939), the semi-autobiographical novel that became the musical “Cabaret”, and for “A Single Man” (1964). Isherwood was born on his family’s estate in Cheshire. His father, a professional … Read more
Alex Haley (1921 to 1992) was an American writer best known for “Roots: The Saga of an American Family” (1976), a novel based on his own family history that follows Kunta Kinte, taken from The Gambia into slavery in 1767, and his descendants in the United States. His first book was "The Autobiography of Malcolm … Read more
Mark Z. Danielewski (born in New York City on 5 March 1966) is an American novelist best known for his debut, “House of Leaves” (2000), a horror novel built around a house that is bigger on the inside than the outside. His books are known for their unconventional typography and page layout, a style he … Read more
Robert Bloch (1917 to 1994) was an American writer of crime, horror and fantasy fiction, best known for the novel “Psycho” (1959), the basis for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film. In a career of sixty years he wrote more than thirty novels and hundreds of short stories, along with scripts for film and television. Robert Albert … Read more
Thomas Wolfe (1900 to 1938) was an American novelist from Asheville, North Carolina, best known for his autobiographical first novel, “Look Homeward, Angel” (1929). He wrote four long novels and many short stories before his death at 37, and two of those novels were published only after he died. Thomas Clayton Wolfe was born on … Read more
Erica Jong (born Erica Mann in New York City on 26 March 1942) is an American novelist and poet. She is best known for her first novel, “Fear of Flying” (1973), whose frank treatment of a woman’s sexual desires made it controversial on publication and gave it a prominent place in second-wave feminism. She was … Read more
Lionel Shriver (born Margaret Ann Shriver in Gastonia, North Carolina, on 18 May 1957) is an American novelist and journalist. She is best known for “We Need to Talk About Kevin”, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005 and was filmed in 2011 with Tilda Swinton and Ezra Miller. Her father was a … Read more
Denis Johnson (born 1949, died 2017) was an American novelist, short story writer and poet, best known for the story collection “Jesus’ Son” (1992), the Vietnam War novel “Tree of Smoke” (2007), which won the National Book Award for Fiction, and the novella “Train Dreams”. Johnson was born in Munich, West Germany, on 1 July … Read more
Henry Miller (born 1891, died 1980) was an American novelist and essayist whose semi-autobiographical books, among them “Tropic of Cancer”, “Tropic of Capricorn” and the trilogy “The Rosy Crucifixion”, were banned in the United States until 1961. Their eventual American publication led to obscenity trials that changed the law on what could be printed. Miller … Read more
