Famous Authors

Saki

~"Saki" is a pen name for Hector Hugh Munro

~Saki means "cup-bearer" in the Farsi language

~Hector H. Munro  was born in 1870 in Burma ( now Myanmar)

~He is often referred to as the master of irony of situation, or master of surprise endings

~Saki's mother died in a runaway cow accident, so he lived with his grandmother and aunts.

~ He began his career in writing as a journalist for various publications.

~Saki never married.

~He fought in World War I and got injured.

~ He later re-enlisted and died in war.

~As the master of surprise endings, his life even ended ironically in 1916: He was telling someone to put out their cigarette, and was shot by a German Sniper.
http://www.online-literature.com/hh-munro/

en.wikipedia.org

O. Henry
~O. Henry was born in 1862
~O. Henry is a pen name for William Sydney Porter.
~He came up with this pen name because he was in jail, and had to write under a different name to not be punished.
~He is also known for his surprise endings.
~His mother died when he was three, so he was raised by his aunt and grandmother.
~O. Henry married in 1882.
~while working for the Washington Post, he was convicted of embezzling, and sent to prison.
~ While in prison he began writing to support his daughter, this was when he adopted the pen name O. Henry.
~ In his lifetime he published 10 collections and over 600 short stories.
~ In his later years of life, he suffered from alcoholism, ill health, and financial problems.
~William Sydney Porter died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1910.
http://www.online-literature.com/o_henry/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._Henry

Edgar Allan Poe
~Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston Massachusetts
~His mother died of Tuberculosis when he was three years old
~He was raised by John and Frances Allan in Richmond Virginia
~He married his cousin Virginia when he was 27 and she was 13
~Accomplished his first book, Tamerlane, at the age of 18
~His wife Virginia died of Tuberculosis
~He published "The Raven" in 1845 and became famous for it
~On a trip to Philadelphia, Poe stopped in Baltimore and mysteriously disappeared for 5 days
~He was found later in the streets in poor health
~After acting strange and delirious in the hospital, Poe died on October 7, 1849
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe

http://poestories.com/

William Fualkner
~William Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897
~He came from an old southern family in Oxford Missippi 
~He was a Nobel prize laureate
~In his career as a writer he wrote novels, short stories, poetry, essays, screenplays, and a play
~He was most renown for his novels and short stories
~Faulkner is a very important writer in American southern literature
~He became known to the public more in 1949 when he received the Pulitzer Prize in Literature
~Faulkner won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his last novel The Reivers, and another one of his works A Fable
~William Faulkner died in 1962 at the age of 65
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Faulkner
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/faulkner-bio.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Faulkner

Stories by Saki

The two stories I have read by Saki, "The Interlopers" and "The Open Window", have both been very interesting and unique. In both cases Saki uses irony of situation, with a very unexpected ending in each. In "The Interlopers" the surprise ending was when the wolves come, and the men are helplessly pinned to the ground by a tree. In "The Open Window" the story takes a turn when the aunt's reportedly dead husband and sons come home three years after leaving for a hunting trip. The mood of both stories was rather eerie, dark, and depressing."Her great tragedy happened just three years ago" ("The Open Window"). The tragedy was sad and set the mood for the whole story. The characters of each story were different. The characters of "The Interlopers" were dynamic, hating each other in the beginning, and becoming friends by the end,"...And he looked across with something like a throb of pity to where his enemy lay..." (The Interlopers"). You can see how Ulrich Gradwitz had felt resentment towards his neighbor,and then began to feel remorse for him. The characters of "The Open Window" were static, not changing by the end of the story. Both of the short stories kept you reading with rapt attention to see what would happen next. Saki did a great job of writing with suspense and producing vivid pictures and scenarios in your head.

en.wikipedia.org