Thomas Hardy, English novelist and poet, was born in 1840 in Dorset, an agricultural district in southwestern England. He was educated at local schools and articled to an architect at the age of sixteen. At twenty-two, he went to Lond...
Among writers of his generation, Jack London (1876—1916) probably had the most dramatic career. Pulling himself up from the bottom of society, he became the first millionaire author in America by sheer will and hard work. Though he pro...