Alphonse Daudet

Alphonse Daudet :- (born May 13,

1840, Nîmes, France—died Dec.
16,
1897, Paris?), French short-story
writer and novelist, now
remembered chiefly as the author
of
sentimental tales of provincial life
in
the south of France.

Life :- Daudet was the son of a silk manufacturer. In 1849 his

father had to sell his factory and move to Lyon. Alphonse
wrote his first poems and his first novel at age 14. In 1857 his
parents lost all their money, and Daudet had to give up his
hopes of matriculating. His work as an usher at a school at
Alès for six unhappy months culminated in his dismissal but
later furnished the theme, with embellishments and omissions,
for his semiautobiographical novel Le Petit Chose (1868;
“The Little Thing”). At the end of the year he joined his elder
brother, Ernest, in Paris. Daudet now threw himself into
writing and began to frequent literary circles, both Bohemian
and fashionable. A handsome young man, he formed a liaison
with a model, Marie Rieu, to whom he dedicated his only
book of poems, Les Amoureuses (1858; “The Lovers”). His
long and troubled relationship with her was to be reflected,
much later, in his novel Sapho (1884). His health undermined
by poverty and by the venereal disease that was eventually to
cost him his life, Daudet spent the winter of 1861–62 in
Algeria. One of the fruits of this visit was Chapatin le tueur de
lions (1863; “Chapatin the Killer of Lions”), whose lion-
hunter hero can be seen as the first sketch of the author’s
future Tartarin. Daudet’s first play, La Dernière Idole (“The
Last Idol”), made a great impact when it was produced at the
Odéon Theatre in Paris in 1862.
Anees Jung
Anees Jung:- (born 1944) is an Indian
author,
journalist and columnist for newspapers
in
India and abroad,[2] whose most known
work, ' Unveiling India ' (1987) was
a chronicle of the lives of women in
India, noted especially for the
depiction of Muslim women behind the
purdah.

Life:- Born in Rourkela, and growing up in Hyderabad,[4] Anees

Jung hails from an aristocratic family – her father, Nawab Hosh Yar
Jung, was a scholar and poet, and served as the musahib (adviser) to
the last Nizam (prince) of Hyderabad State. Her mother and brother
are also Urdu poets. After schooling and college at Osmania
University in Hyderabad, she went to the United States for higher
studies at University of Michigan Ann Arbor, where she did her
master's degree in sociology and American studies.
Books :- Jung published Unveiling India in 1987. It is a travel diary
focusing on interviews with women. She has written several
subsequent books on the same, talking to women about their everyday
lives, including Night of the New Moon: Encounters with Muslim
women in India (1993), Seven Sisters (1994). Breaking the Silence
(1997) is based on conversations on women's lives from around the
world.
William Douglas
William Douglas :- (October 16, 1898 –
January
19, 1980) was an American jurist who
served as
an associate justice of the Supreme Court of
the United States, who was known for his
strong progressive and civil libertarian
views,
and is often cited as the U.S. Supreme
Court's
most liberal justice ever.[2] In 1975, Time
called
Douglas "the most doctrinaire and committed
civil libertarian ever to sit on the court."[3]
He is
the longest-serving associate justice in
history,
with his term lasting 36 years and 211 days
(1939–1975).
Life and Education :- Douglas was born in 1898 in Maine
Township, Otter Tail County, Minnesota, the son of William Douglas,
an itinerant Scottish Presbyterian minister from Pictou County, Nova
Scotia, and his wife, Julia Bickford Fisk. His mother attributed his
recovery to a miracle, telling Douglas that one day he would be
President of the United States. His father died in Portland, Oregon in
1904, when Douglas was six years old. Douglas later claimed his
mother had been left destitute. After moving the family from town to
town in the West, his mother, with three young children, settled in
Yakima, Washington. William, like the rest of the Douglas family,
worked at odd jobs to earn extra money, and a college education
appeared to be unaffordable. He was the valedictorian at Yakima
High School and did well enough in school to earn a full academic
scholarship to attend Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.
At Whitman, Douglas became a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
He worked at various jobs while attending school, including as a
waiter and janitor during the school year, and at a cherry orchard in
the summer. Picking cherries, Douglas would say later, inspired him
to a legal career. He once said of his early interest in the law:- I
worked among the very, very poor, the migrant laborers, the
Chicanos and the I.W.W's who I saw being shot at by the police. I saw
cruelty and hardness, and my impulse was to be a force in other
developments in the law.
Selma Lagerlof :-
Selma Lagerlof:- Born:- Selma Ottilia
Lovisa Lagerlö 20 November 1858
Mårbacka, Sweden
Died:- 16 March 1940 (aged 81)
Mårbacka, Sweden
Occupation:- Writer
Nationality:- Swedish
Notable awards:- Nobel Prize in
Literature 1909

Life :- She was a quiet, serious child with a deep love of reading.
She wrote poetry but did not publish anything until later in life. Her
grandmother helped raise her, often telling stories of fairytales and
fantasy. Growing up, she was plain and slightly lame, and an account
stated that the cross-country wanderings of Margarethe and Elisabet
in Gösta Berling's Saga could be the author's compensatory fantasies.
She received her schooling at home since the Volksschule compulsory
education system was not fully developed yet. She studied English and
French. After reading Osceola by Thomas Mayne Reid at the age of
seven, she decided she would be a writer when she grew up. In 1868,
at the age of 10, Selma began reading the Bible. At this time her
father was very ill, and she hoped that God would heal him if she
read the Bible from cover to cover. Her father lived for another 17
years. In this manner, Lagerlöf became accustomed to the language
of Scripture. The sale of Mårbacka in 1884 had a serious impact on
her development. Selma's father is said to have been an alcoholic,
something she rarely discussed. Her father did not want Selma to
continue her education or remain involved with the women's
movement. Later in life, she would buy back her father's estate with
the money she received for her Nobel Prize. Lagerlöf lived there for
the rest of her life. She also completed her studies at the Royal
Seminary to become a teacher the same year as her father died.