Devastating news hitting us this afternoon: Acclaimed fantasy novelist Ursula K. Le Guin passed away on Monday at the age of 88. Her son confirmed the death today and said that his mother had been in poor health for some time. No cause of death has been given. Born in […]
Broadway World reports that playwright and actor, Sam Shepard passed away on July 27 after a lengthy battle with ALS. Shepard wrote over forty-four plays and won a Pulitzer for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child. In 1983, Shepard was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance […]
On this day, December 3, in 1857, Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Imperial Russia (modern
Ukraine, then a part of Poland). While he settled in England and wrote in English, he always considered himself a Pole. Heart of Darkness, one of the most famous of his 20 novels (which explores colonialism and the attitudes regarding what constitutes a barbarian versus civilized society) is considered one of the best English novels of the 20th century, as is his novel Lord Jim, which chronicles a crew’s abandonment of its disabled ship. Conrad died in England in 1924 at age 66.