Which author's life most intrigues you?

[waryan]

Curious if there was an author which led a particularly odd or interesting life. Feel free to post biographies as well which you recommend.

For me, I've always been interested in Yukio Mishima's life- The industry of his body of work, as well as his lifestyle of imperial Japan, though correct me if I'm wrong, ending in his committing seppuku after a failed overthrow of a military station in Japan, to broadly summarize it.

I've also been interested in the life of Robert E. Howard, who was working around the time of Lovecraft though committed suicide in 1936. Unfortunately I've not read any bios of the two.

How about you guys?

[kandaurov]

Great thread, waryan! Off the top of my head I'd say that portuguese writers Camilo Castelo Branco and Fernando Pessoa are very interesting case studies.

I remember reading Camilo's biography in class and wondering at his eventful life: arrested twice, writing for the sake of money (he claimed that he wrote one of his best works in a fortnight in jail), 'kidnapping' his to-be wife, going blind and killing himself.

Pessoa was a genius. Probably result of a health condition, though this is higly disputable, he spawned four heteronyms (poet-personalities) completely different from one another, not only in big things like ideology but also in handwriting. As for the debate about his sexuality, I'm inclined to think that he was asexual.

These are my two cents. I'm very much looking forward to hearing the others' contributions.

[novelsryou]

I'm going to have to say Hemingway for all the obvious reasons.

[Vincent Black]

Perhaps Victor Hugo. I mean, he lived in France in the 19th century, need i say more? Although admittedly the ones who go insane/ commit suicide/ descend into alcoholism etc, tend to be more interesting...

[johann cruyff]

Some of the people whose lives I find to be very intriguing,not all of them being writers: Diogenes,Averroes,Schopenhauer,Hesse,Yesenin,José Raúl Capablanca,Harry Nelson Pillsbury,Rene Magritte,Van Gogh,Django Reinhardt,Wagner,Nietzsche...And a lot more,really,but I feel this is enough.

[Pensive]

Yes, Herman Hesse, H.P. Lovecraft and Altaf Fatima (though I doubt anybody here would have heard of her, wrote in my native tongue) too.

[samah]

dostoevsky, its interesting to know that he wrote most of his works just to be able to pay his gambling debts.

[Inderjit Sanghe]

Problably one of those crazy French poets/writers which France seems to produce in spades. Rimbaud, Verlaine, Genet, de Nerval. (he used to take his pet lobster on walks around Paris! ) I loved Robb's biography of Rimbaud-it was a brilliant read.

[andave_ya]

Hmm...does anyone read the correspondence of authors? The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers is very interesting -- very witty and enjoyable.

[kelby_lake]

franz kafka.strange man

[Kafka's Crow]

Isidore Ducasse Comte de Lautreamont. Born in Montevideo, ended up in turbulent Paris of Zola's l'Debacle, died at the extremely tender age of 24 leaving nothing behind but one poem, one poem to destroy all poetry for all times to come for his one poem became the inspiration for those surrealists, Dadaists and other mad men of literature. I admire the French madmen and Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, Dostoevsky's beginning (release from the firing-squad at the last moment, when he was made to stand facing a freshly dug grave), this started his most fruitful period, Tolstoy's end when he gave away everything he had to poor people and serfs and died of cold on a station platform. Among the English writers, I think I would like to be Dr Johnson, for his wit and eventful life or John Donne for his eventful life as well, for his majestic wit and his most beautiful poetry. Among the Irish greats, I'd like to be my hero, my idol, good ol' Sam Beckett. How he hated life and how life just wouldn't stop clinging to him like his characters, all desperately trying to 'finish dying.' His good nature, his charity, his shyness, his dark, dry humor, his generosity, his athleticism, his bravery, his command of the languages, his understanding of the arts and music, his search for weakness. Keep your majestic Joyce, give me Sam Beckett any day, the god of my idolatry (as I write these lines, the bronze bust of good old Irishman sits on my bookshelf, is it the time for my daily worship yet?)

[Julian Koller]

Leo Tolstoy

[waryan]

Hmm...does anyone read the correspondence of authors? The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers is very interesting -- very witty and enjoyable.

Indeed- as far as literature goes I really enjoy Kafka's Letters to Felice and R.L. Stevenson's letters seem to be found very cheap at many Half-Price Book stores, and also I especially enjoy the letters of several composers such as Chopin and Wagner; very interesting.

[AdoreroDio]

Definitely I would have to say Jane Austen- a very sad but intriguing story to be sure and I must say she lived a sad but inspiring life.

[Sir Bartholomew]

Virginia Woolf.