Known British writer Hector Hugh Munro under pen name Saki published his witty and sometimes bitter short stories in collections, such as The Chronicles of Clovis (1911). His sometimes macabre satirized Edwardian society and culture. People consider him a master and often compare him to William Sydney Porter and Dorothy Rothschild Parker. His tales feature delicately drawn characters and finely judged narratives. "The Open Window," perhaps his most famous, closes with the line, "Romance at short notice was her specialty," which thus entered the lexicon. Newspapers first and then several volumes published him as the custom of the time. His works include * a full-length play, The Watched Pot , in collaboration with Charles Maude; * two one-act plays; * a historical study, The Rise of the Russian Empire , the only book under his own name; * a short novel, The Unbearable Bassington ; * the episodic The Westminster Alice , a parliamentary parody of Alice in Wonderland ; * and When William Came: A Story of London under the Hohenzollerns , an early alternate history. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, and Joseph Rudyard Kipling, influenced Munro, who in turn influenced Alan Alexander Milne, Sir Noel Pierce Coward, and Pelham Grenville Wodehouse.

Stephen Crane (1871-1900) was an American novelist, poet and journalist, best known for the novel, The Red Badge of Courage. That work introduced the reading world to Crane's striking prose, a mix of impressionism, naturalism and symbolism. He died at age 28 in Badenweiler, Baden, Germany. Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Mikhail Zoshchenko (Russian: Михаил Зощенко) was born in Poltava, Ukraine, on 29th July, 1895. He studied law at the University of Petersburg, but did not graduate. During the First World War Zoshchenko served in the Russian Army. A supporter of the October Revolution, Zoshchenko joined the Red Army and fought against the Whites in the Civil War. In 1922 Zoshchenko joined the literary group, the Serapion Brothers. Inspired by the work of Yevgeni Zamyatin, the group took their name from the story by Ernst T. Hoffmann, the Serapion Brothers, about an individualist who vows to devote himself to a free, imaginative and non-conformist art. Other members included Nickolai Tikhonov, Mikhail Slonimski, Victor Shklovsky, Vsevolod Ivanov and Konstantin Fedin. Russia's most important writer of the period, Maxim Gorky, also sympathized with the group's views. Zoshchenko's early stories dealt with his experiences in the First World War and the Russian Civil War. He gradually developed a new style that relied heavily on humour. This was reflected in his stories that appeared in Tales (1923), Esteemed Citizens (1926), What the Nightingale Sang (1927) and Nervous People (1927). Zoshchenko satires were popular with the Russian people and he was one of the country's most widely read writers in the 1920s. Although Zoshchenko never directly attacked the Soviet system, he was not afraid to highlight the problems of bureaucracy, corruption, poor housing and food shortages. In the 1930s Zoshchenko came under increasing pressure to conform to the idea of socialist realism. As a satirist, Zoshchenko found this difficult, and attempts such as the Story of one Life were not successful. Zoshchenko increasing got into trouble with the Soviet authorities. His autobiographical, Before Sunrise, was banned in 1943 and three years later his literary career was brought to an end when he was expelled from the Soviet Writers' Union after the publication of The Adventures of a Monkey in the literary magazine, Zvezda. Mikhail Zoshchenko died in Leningrad on 22nd July, 1958. (source: spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk)

أنطون بافلوفيتش تشيخوف (English: Anton Chekhov) (Russian: Антон Павлович Чехов) من كبار الأدباء الروس كما أنه من أفضل كتاب القصة القصيرة على مستوى العالم. كتب عدة مئات من القصص القصيرة وتعتبر الكثير منها ابداعات فنية كلاسيكية ، كما أن مسرحياته كان لها أعظم الأثر على دراما القرن العشرين. ولد انطون تشيخوف عام 1860 في مدينة تاجنروج، وهي ميناء محلي يقع على ضفاف بحر أزوف جنوب روسيا. كان تشيخوف الأبن الثالث من ستة أبناء لأب يعمل في التجارة. دخل تشيخوف مدرسة ابتدائية للصبيان، وفي عامه الثامن أرسل إلى مدرسة خاصة. اشتهر أنطون هناك بتعليقاته ومزاحه وبراعته في إطلاق الألقاب الساخرة على الأساتذة. كان أنطون عاشقا للمسرح والأدب منذ صغره، وحضر أول عرض مسرحي في حياته (أوبرا هيلين الجميلة من تلحين باخ) عندما كان في الثالثة عشرمن عمره. وكان ينفق كل مدخراته اليومية لحضور المسرحيات، حيث كان مقعده المفضل في نهاية صالة العرض لإنخفاض سعر التذكرة هناك. عمل تشيخوف بالتمثيل في مسرح الهواة، وأحيانا كان يؤدي أدوارا في عروض المسرح المحلي. وقد حاول آنذاك كتابة قصص فكاهية، كما إنه ألف في تلك السن أيضا مسرحية طويلة أسماها "بلا أب" لكنه تخلص منها فيما بعد. أنهى تشيخوف معهد الطب وعمل طبيبا ممارساًً. ولذلك نجد الكثير من الأطباء من بين أبطال قصصه مثل آستروف وديموف وإيونيتش، وأبطال قصصه المسلسلة تحت عنوان " جراحة " وقصة " الردهة رقم 6 " وغيرها من القصص. جهد تشيخوف من اجل إعالة جميع أفراد عائلته. واصيب بمرض السل عندما كان شاباً، وكان مرضه معروفاً بالنسبة له ، غير انه لم يعالج نفسه نهائياً. فنصحه الأصدقاء بالسفر للعلاج في مصح بادن فيير بألمانيا. لكنه توفي هناك في 15 يوليو/تموز عام 1904 بعيداً عن الوطن والأصدقاء. وتم نقل جثمان الكاتب الروسي العظيم إلى روسيا. حيث دفن تشيخوف في مقبرة نوفوديفيتشي بموسكو التي تضم رفات مشاهير روسيا. عاش تشيخوف كإنسان متواضع و نزيه مثلما كتب هو قائلاً " في الإنسان كل شيء يجب أن يكون رائعاً: وجهه، وهندامه ، وروحه، وأفكاره. يعتبر تشيخوف من عمالقة الأدب الروسي كما أنه من أفضل كتاب القصة القصيرة على مستوى العالم. كتب عدة مئات من القصص القصيرة ويعد الكثير من اعماله ابداعات فنية كلاسيكية خالدة مثل " وفاة موظف " و" مزحة " ،و" جهاز العروس" و" حكاية مملة ". كما كتب تشيخوف عام 1890 وهو في قمة نضجه وصعوده إلى ذروة الأدب الروسي القصة الوثائقية " جزيرة سخالين" التي تتحدث عن رحلته إلى تلك الجزيرة النائية الواقعة عند الشواطئ الشرقية لروسيا . تركت مسرحيات تشيخوف أثرا عظيما على فن الدراما في القرن العشرين مثل: "طائر النورس"، و"الخال فانيا".

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (Russian: Антон Павлович Чехов ) was born in the small seaport of Taganrog, southern Russia, the son of a grocer. Chekhov's grandfather was a serf, who had bought his own freedom and that of his three sons in 1841. He also taught himself to read and write. Yevgenia Morozova, Chekhov's mother, was the daughter of a cloth merchant. "When I think back on my childhood," Chekhov recalled, "it all seems quite gloomy to me." His early years were shadowed by his father's tyranny, religious fanaticism, and long nights in the store, which was open from five in the morning till midnight. He attended a school for Greek boys in Taganrog (1867-68) and Taganrog grammar school (1868-79). The family was forced to move to Moscow following his father's bankruptcy. At the age of 16, Chekhov became independent and remained for some time alone in his native town, supporting himself through private tutoring. In 1879 Chekhov entered the Moscow University Medical School. While in the school, he began to publish hundreds of comic short stories to support himself and his mother, sisters and brothers. His publisher at this period was Nicholas Leikin, owner of the St. Petersburg journal Oskolki (splinters). His subjects were silly social situations, marital problems, farcical encounters between husbands, wives, mistresses, and lovers, whims of young women, of whom Chekhov had not much knowledge – the author was shy with women even after his marriage. His works appeared in St. Petersburg daily papers, Peterburskaia gazeta from 1885, and Novoe vremia from 1886. Chekhov's first novel, Nenunzhaya pobeda (1882), set in Hungary, parodied the novels of the popular Hungarian writer Mór Jókai. As a politician Jókai was also mocked for his ideological optimism. By 1886 Chekhov had gained a wide fame as a writer. His second full-length novel, The Shooting Party, was translated into English in 1926. Agatha Christie used its characters and atmosphere in her mystery novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926). Chekhov graduated in 1884, and practiced medicine until 1892. In 1886 Chekhov met H.S. Suvorin, who invited him to become a regular contributor for the St. Petersburg daily Novoe vremya. His friendship with Suvorin ended in 1898 because of his objections to the anti-Dreyfus campaign conducted by paper. But during these years Chechov developed his concept of the dispassionate, non-judgmental author. He outlined his program in a letter to his brother Aleksandr: "1. Absence of lengthy verbiage of political-social-economic nature; 2. total objectivity; 3. truthful descriptions of persons and objects; 4. extreme brevity; 5. audacity and originality; flee the stereotype; 6. compassion." Chekhov's first book of stories (1886) was a success, and gradually he became a full-time writer. The author's refusal to join the ranks of social critics arose the wrath of liberal and radical intelligentsia and he was criticized for dealing with serious social and moral questions, but avoiding giving answers. However, he was defended by such leading writers as Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Leskov. "I'm not a liberal, or a conservative, or a gradualist, or a monk, or an indifferentist. I should like to be a free artist and that's all..." Chekhov said in 1888. The failure of his play The Wood Demon (1889) and problems with his novel made Chekhov to withdraw from literature for a period. In 1890 he travelled across Siberia to remote prison island, Sakhalin. There he conducted a detailed census of some 10,000 convicts and settlers condemned to live their lives on that harsh island. Chekhov hoped to use the results of his research for his doctoral dissertation. It is probable that hard conditions on the island also weakened his own physical condition. From this journey was born his famous travel book T

Luís Bernado Honwana (born 1942) is a Mozambican author. Luís Bernardo Honwana was born Luís Augusto Bernardo Manuel in Lourenço Marques (present-day Maputo), Mozambique. His parents, Raúl Bernardo Manuel (Honwana) and Naly Jeremias Nhaca, belonged to the Ronga people from Moamba, a town about 55 km northwest of Maputo. In 1964 he became a militant with FRELIMO, a front that had the objective to liberate Mozambique from Portuguese colonial rule. Due to his political activities he was arrested by the colonial authorities and was incarcerated for three years. He studied law in Portugal and worked for some time as a journalist. He was appointed director of President's office under Samora Machel. Later in 1981, he became Secretary of State for culture. He served on the Executive Board of UNESCO from 1987 to 1991 and was chairman of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee for the World Decade for Culture and Development. In 1995, he was appointed director of the newly opened UNESCO office in South Africa. Since he retired from the organization in 2002, he has been active in research in the arts, history and ethno-linguistics. Honwana is the author of a single book, Nós Matámos o Cão-Tinhoso (1964), translated into English as We Killed Mangy Dog and Other Stories, and the tale "Hands of the Blacks". This work has proved enormously influential and a case can be made for it being the touchstone of contemporary Mozambican narrative. We Killed Mangy Dog is a collection of short stories set in the (Portuguese) colonial era at the turn of the sixties and is reflective of the harsh life black Mozambicans lived under the Salazar regime. Several of the stories are told from the point of view of children or alienated adolescents and most feature the rich mix of races, religions and ethnicities that would later preoccupy Mozambique's most internationally celebrated writer, Mia Couto. (from Wikipedia)

كاتب أمريكي يعد من أهم الروائيين و كتاب القصة الأمريكيين.كتب الروايات والقصص القصيرة . لقب ب "بابا". غلبت عليه النظرة السوداوية للعالم في البداية، إلا أنه عاد ليجدد أفكاره فعمل على تمجيد القوة النفسية لعقل للإنسان في رواياته، غالبا ما تصور أعماله هذه القوة وهي تتحدى القوى الطبيعية الأخرى في صراع ثنائي وفي جو من العزلة والانطوائية.شارك في الحرب العالميه الأولى و الثانيه حيث خدم على سفينه حربيه أمريكيه كانت مهمتها إغراق الغوصات الألماني, وحصل في كل منهما على أوسمه حيث أثرت الحرب في كتابات هيمنجواى وروايته. عكس أدب هيمنجواي تجاربه الشخصية في الحربين العالميتين الاولى و الثانية والحرب الاهلية الأسبانية. تميز أسلوبه بالبساطة و الجمل القصيرة. وترك بصمتة على الأدب الأمريكي الذي صار هيمنغواي واحدا من أهم أعمدته. شخصيات هيمنغواي دائما افراد ابطال يتحملون المصاعب دونما شكوى او الم ، و تعكس هذه الشخصيات طبيعة همنغواي الشخصية. تلقى همنجواي جائزة بوليتزر الأمريكية في الصحافه عام 1953 .كما حصل على جائزة جائزة نوبل في الأدب في عام 1954 عن رواية العجوز والبحر. حاز إرنست همنجواي بفضل العجوز والبحر على جائزة نوبل في الأدب و جائزة بوليتزر الأمريكية "لأستاذيته في فن الرواية الحديثة ولقوة اسلوبة كما يظهر ذلك بوضوح في قصته الأخيرة العجوز والبحر" كما جاء في تقرير لجنة نوبل في أخر حياته إنتقل للعيش في منزل بكوبا . حيث بداء يعانى من إضطرابات عقليه حاول الإنتحار في ربيع عام 1961 ، وتلقى العلاج بالصدمات الكهربيه .بعد حوالي ثلاثة اسابيع من إكماله الثانية والستين من العمر ، وضع حد لحياته بإطلاق الرصاص على رائسه من بندقيته في منزله

Arabic profile for Stephen Crane ستيفن كرين روائي أمريكي وكاتب قصص قصيرة وشاعر وصحفي. بدأ الكتابة في سن الرابعة، ونشر العديد من المقالات وهو بعدُ في السادسة عشرة من عمره. يعتبره النقاد المعاصرون واحدًا من أكثر كتَّاب جيله إبداعًا. نال إشادة واسعة عن روايته «شارة الشجاعة الحمراء» التي كتبها عن الحرب الأهلية الأمريكية مع أنه لم يكن قد شارك في الحرب بأي صورة. تعرض كرين لمشكلات مادية وساءت حالته الصحية، ثم لقي حتفه بعد أن أصيب بداء السُّل وهو في الثامنة والعشرين من عمره.

Terse literary style of Ernest Miller Hemingway, an American writer, ambulance driver of World War I, journalist, and expatriate in Paris during the 1920s, marks short stories and novels, such as The Sun Also Rises (1926) and The Old Man and the Sea (1952), which concern courageous, lonely characters, and he won the Nobel Prize of 1954 for literature. Economical and understated style of Hemingway strongly influenced 20th-century fiction, whereas his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s. He published seven novels, six short story collections and two nonfiction works. Survivors published posthumously three novels, four collections of short stories, and three nonfiction works. People consider many of these classics. After high school, Hemingway reported for a few months for the Kansas City Star before leaving for the Italian front to enlist. In 1918, someone seriously wounded him, who returned home. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his novel A Farewell to Arms . In 1922, he married Hadley Richardson, the first of his four wives. The couple moved, and he worked as a foreign correspondent and fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the expatriate community of the "lost generation" of 1920s. After his divorce of 1927 from Hadley Richardson, Hemingway married Pauline Pfeiffer. At the Spanish civil war, he acted as a journalist; afterward, they divorced, and he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls . Hemingway maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida, and Cuba during the 1930s and 1940s. Martha Gellhorn served as third wife of Hemingway in 1940. When he met Mary Welsh in London during World War II, they separated; he presently witnessed at the Normandy landings and liberation of Paris. Shortly after 1952, Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where two plane crashes almost killed him and left him in pain and ill health for much of the rest of his life. Nevertheless, in 1959, he moved from Cuba to Ketchum, Idaho, where he committed suicide in the summer of 1961.

Arabic profile for Mikhail Zoshchenko مخائيل میخائيلوفيتش زوشينكو كاتب روسي ولد عام ١٨٩٤ صُنفت أعماله القصصية بأنها ساخرة ومنع بعضها من التداول في روسيا بسبب سخريته من تفشي الفساد والفقر بين الناس في المجتمع آنذاك. حُرم من تقاضى المعاش التقاعدي بعد بلوغه سن التقاعد. تدهورت صحته سريعًا، وقضى آخر سنوات حياته في منزله الصيفي بمدينة سيستروريتسك حيث واجه أزمة نفسية صعبة. توفى زوشينكو في ٢٢ يوليو عام ١٩٥٨ نتيجة إصابته بالسكتة القلبية.

Arabic profile for Saki كان هيكتور هيو مونرو، المعروف باسم القلم ساكي، كاتبًا بريطانيًا بارعًا. الإلهام وراء اسمه المستعار "ساكي" غير معروف. يعتبر واحدًا من أعظم كتاب القصة القصيرة ومقارنة بعظماء مثل أو. هنري ودوروثي باركر. تأثر مونرو بشكل كبير بكتابات أوسكار وايلد وروديارد كيبلينغ ولويس كارول. نُشرت قصصه في البداية في الصحف وتم جمعها لاحقًا في عدة مجلدات. بصرف النظر عن القصص القصيرة، كتب مونرو أيضًا مسرحية كاملة، ومسرحيتين بفعل واحد، ودراسة تاريخية، ورواية قصيرة وما إلى ذلك. وقد أثر على كتّاب عظماء مثل أ. أ. ميلن، ونويل كوارد، وبي جيه. عندما كان في أوائل العشرينات من عمره، ذهب مونرو إلى بورما (ميانمار) للانضمام إلى الشرطة العسكرية البورمية الاستعمارية لكنه اضطر إلى العودة إلى إنجلترا لاحقًا بسبب اعتلال صحته. بعد ذلك، بدأ حياته المهنية كصحفي. كتب للعديد من المنشورات بما في ذلك ديلي إكسبرس، بيستراندر، ذا مورنينج بوست وآوتلوك.