- John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck (February 27 1902 - December 20 1968) was one of the best-known and most widely read American writers of the 20th century. A winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, he wrote "Of Mice and Men" (1937) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940), both of which examine the lives of the working class and migrant workers during the Dust Bowl and subsequent Great Depression. - Jack London
Jack London, was an American author who wrote "The Call of the Wild" and other books. A pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first Americans to make a huge financial success from writing. - Jack Hirschman
Jack Hirschman greets the artists, poets, and speakers who came out in support of the 2004 San Francisco rally: "The Arts in Defense of Dissent".Jack Hirschman (b. December 13, 1933, in New York, NY) is a poet and social activist who has written more than 50 volumes of poetry and essays. Hirschman received a Bachelor of Arts from City College of New York in 1955, and an A.M. and Ph. - Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 - March 26, 1959) was an author of crime stories and novels. His influence on modern crime fiction has been immense, particularly in the writing style and attitudes that much of the field has adopted over the last 60 years. Chandler's protagonist, Philip Marlowe, has become synonymous with the tradition of the hard-boiled private detective, along with Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade. - Wallace Stegner
Wallace Earle Stegner was an American historian, novelist, short story writer, and environmentalist. Some call him "The Dean of Western Writers." - William Saroyan
William Saroyan (August 31, 1908 - May 18, 1981) was an American author who wrote many plays and short stories about growing up impoverished as the son of Armenian immigrants. These stories were popular during the Great Depression. Saroyan grew up in Fresno, the center of Armenian-Americans in California, where many of his works are set (although he sometimes gave the city a fictional name). - Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon (born May 24, 1963) is an American author best known for his novel "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay", which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001. - Kenneth Rexroth
Kenneth Rexroth (December 221905 - June 61982) was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. He was among the first poets in the United States to explore traditional Japanese poetic forms such as haiku. He is regarded as a chief figure in the San Francisco Renaissance. Rexroth had two daughters, Mary (who later changed her name to Mariana) and Katharine, by his third wife, Marthe Larsen. - Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair Jr., was a prolific American author who wrote over 90 books in many genres and was widely considered to be one of the best investigators advocating socialist views and supporting anarchist causes, he achieved considerable popularity in the first half of the 20th century. He gained particular fame for his novel, "The Jungle" (1906), … - Maxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingston is an American writer. She was born as Maxine Ting Ting Hong to a laundry house owner in Stockton, California. She was the first of six children to be born in the United States. Her parents had two children before coming to this country. She is currently a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley where she graduated with a BA in English in 1962. Her works often reflect on her cultural heritage and blend fiction with non-fiction. - Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson (born March 23 1952) is an American science fiction writer, probably best known for his award-winning Mars trilogy. His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the 15 years of research and lifelong fascination with Mars which culminated in his most famous work. He has, due to his fascination with Mars, … - Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 - June 7, 1980) was an American writer and painter. He is known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of "novel" that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is distinctly always about and expressive of the real-life Henry Miller and yet is also fictional. - Robert Crais
Robert Crais (born 1953) is a contemporary American author of detective fiction. Crais began his career writing scripts for television shows such as "Hill Street Blues", "Cagney & Lacey", "Quincy", "Miami Vice" and "L.A. Law". He lists amongst his literary influences the authors Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ernest Hemingway, Robert B. Parker and John Steinbeck. Crais lives in California's Santa Monica mountains with his family. - Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers (born March 12, 1970) is an American writer, editor, and publisher. - Oakley Hall
Oakley Maxwell Hall (born July 1, 1920) is an American novelist. He was born in San Diego, California, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and served in the Marines during World War II. Some of his mysteries were published under the pen names "O.M. Hall" and "Jason Manor." His books focus primarily on the historical American West. His most famous book, "Warlock", was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1958. - David Brin
Glen David Brin, Ph.D. (October 6, 1950) is a well-known American author of science fiction. He is the winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. He lives in southern California. - Khaled Hosseini
Khaled Hosseini (born March 4 1965) is an Afghanistani American novelist and physician. His 2003 debut novel, "The Kite Runner", was a bestseller. His second, "A Thousand Splendid Suns", was released on May 22 2007. - Michael Connelly
Michael Connelly (born July 21, 1956, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American author of detective novels, notably those featuring Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch. Bosch, named after the Dutch painter of the same name, is the protagonist of a series of Connelly's novels. The character is an LAPD detective. "The Black Echo", the first book featuring Bosch, won the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award for Best First Novel of 1992. - William Shatner
William Alan Shatner (born on March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor who gained fame for playing James Tiberius Kirk of the "USS Enterprise" in the television show "Star Trek" from 1966 to 1969 and in seven of the subsequent movies. Shatner has written a series of books chronicling his experiences playing James T. Kirk and being a part of "Star Trek". He also played the title role as veteran police sergeant "T.J. Hooker", from 1982 to 1986. - Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an influential Los Angeles poet and novelist. Bukowski's writing was heavily influenced by the geography and atmosphere of his home city of Los Angeles. He is often mentioned as an influence by contemporary authors, and his style is frequently imitated. A prolific author, Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short-stories, and six novels, eventually having more than fifty books in print. - Joaquin Miller
Joaquin Miller was the pen name of the colorful American poet, essayist and fabulist Cincinnatus Heine (or Hiner) Miller (March 10, 1841, or alternatively September 8, 1837, or November 10, 1841 - February 17, 1913). His parents were Hulen (sometimes “Hulings”) Miller and Margaret Witt who married January 3, 1836 in Union County, Indiana. Most family researchers give his birth date as September 8, 1837 and his birthplace as Liberty, Union County, … - Carrie Fisher
Carrie Frances Fisher (born October 21, 1956) is an American actress, screenwriter and novelist. She is perhaps most famous for her portrayal of Princess Leia Organa in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, although her comedic novels also have won praise. - Amy Tan
Amy Tan is an American writer whose works explore mother-daughter relationships and what it means to grow up as a first generation Asian American. In 1993, Tan's adaptation of her most popular fiction work, "The Joy Luck Club", became a commercially successful film. She has written several other books, including "The Kitchen God's Wife", "The Hundred Secret Senses", and "The Bonesetter's Daughter", … - Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is an American author, working in several genres. He is known for his novel series Ender's Game series and its sequels. The novel "Ender's Game" and its sequel "Speaker for the Dead" both won the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, making Card the only author (as of 2007) winner of both of science fiction's top prizes in consecutive years. His writing contains detailed characterization and moral issues. - Andrew Sean Greer
Andrew Sean Greer is an American novelist and short story writer. He was born in Washington, DC, the son of two scientists. He studied writing at Brown University, where he was the Commencement Speaker at his own graduation. He received his MFA from the University of Montana, and soon after moved to San Francisco and began to publish in magazines such as "Esquire", "The Paris Review" and "The New Yorker" before releasing a collection of his stories, … - Dean Koontz
Dean Ray Koontz (born July 9, 1945 in Everett, Pennsylvania), also known under a number of pseudonyms, including Leigh Nichols, is an American writer. - Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel (March 2, 1904 - September 24, 1991) was a famous American writer and cartoonist best known for his classic children's books under the pen name Dr. Seuss, including "The Cat in the Hat", "Green Eggs and Ham", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish". His books have become staples for many children and their parents. - Anne Rice
Anne Rice (born on October 4, 1941) is a best-selling American author of gothic and later religious themed books. Best known for her Vampire Chronicles, her prevailing thematical focus is on love, death, immortality, existentialism, and the human condition. She was married to poet Stan Rice for 41 years until his death in 2002. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history. - Edwin Markham
Charles Edwin Anson Markham (April 23, 1852 - March 7, 1940) was an American poet. - Clive Cussler
Clive Eric Cussler (born July 15, 1931 in Aurora, Illinois) is an American adventure novelist and successful amateur marine archaeologist. - Frank Norris
Benjamin Franklin Norris was an American novelist, during the Progressive Era, writing predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include "McTeague" (1899), "The Octopus: A California Story" (1901), and "The Pit" (1903). Although he did not support socialism as a political system, his work nevertheless evinces a socialist mentality and influenced socialist/progressive writers such as Upton Sinclair. - Judith Moore
Judith Moore (born 1940 - died May 15, 2006) was an American author and essayist best known for her 2005 book "Fat Girl: A True Story, " published by Hudson Street Press. Moore was born in Oklahoma in 1940 and claimed to have become an obese child, weighing 112 pounds by second grade ; "Fat Girl" is a memoir of her childhood. She moved to Florida as a teenager and graduated from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. - Percival Everett
Percival Everett (born 1956) is an American writer and Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. - Larry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven (born April 30, 1938 Los Angeles, California) is a US science fiction author. Perhaps his best-known work is "Ringworld" (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, utilizing big science concepts and theoretical physics. It also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes "The Magic Goes Away" series, … - William T. Vollmann
William Tanner Vollmann (born July 28, 1959 in Los Angeles, California) is an American novelist, journalist, short story writer and essayist. He lives in Sacramento, California with his wife and daughter. Vollmann studied at Deep Springs College and earned a B.A., "summa cum laude", in comparative literature at Cornell University. After graduation, Vollmann worked odd jobs, including as a secretary at an insurance company, … - Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 - May 8, 1988) was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of "hard" science fiction. He set a high standard for science and engineering plausibility, and helped to raise the genre's standards of literary quality. He was the first writer to break into mainstream general magazines such as "The Saturday Evening Post" in the late 1940s with unvarnished science fiction. - John Lescroart
John Lescroart (b. January 14 1948 in Houston, Texas) is an American author best known for two series of legal and crime thrillers featuring the characters Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky. Lescroart, (pronounced "less-kwah") is a writer with a highly diverse background. He has spent time as a computer programmer, an Ad Director, moving man, house painter, bartender, legal secretary, fund-raising executive and management consultant. - Joseph Wambaugh
Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh, Jr. (born January 22, 1937, in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American writer known for his fictional and non-fictional accounts of police work in the United States. The son of a police officer, Wambaugh joined the U.S. Marines at age seventeen (an element he works into several of his novels), and married at eighteen. He received an Associate's degree from Chaffey College, … - Kim Zetter
Kim Zetter is an American freelance journalist in Oakland, California. She has written on a wide variety of subjects from the Kabbalah to dining out in San Francisco to Israel to cryptography and electronic voting, and her work has been published in newspapers and magazines all over the world, including the "Los Angeles Times", "San Francisco Chronicle", "Jerusalem Post", "San Jose Mercury News", "Detroit Free Press", … - Ayelet Waldman
Ayelet Waldman (born December 11, 1964) is a writer of fiction and non-fiction, born in Jerusalem, and raised in Montreal and New Jersey. She is the author of five novels about the "part-time sleuth and full-time mother" Juliet Applebaum: "Nursery Crimes" (2000), "The Big Nap" (2001), "A Playdate with Death" (2002), "Death Gets a Time-Out" (2003), and "Murder Plays House" (2004).
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