Charles Kenneth (C.K.) Scott-Moncrieff was a Scottish writer, most famous for his English translation of most of Proust's "À la recherche du temps perdu", which he published under the Shakespearean title "Remembrance of Things Past". Scott-Moncrieff's magnificent Proust translation (volumes 1 through 6 of the seven) has earned him a place as one of the greatest translators of all time. Scott-Moncrieff was born in Stirlingshire, the youngest of three sons.

Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German Marxist literary critic, essayist, translator, and philosopher. He was at times associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory and was also greatly inspired by the Marxism of Bertolt Brecht and Jewish mysticism as presented by Gershom Scholem. As a sociological and cultural critic, Benjamin combined ideas of historical materialism, German idealism, …

Françoise Sagan, real name Françoise Quoirez, was a French playwright, novelist and screenwriter, best known for strong romantic themes involving middle-class characters. Sagan was born in Cajarc, Aveyron, where she lived for the first few years of her life, until her family moved to Lyon at the outset of World War II. She failed entrance examinations to the Sorbonne in 1953 mainly due to her active nightlife in the Paris clubs.

Marie Joseph Robert Anatole, comte de Montesquiou-Fezensac, was a French Symbolist poet, art collector and dandy. With many homosexual friends, he is reputed to have been the inspiration both for "des Esseintes" in Joris-Karl Huysmans' "À rebours" and, most famously, for "Baron de Charlus" in Proust's "À la recherche du temps perdu". He wrote the verses found in the optional choral parts of Gabriel Fauré's "Pavane".

Jacqueline Rose is a British academic who is Professor of English at Queen Mary, University of London. Rose is probably best known for her work on the relationship between psychoanalysis, feminism and literature. She is a graduate of St Hilda's College, Oxford and gained her higher degree (Mâitrise) from the Sorbonne and her doctorate from the University of London.

Yaakov Shabtai was an Israeli novelist, playwright and translator, born in Tel Aviv. His best known work is "Zikhron Devarim" (1977), published in English in 1985 as "Past Continuous". Written as a single paragraph, it was the first novel ever to be written in truly vernacular Hebrew. In its English translation the novel received international acclaim as a unique work of modernism, …

Marie-Laure, Vicomtesse de Noailles, was one of the 20th century's most daring and influential patrons of the arts, noted for her associations with Salvador Dalí, Balthus, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray, Luis Bunuel, Francis Poulenc, Jean-Michel Frank and others as well as her tempestuous life and eccentric personality. She and her husband financed Ray's film "Mystery of the Chateau of Dice" (1929), Poulenc's "Aubade" (1929), …

Alice Heine (February 10, 1858 - December 22, 1925), styled HSH the Princess of Monaco and the Duchess of Richelieu, was the American-born second wife of Prince Albert I of Monaco, a great-grandfather of Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Marcel Proust used her as a model for the princesse de Luxembourg in "In Search of Lost Time". She was born Marie Alice Heine at 900 Rue Royale, in the French Quarter of New Orleans, …

Jules Cotard was a French neurologist who is best known for first describing the Cotard delusion, a patient's delusional belief that they are dead, do not exist or do not have bodily organs. He studied medicine in Paris and later went on to work as an intern at Hospice de la Salpêtrière, where he worked for, among others, Jean-Martin Charcot.

Gunnel Vallquist (born 19 June 1918), Swedish writer and translator, Vallquist was elected member of the Swedish Academy in 1982. Gunnel Vallquist is of the Catholic Church and has written several essays on Catholic religion of our time, among them reports from the Second Vatican Council. Her top achievement might be the translation into Swedish of the seven pieces novel In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust (started in 1965, completed in 1982).

Zhou Kexi, born 1942, is a Chinese translator of French Literature. He gained a degree in Mathematics from Fudan University. He acquired the French language and became interested in French literature while studying at École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He became a full-time literary editor in the 1980s, and has since then translated several French novels, including "Les trois mousquetaires", "Madame Bovary", and "La Voie royale".

Lluís Marsans i Julià is a Catalan painter. After his childhood in Paris, he traveled to United States where he knew Salvador Dalí. His better known work is that of a collection that explore the world of Marcel Proust in the work In Search of Lost Time.

If you don't know me, you should. So ask. Seriously, I get along with just about everyone I meet. That's all for now. Want to make me happy? Check out my site, an actual .com...

Come watch me do Improv Comedy at the Empty Stage on Fridays at 10pm! http://emptystage.com/vodkadoughnuts.shtml.