Elizabeth George

"Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen" Jane Austen was born at Steventon, Hampshire, on 16 December 1775. She was the seventh of eight children of Reverend George and Cassandra Leigh Austen. Austen was very closed to her by three years elder sister, Cassandra, who was the only person that Jane wanted read her written work and constantly asked for her opinion. (Magill Critical Survey of Short Fiction 119-120) From about the time she was twelve years old, Austen began writing spirited parodies of the popular Gothic and sentimental fiction of the day for the amusement of her family, but her attempts at more sustained and serious work began around 1794. At first the form of her work was a novel in letters, which was a popular form at the time.

Sylvia Plath showed interest in writing at a very early age. Plath published her first poem when she was eight years old. Sylvia Plath continued writing and published numerous stories and poems before the age of twenty. After graduation in 1950, Plath received the Olive Higgins Prouty Scholarship from Smith College (Smithipedia). At the private college, Plath managed to excel in school and write over four hundred poems while suffering from depression (allpoetry).

Sylvia spent her childhood in Winthrop, but after Plath’s father died of diabetes, her mother moved her and her brother, Warren, to Wellesley, Massachusetts which was closer to Plath’s grandmother. Aurelia had acquired a teaching job at Boston University in the medical-secretarial training program. Wellesley was a family focused and education centered community that influenced Plath’s lifestyle and moral values (Sylvia Plath Biography). Plath had kick started her career as a poetess. Plath wrote her first poem, at age eight; “A Summer Will Not Come Again” was published in Seventeen while she was in high school, and sold “Bitter Strawberries” to the Christian Science Monitor while in college (Sylvia Plath Biography).

In 1955, after the birth of her second daughter, Sexton attempted suicide (Discovering Biographies 2). She was then placed under the care of Dr. Martin Orne, who encouraged her to write poems as a form of therapy (Discovering Biographies 1). “Poetry gave me a rebirth at age twenty-nine” (American Literature 3591), Anne quoted many times during her career. Anne deeply admired and attempted to emulate the confessional poem “Heart’s Needle” by Shodgrass (Discovering Biographies 2). Sexton decided to enroll in Robert Lowell’s graduate writing seminar at the Boston Center for Adult Education (Discovering Biographies 2).

Laurie Halse (rhymes with "waltz") was born on October 23, 1961 in Potsdam, New York, to Methodist minister Frank A., Jr. and manager Joyce Holcomb Halse. The author says that she decided to become a writer in second grade. Her teacher taught the class how to write haiku. She enjoyed it a lot and hopes that every second grader will learn to write poetry. Halse soon started reading library books for hours.

Auden, Sarah’s brother is a musician, he lives in California with his wife and son. Sarah’s love for writing started when, she got a little manual typewriter on a little desk, she got this gift given to her at the age of eight or nine. Dessen went to Greensboro College but dropped out to, move to the University of North Carolina. After five and a half years of attending the University of North Carolina, Sarah received a degree in creative writing. Three years after graduating Dessen sold her first book That Summer.

As a child, Shirley was interested in sports and literature. In 1930, a year before she attended Burlingame High School, Shirley began writing poetry and short stories. Jackson enrolled in the liberal arts program at the University of Rochester in 1934. But after periods of unhappiness and questioning the loyalty of her friends, she withdrew from the university. For the next year Shirley worked night and day on her writing.

"In the Village" and "First Death in Nova Scotia" express some of her experiences there. Then, on May 1918 her aunt Maud Bulmer Shepherdson as she states “saved her life” rescuing her from her grandparents’ grasps. Elizabeth’s poor health affected her schooling before the age of fourteen. She began school in September 1916 Grade Primary at the Great Village school and Walnut Hill School (in Boston) for her high-school years. In 1933, Con Spirito alongside Mary McCarthy and and the sisters Eunice and Eleanor Clark she co-founded a rebel literary magazine at Vassar, by the name of Con Spirito.

Literary Research- The Life and Times John Updike was born on March 18, 1932 in Reading, Pennsylvania. He was an only child of Wesely and Grace Updike. He was raised in nearby small town of Shillington. His father was a high school science teacher and his mother was an aspiring writer. In her fifties, some of her short stories were published in The New Yorker.

His parents’ occupations sparked his early interest as a writer. Isabelle shared her love of literature and poetry with her son. When Frost was eleven, his mother took him and his sister, Jeanie, to live with his father’s parents in Lawrence, Massachusetts. William’s death left Robert and his family poor and dependent upon their cynical family members who believed Isabelle to be at fault for William’s death (DeFusco 13-15). Robert attended Lawrence High School where his mother encouraged him to maintain high academics.