BORN FEBRUARY 2:
James Joyce (1882-1941) Irish novelist, short-story writer, and poet. The semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is readable, as are the wonderful stories in The Dubliners. Ulysses is more of a challenge, but is on many "best books" lists anyway; but only the brave--or foolhardy--attempt Finnegans Wake.
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BORN NOVEMBER 8:
Abraham "Bram" Stoker (1847-1912) was the Irish author who created one our greatest antiheros: Dracula! A theater lover at heart, his "day job" was as personal assistant to Sir Henry Irving, the first actor to be awarded a knighthood, and as business manager of Irving's Lyceum Theatre.
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BORN OCTOBER 16:
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet. He wrote (among others) The Picture of Dorian Gray; The Importance of Being Earnest; and The Ballad of Reading Gaol; also, the very un-child-like fairy tales "The Happy Prince"; "The Nightingale and the Rose"; and "The Selfish Giant."
Wilde was not as clever as he thought: when the father of one of his lovers accused him (correctly) of homosexuality, Wilde sued him for criminal libel--and lost. Evidence brought forth in the trial led to Wilde's criminal conviction for "gross indecency," and he was jailed for two years.
He died in self-imposed exile, of meningitis, at age 46.
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