Roald Dahl was one of the greatest story-tellers of all time. He was born in Llanduff, South Wales, of Norwegian parents, in 1916, and educated in English boarding-schools. Then, in search of adventure, the young Dahl took a job with Shell Oil in Africa. When World War II broke out he joined the RAF as a fighter pilot, receiving terrible injuries and almost dying in a plane crash in 1942.
It was following this "monumental bash on the head" and a meeting with C. S. Forester (author of the famous Captain Horatio Hornblower stories) that Roald Dahl's writing career began, with articles for magazines such as The New Yorker. He wrote successful novellas and short stories for adults, such as Tales of the Unexpected, before concentrating on his marvelous children's stories. The first of these, James and the Giant Peach, in 1960, was followed by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and an unbroken string of hugely successful, best-selling titles.
Roald Dahl worked from a tiny hut in the pale orchard of the Georgian house in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire which he shared with his wife, Liccy. He was always brimming with new ideas and his many books continue to bring enormous enjoyment to millions of children and their parents throughout the world.
Roald Dahl died on November 23, 1990.
Roald Dahl described his life in two books, "Boy" and "Going Solo". The first volume deals with his childhood, the second one with his life after school.
His parents were from Norway, but he was born in Wales, 1916. The family used to spend the summer holidays on a little Norwegian island, swimming, fishing and going by boat. When Roald was four years old, his father died, so his mother had to organise the trip alone for herself and her six children.
At school, he was always homesick. At St. Peter's Prep School, all the letters home were controlled by the headmaster, and afterwards at Repton Public School, he had to wear a horrible school uniform [with braces, waist coat, hat and lots of buttons, all black]. The younger boys were often punished by the headmaster and the older boys called prefects. Roald lays much emphasis on describing the school-beatups in his book. You could get beaten for small mistakes like leaving a football sock on the floor, for burning the prefect's toast at teatime or for forgetting to change into house-shoes at six o'clock.
He would make training films for people from standard oil and propaganda posters during the war because he was too old for the draft. He also wrote a lot of books he has written and published over 60 books. Most of those books were translated in to many different languages and the cat in the hat was translated in to over 15 different languages most of his books that he wrote got rejected many times by many publishers and that is why he started his own publishing company to publish his own books and to publish other childrens v books to help people publish their books.
Theodor Seuss was born in Springfield, Mass. on March 2, 1904 and died on September 24, 1991. He graduated from Dartmouth College. Dr. Seuss was a children's author who target young readers. His first book was "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street" and was followed by many other famous stories such as, "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" and to one of his most famous books "The Cat in The Hat". Dr. Seuss is a well know author world-wide.
One of the best, most valuable aspects of reading multiple works by the same author is getting to know the author as a person. People don't identify with Gregor Samsa; they identify with Kafka. Witness the love exhibited by the many fans of Hemingway, a love for both the texts and the drama of the man. It's like that for me with Kurt Vonnegut, but it strikes me that he pulls it off in an entirely different way.
Stephen King was born in Maine in 1947. His father abandoned him when he was 2 years old. His mother and brother was all he ever knew. Him and his brother were raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana where his father lived at the time. He was also raised in Connecticut too. His mother decided to move them back to Maine for their own good. There he got a job at Kitchens of Pineland. A kitchen of Pineland was by a mentally challenged hospital. He went to a Durham grammar school then attended Libson High School. In 1966, He graduated. At University of Maine of Orana, he was a sophomore that wrote for The Maine Campus, the school’s newspaper. He became a member of the Student Senate in Student politician. He also attended an Anti-war movement. In 1970, he graduated. His examination was a 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums. From his examinations, he got a diploma to be a full time teacher.
Elie Wiesel was born in Sighet Transylvania on September 30, 1928. Prior to being taken under the Nazi 's rule, he decided to pursue Religious studies,as his father did. He grew up with his parents and three sisters. in the year 1944, when Elie was 15 years old,
Levi, Claudia. "Roald Dahl: Overview." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resource Center. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.
Aunt Neva gave the boy his appreciation of fantasy, by reading him the Oz books,
... (eds), Children’s Literature Classic Text and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Open University
He originally pursued a doctor career, however, he was almost blind because of an eye disease as a teenage. After graduating from Oxford in 1916, he became a writer and started to write satirical pieces about the British upper class. Relying on his skill of writing he had some audience and a literary name. Much of his work deals with the conflict between the interests of the individual and society, often focusing on the problem of self-realization within the context of social responsibility. This finally reached down to his book Brave New World.
Whalley, J. (2009) ‘Texts and Pictures: A History’ in Montgomery H and Watson N (eds), Children’s Literature Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Open University, pp.299-310
John enjoyed literature from an early age on. His mother read him the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Robert Louis Stevenson, and the stories of King Arthur.
Charles Dickens, an English writer and social critic, lived in England from 1812 to 1870 (Cody). Dickens usually critiques topics important to him or those that have affected him throughout his life. He grew up poor and was forced to work at an early age when his father was thrown into debtors prison (Cody). As he became a popular and widely known author he was an outspoken activist for the betterment of poor people’s lives (Davis). He wrote A Tale of Two Cities during the 1850s and published the book in 185...
Roald Dahl was a writer of some of the best novels known. Not only was he a writer but he had many other careers such as being a poet, a fighter pilot, and more. Dahl has experienced a lot throughout his life, from school to being in the war. He mainly wrote stories that were intended for children and he was referred to “one of the greatest story tellers for children of the 20th century.” Many of his stories were about real life happenings but he exaggerated them to a great extent in order to make serious situations humorous. This exaggeration added a lot of humour to his stories and this was the main reason why he was such a popular story teller.
Born in early 1882, Woolf was brought into an extremely literature driven, middle-class family in London. Her father was an editor to a major newspaper company and eventually began his own newspaper business in his later life. While her mother was a typical Victorian housewife. As a child, Woolf was surrounded by literature. One of her favorite pastimes was listening to her mother read to her.
Roald Dahl used to tell bedtime stories to his children and these became the books he is now famous for. In 1961, he published James and the Giant Peach.