Authors born on this day in the year; 1846 – Rudolf Christoph Eucken, German philosopher and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1926) He received the 1908 Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of his earnest search for truth, his penetrating power of thought, his wide range of vision, and the warmth and strength in presentation with which in his numerous works he has vindicated and developed an idealistic philosophy of life. He maintained that humans have souls, and that they are therefore at the junction between nature and spirit. He believed that people should overcome their non-spiritual nature by continuous efforts to achieve a spiritual life, another aspect of his ethical activism and meaning of life. 1902 – Stella Gibbons, English author (d. 1989) She established her reputation with her first novel, Cold Comfort Farm (1932), which won the literary Prix Femina Étranger and has been reprinted many times as well as being made into a successful film. Her first book, published in 1930, was a collection of poems which was well received, and through her life she considered herself primarily a poet rather than a novelist. 1932 – Umberto Eco, Italian philosopher and author, best known for his groundbreaking 1980 historical mystery novel Il nome della rosa (The Name of the Rose), an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory. A successful film version was also made. His most recent novel Il cimitero di Praga (The Prague Cemetery), released in 2010, was a best-seller.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 23:02:50 +0000