1899—A Good Year for Writers

The first novel I ever read was by the German author Erich Kastner, Emil and the Detectives, published in 1929 and set in Berlin.  The book has been translated into 59 languages and made into numerous movies both in German and in English.  Kastner was born in 23 February 1899.

1899, as it turns out, was a rather fine year for writers, including a couple of Nobel prize winners like the American Ernest Hemingway who was born July 21, 1899 and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.  Then there is the Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata, born 14 June 1899, who won Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968.   

 Also born in 1899 was the British writer, Nevil Shute, who wrote A Town like Alice, born 17 January 1899, the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, born 24 August 1899, and the Russian Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita, born in 22 April 1899.   

Not a bad international cast of writers for one year. 

Here are links to some of my author-to-author interviews of first novelists:

Ivy Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

Golda Mowe author of Iban Dream and Iban Journey.

Preeta Samarasan author of Evening is the Whole Day. 

Chuah Guat Eng,  author of Echoes of Silence and Days of Change. 

Plus:

Five part Maugham and Me series

Beheaded on Road to Nationhood: Sarawak Reclaimed—Part I