Books, Franz Kafka said, “must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us” (Letters 16). Kafka was born in Prague in 1883. The oldest son of Hermann and Julie Kafka, he had three sisters, Valli, Elli, and Ottla, and two brothers who died in infancy.

Rainer Maria Rilke was one of the most significant modernists to write in German. Born in Prague, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he escaped the military career expected by his father and devoted himself to literature.

The Bunin family lived in Voronezh until 1874 before moving to the family estate in Butyriki in the Oryol province of central Russia when Ivan was four years old. He lived here and was tutored by amateur artist and musician Nikolai Romashkov until August 1881 when he started school.

Ahmed Ali was born on 1 July 1910 in Delhi, India. He was born to Syed Shujauddin, a civil servant, and Ahmad Kaniz Asghar Beg. Ali completed his primary schooling moving around different cities before enrolling at Aligarh Muslim University in 1926, where he first took a class in English poetry.

Mrs Cartwright worked at the Hogarth Press as a manager for five years between July 1925 and March 1930. Despite staying at the Press longer than most workers, she is hardly mentioned in either J.H.

Hungarian literary agent or publisher