Literary Lunch

Edgar Rice Burroughs was born on September 1, 1875 in Chicago, Illinois. His father was a businessman. He attended Phillips Academy and the Michigan Military Academy. After graduating in 1895 he enlisted with the 7th US Calvary in Fort Grant, Arizona; he was discharged in 1897 due to a heart problem. In 1899, Burroughs took a job with his father’s firm and the following year he married Emma Centennia Hulbert; the couple had three children. In 1911, he was working with a pencil sharpener wholesale business and began writing. Between 1915 and 1919, Burroughs built a ranch in California, he called it Tarzana. They surrounding area took that name after he subdivided the land and sold it for residential development.  In 1934, Burroughs divorced his wife and married Florence Gilbert Dearholt the next year. They were divorced in 1942.  At the time of the Pearl Harbour attack, Burroughs was living in Hawaii; he became a war correspondent.

Burrough’s first published story was “Under the Moons of Mars” which was serialized in The All-Story Magazine in 1912. Burroughs is known for writing many series’ of books such as Tarzan (for which his is best-known) and the Barsoom series .  His first Tarzan story, Tarzan of the Apes , was published in 1912. Burroughs wrote many, many novels and stories during his career. His genre’s included science fiction, western, adventure and historical fiction. Many of his stories were published in Argosy magazine. The Burroughs Crater on Mars is named after the author.

Edgar Rice Burroughs died on March 19, 1950 of a heart attack.

Herman Hesse was born on July 2, 1877 in Wurttemberg, Germany to missionary parents. In 1891, Hesse attended the Evangelical Theological Seminary. In 1892, he attempted suicide and spent time in a mental institution and at a boys home.  He graduated from the Gymnasium in Cannstatt in 1893. After a couple of false starts, Hesse began an apprenticeship with a bookseller. While working in a bookstore he cultivated a taste for reading theological works.  In 1904, Hesse married Maria Bernoulli; the couple separated and divorced in 1919. He volunteered for the Imperial army in 1914 but ended up being asked to leave and forced into therapy because he wrote an essay telling Germans not to fall for patriotism. In 1923, Hesse became a Swiss citizen and in 1924, he married Ruth Wenger.

Herman Hesse’s first poem, Madonna, was published in a Viennese journal in 1896. He published a volume of poetry called Romantic Songs in 1898. In 1903, he published his first novel, Peter Camenzind. The book he is most famous for, Siddhartha , was published in 1922. It became very popular with the counter-culture in the 1960s.  He wrote a total of 13 books; some of the better known are Steppenwolf (1927) and The Glass Bead Game (1943).  In 1946, Hesse was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In later life, Hesse concentrated mainly on writing poems and short stories.

Herman Hesse died on August 9, 1962.

Antoine de Saint Exupery was born on June 29, 1900 in Lyon, France; he was the third of five children. His father was a Viscount who died when Antoine was three. He attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where he studied architecture. In 1921, he joined the 2nd Regiment of Chasseurs and was sent to Strasburg to train as a pilot. After training, he moved to Paris and worked in an office.  In 1926, Antoine worked as an international flying postman between Toulouse and Dakar; by 1929 he was the director of Cape Juby airfield in Morrocco; later that year he moved to Argentenia to become director of the Aeroposta Argentina Company. He married Consuelo Suncin in 1931; but still continued to have affairs with other women. In 1935, Antoine’s plane crashed in the Libyan Sahara desert while he was attempting to break a speed record flying from Paris to Saigon. They were rescued after four days in the scorching desert. During World War II, Antoine joined the French airforce. Antoine and his wife moved to New York City in 1941 and lived in Canada during 1942. They returned to France where Antoine flew with the Free French Forces. He disappeared during a flight over Southern France in July of 1944.

Saint Exupery’s first published story was L’Aviateur. His first book (Courrier Sud) was published in 1929. He wrote the book he is most famous for Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) in 1942 and it was published in 1943. In all, he wrote 14 literary works, most of which were published posthumously.

Antoine de Saint Exupery disappeared and was believed to have died on July 31, 1944. The remains of his plane were found off the coast of Marseille in 2004.