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Witold Gombrowicz, Vence, photo: Bohdan Paczowski

Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? Each month, we share various facts about the lives and works of our Author of the Month.

During February, we honored Jules Verne as our Author of the Month. He was born in Nantes on February 8th, 1828. Jules Verne surprises the contemporary reader with the precision of his foresight—a great number of his inventions materialized in the twentieth century. Some of the most interesting things we learned about him this month were…

Verne was by no means the first writer of science fiction; but he had a remarkable understanding of the possibilities of science. His description of the details of space travel is very close to what actually happened in the 60s.

Though Jules Verne did not write his books with children in mind, they immediately became popular with young readers and many of his stories first appeared in English in the pages of juvenile magazines.

‘Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas’ owed much to the exploits of the huge experimental French submarine Le Plongeur and to the work of Verne’s friend Jacques-François Conseil, who developed a steam-driven submarine.

While Jules Verne worked on many literary projects, his most commercially successful works were adventure tales. They usually exploited the public interest in the 19th- century age of discovery.

Many mourned Jules Verne’s passing at Amiens on March 24, 1905, and a very large crowd came out for the funeral of the creator of the Nautilus and of its commander, Captain Nemo.

For the month of March, we are exploring the life and work of Ovid. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter to learn more!

Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? Each month, we share various facts about the lives and works of our Author of the Month.

During January, we honored Edith Wharton as our Author of the Month. She was born in New York on January 24th 1862. Wharton drew upon her insider’s knowledge of the upper class New York “aristocracy”. Some of the most interesting things we learned about her this month were…

Edith Wharton’s parents arranged for private publication of a collection of twelve poems, Verses, in 1878. In 1879, Allen Thorndike Rice, wrote to poet Henry Longfellow on her behalf; he sent her poems to the editor of the Atlantic Monthly who published them.

Edith Wharton wrote The House of Mirth for serial publication at the invitation of William Brownell, an editor at Scribners. The book appeared in October 1905; by early 1906 it was at the top of the best-seller list.

The year 1907 marks the beginning of a passionate love affair between Edith Wharton and journalist Morton Fullerton. In 1908 Wharton writes about the experience of one of their trysts in a fifty-two line, Whitman like poem she titled Terminus.

During World War I in France, Edith Wharton organized relief efforts for the refugees and orphans displaced by the advancing German army. In 1916, Wharton was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, the highest honor given to a foreigner in France.

In April 1935 Edith Wharton suffered a mild stroke. The following two years were marked by uneven health. She suffered a heart attack in June of 1937. Surrounded by the beauty of her gardens and her friends, she died on August 11, 1937.

For the month of February, we are exploring the life and work of Jules Verne. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter to learn more!