
Sample of authors
Highsmith, Patricia
Patricia Highsmith was an American author born in Fort Worth, Texas, as Mary Patricia Plangman. Both parents were artists who worked with illustrations and advertising. They separated before Highsmith was born, and her mother married Stanley Highsmith in 1924. The family moved to New York in 1927, a sad period for Highsmith. Her relationship with her mother was fraught and she did not get on...

Sample of authors
Crofts, Freeman Wills
Freeman Wills Crofts was born in Dublin, Ireland, as the son of a British army surgeon who died when Croft was still young. Because his mother then married an archdeacon, Croft was brought up in a deeply religious home. He studied engineering, and at the age of seventeen he became an apprentice at the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway where he stayed until 1929 when he left for health...