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Fiction Writer. Philip R. Craig was born December 10, 1933, in Santa Monica, California, but grew up on a ranch near Durango, Colorado. As a child he attended a one-room schoolhouse, read every book in the school’s small library—which specialized in Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan series and Campfire Girls novels—and made his first fledgling attempts at writing. During the summers, he participated in the family’s annual cattle drives.

Donald Creighton, the preeminent Canadian historian of his day, was born on July 15, 1902, in Toronto, the son of William Black Creighton, a Methodist minister and editor, and Laura Harvie Creighton. He enrolled at Victoria College, University of Toronto, earning his B.A. in 1925. He later attended Bailliol College, Oxford University, receiving a second B.A. in 1927 and an M.A. in 1929. In 1925, he married Luella Sanders Browning Bruce, and the couple later had two children, Philip and Cynthia.

Writer. Harry Eugene Crews was born on June 6, 1935, in Alma, a village in financially strapped Bacon County, Georgia. He was the second son of poor tenant farmers Ray and Myrtice (Haselden) Crews. Harry’s father died before he was two years of age, and his mother married his uncle, Pascal, who turned out to be a violent drunk. At the age of five, Harry suffered a debilitating affliction—perhaps psychosomatic as the result of family squabbles—that paralyzed his legs for months. Shortly after he recovered, he was severely scalded when he fell into a vat of boiling water, and spent many painful months regrowing skin.

Writer. Catherine Crook de Camp was born as Catherine Crook on November 6, 1907, in New York, New York. She was one of four children born to Mary E. (Beekman) and lawyer Samuel Crook. Catherine attended Barnard College in New York, where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1933, majoring in English and economics. After graduation, she taught and tutored at secondary schools in Ohio and New York, while pursuing graduate studies (1934-1938) at Western Reserve (now Case Western Reserve) University, Columbia University, and Temple University. Her sister introduced Catherine to her future husband, L. (Lyon) Sprague de Camp (November 27, 1907-November 6, 2000). They married August 12, 1939. She bore two sons, Lyman Sprague, and Gerard Beekman de Camp.

Author. Douglas Malcolm Jackson Clark was born December 1, 1919, in England. He was educated at the University of London, earning a B.S. in geology. After graduation, he enlisted in the British Army in 1939, and served with the Royal Horse Artillery during World War II. Following the war, he remained in service with the Amphibious Warfare Unit until 1956. He married Dorothea in 1953 and she gave birth to two sons. After completing his military service, Douglas Clark worked writing advertising copy for a pharmaceutical company, where he eventually rose to an executive position.

Author. Richard Thomas Condon was born March 18, 1915, in New York City. The son of Richard and Martha (Pickering) Condon, he received a public school education and, after graduating from high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Merchant Navy. After his discharge, he briefly worked in advertising before landing a job in 1936 as a publicist and press agent for the film industry. He thrived in his new position. For the next two decades he worked for Walt Disney Productions, Twentieth Century Fox, RKO-Radio (where he rose to become a vice president), and other major studios. For a time he ran his own public relations firm, Richard Condon, Inc.

Writer. Michael Dibdin was born March 21, 1947, in Wolverhampton, England, and grew up in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. His father was a physics teacher with wanderlust, who moved the family a number of times before settling in Ulster when Michael was seven years old. In 1965, Dibdin, educated as a youngster at schools in Scotland and Ireland, enrolled at Sussex University to study English and literature, and earned an A.B. He later received an M.A. from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, and pursued a Ph.D. course for a year before dropping out. In Canada, he married for the first time, and he and his wife had a daughter. He worked at a succession of jobs before establishing a painting and decorating business, but it eventually failed. He returned to England and began writing while his wife worked as a waitress.

Writer. William Francis Diehl, Jr., was born December 4, 1924, in Jamaica, New York, the son of William Francis and Catherine Marie Diehl. At the age of eighteen, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces and served from 1942 to 1945 as a ball turret gunner over Europe, rising to the rank of sergeant. Shot down during a bombing raid over Munich, Germany, he worked for a time behind enemy lines with Yugoslav partisans. For his service, Diehl received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Purple Heart, the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, and two presidential citations.

Writer. Robert Coleman Dowell was born on May 29, 1925, in rural Adairville, Kentucky, one of four children born to Morda Wilson Dowell, a farmer, and Beulah Vilett Dowell. He attended several one-room schools before graduating from Simpson County High School, where he worked on the school newspaper. Dowell served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in the Philippines from 1944 to 1945, rising to the rank of sergeant, and was an assistant to the prosecution during war crimes trials in Manila. He also took courses at the University of the Philippines. He returned to the United States in 1946 and lived in Louisville, Kentucky, where he was a full-time member of the National Guard.

Lynda La Plante was born Lynda Titchmarsh to working-class parents in Liverpool, England. She grew up with her parents, older brother, younger sister, and grandmother. At the age of sixteen she began training as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts before working with the National Theater and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Under the name Lynda Marchal, she appeared as a regular on a number of popular television series in the United Kingdom between the late 1960’s and early 1980’s, including The Doctors (1969), Rentaghost (1976), Coming Home (1981), and Educating Marmelade (1981), as well as in the movie High Road to China (1983).

Adam Pollo, a solitary, antisocial, disturbed, and unemployed individual. Adam, tall, tanned, bearded, and thin, with a slightly pointed head, cannot remember whether he is a military deserter or a mental asylum escapee. He is incapable of accurately recalling details from the past or planning for the future and thus lives uncertainly only in the present, always questioning himself, his motives, and the details of his existence. Twenty-nine years old, Adam is an intelligent, educated, but highly unreliable narrator with violent schizophrenic, paranoid, and manic-depressive tendencies. He resides in a house he has broken into outside a French Riviera resort village; the owners are away for the summer. Adam subsists mainly on cigarettes, beer, and charity, alternating between frenetic activity and complete lethargy. His mind meanwhile treads a fine line between sanity and insanity, and he is constantly plagued by fears and horrific visions of nature in revolt that both attract and repel him. Adam experiences moments of apparent lucidity among long periods divorced from reality. His world grows more fragmented and illusory, more crowded with extraneous information generated by a confused brain as he spirals toward madness. One day he incoherently harangues a gathering of people on the street, is taken into custody, and is confined in a psychiatric facility, where it is suggested he may remain for the rest of his life.

James Douglas Morrison was born December 8, 1943, in Melbourne, Florida. He was the first of three children of George Stephen Morrison—a World War II veteran and one of the Navy’s youngest admirals—and Clara Clarke Morrison. A sensitive, inquisitive child with a high IQ, Jim began reading and writing at an early age. Morrison, Jim Morrison, Jim [g]United States;Jim Morrison[Morrison, Jim] [c]Rock Musicians;Jim Morrison[Morrison, Jim] [c]Singer-Songwriters;Jim Morrison[Morrison, Jim] Doors, the Morrison, Jim

Singer. Samuel Cook was the fifth of eight children born to handyman and itinerant fundamentalist evangelical preacher Charles “Papa” Cook, Sr., and Annie Mae Cook. At the age of two, Cooke moved with his family to Chicago. His father, who worked at the Reynolds Metals plant and served as union shop steward, eventually became the regular minister for a Church of Christ (Holiness) congregation in the suburb of Chicago Heights. Blessed with a sweet, clear tenor voice, Cooke began performing gospel and spiritual music during church services at the age of five with four of his siblings. Ranging in age from four to thirteen, they were collectively known as the Singing Children Singing Children. The quintet became so popular that they were often booked at other churches in Illinois and Indiana. When not performing with the Singing Children, Cooke was a street singer of popular hits by such renowned artists as Ink Spots The Ink Spots and Cole, Nat King Nat King Cole. Cooke, Sam [c]Business Cooke, Sam [c]Music: Crossover Cooke, Sam [c]Music: Gospel Cooke, Sam [c]Music: Pop Cooke, Sam [c]Music: Rhythm and Blues Cooke, Sam

Farmer, entrepreneur, business executive. An industrious, enterprising farmer, George Shima reclaimed and rehabilitated thousands of acres of unwanted swampland near rivers in San Joaquin County, California. He grew wealthy while cornering the market on tubers, and became known as the “Potato King” during the early twentieth century.

In the brief introduction to Right Here, Right Now, an anonymous narrator provides readers with several key pieces of information. The subject of the novel is Ashton Robinson, the target of a 60 Minutes investigative piece, who has escaped from a penal institution, disappeared in the Mojave Desert, and is now the world’s most wanted man. A cache of audiocassette tapes has been found, constituting Robinson’s diary over about eighteen months and incorporating both his public utterances and his private thoughts. The novel, divided into three parts by locale, consists of excerpts from the cassettes that reveal how Robinson ended up in the situation that opens the story.

Part thriller, part social commentary, part morality study, Hunting in Harlem is at heart a hard-edged satirical and cautionary tale about the potential dangers of urban renewal and gentrification from an African American perspective. Under the aegis of former congressman and parole officer Cyrus Marks, three former convicts—Bobby, Snowden, and Horus—have been handpicked as interns for Second Chance, a program run by Horizon Realty. This competitive one-year program ostensibly helps rebuild men’s lives as they help restore the architecturally grand brownstones of Harlem, particularly those in the Mount Morris Historic District, to their former glory. The ultimate goal, the men are told, is to create a second cultural renaissance like that experienced in the 1920’s and 1930’s, when African American literature, art, and music flourished in Harlem. Toward this end, the former convicts are instructed to clean out vacated premises and assist new buyers in moving into renovated homes. The intern who most impresses management as a potential real estate agent will not only be given his own brownstone but also be chosen to oversee Second Chance in the future.

Writer. Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham was born of Scottish and Spanish ancestry on May 24, 1852, in London, England. His father, William Cumminghame Graham, was a Scottish laird and a major in the Scots Greys; his mother, Anne Elizabeth Elphinstone Fleeming Bontine, was the daughter of Admiral Charles Elphinstone-Fleeming and Spanish aristocrat Catalina Paulina Alessandro de Jiménez. Young Cunninghame Graham spent much of his childhood at his family’s estate, Gartmore, and at his grandmother’s home on the Isle of Wight, where he learned Spanish.

Writer. Nicholas Stuart Gray was born October 23, 1922, in Scotland. As a child, he created stories and plays for the enjoyment of his siblings and as a distraction from the harsh realities of a less-than-ideal family life. He left home as a teenager and entered the theater as a professional actor at the age of fifteen, performing in plays by Shakespeare and other well-known dramatists, as well as in his own works. His first play was produced in the early 1940’s. He later served as a stage manager and director during a lifelong career in the theater. Many of Gray’s plays were eventually produced on stage and on television both in the United States and in England. He is considered one of the founders of children’s theater in Great Britain.

Author. Brian Jacques (rhymes with “lakes”) was born on June 15, 1939, in Liverpool, England, one of three sons of truck driver James Jacques and his wife, Ellen, poor Catholic immigrants from County Cork, Ireland. Though an eager reader of adventure stories who demonstrated writing talent as early as age ten, Jacques left St. John’s School when he was fifteen years old. He then embarked on a long string of jobs, including logger, bus driver, boxer, postman, and policeman. His primary occupations were merchant seaman from 1954 to 1957, railway fireman from 1957 to 1960, longshoreman from 1960 to 1965, truck driver from 1965 to 1975, and docks representative from 1975 to 1980. When he was not working at these jobs, he performed stand-up comedy and was a member of a folk trio, The Liverpool Fisherman, with his brothers Tony and James.

Writer. William Fitzgerald Jenkins was born June 16, 1896, in Norfolk, Virginia. He dropped out of school at age thirteen to go to work. Perhaps inspired by the publication of his classroom eulogy of Robert E. Lee, he concentrated on writing and published his first story when he was seventeen years old. For virtually his working entire life he earned his income as a freelance writer and became one of the major forces in science fiction—indeed, he is universally regarded as the dean of that genre—under his most frequent pseudonym, Murray Leinster.

Author. Fryniwyd Wynifried Margaret Tennyson Jesse was born in 1888 in Kent, England. On her father’s side, she was the great-niece of poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. On her mother’s side, she was descended from generations of Cornish seafarers, though the tradition faded after her grandfather made a fortune in coal.

Robin Jenkins was born on September 11, 1912, in the mining village of Flemington near Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, Scotland, one of four children born to James and Annie Robin Jenkins. His father died when he was seven years old, and his mother worked as a cook and housekeeper to support her poverty-stricken family. Jenkins, a brilliant student, won a scholarship to attend Hamilton Academy and later studied English at the University of Glasgow, earning an M.A. with honors in 1936. The following year he married Mary “May” MacIntyre Wylie, with whom he had three children: Helen, Ann, and Colin. Jenkins taught for several years in the rough East End of Glasgow.

A rally and barbecue in Harlem draws a crowd to listen to the Reverend Deke O’Malley speak about his new Back-to-Africa movement. For one thousand dollars, any family who signs up will receive transportation, tracts of land, a mule, and seed to farm in Africa, free from the racism that plagues the United States. Though one thousand dollars is a sizable investment for the poor families of Harlem, Deke and his cohorts nevertheless manage to collect eighty-seven thousand dollars, which is stacked in an armored car hired for the occasion.

It is a few years after World War I when experienced American sailor Gerard Gales sails as a deck hand aboard the cargo ship Tuscaloosa from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Western Europe. In Antwerp, Belgium, Gales leaves the ship for a night on the town. After carousing, he returns to the docks to find that the Tuscaloosa had left on its return voyage earlier than scheduled. He is stranded penniless in the foreign port. Worse, he had left his seaman’s card and other proof of identity aboard the ship. Picked up by local police, he is brought before a magistrate, who orders Gales to be deported under penalty of life imprisonment. In the dead of night, he is escorted to the border with the Netherlands, given food, and told to cross the border.

Although Diane di Prima is best known for her poetry, she has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and prose and has written and produced a substantial number of plays. She is the author of two prose memoirs, the highly erotic novel-memoir Memoirs of a Beatnik (1969, 1988), which contributed significantly to making her the most widely known woman poet of the Beat generation, and Recollections of My Life as a Woman: The New York Years, a Memoir (2001), a remembrance of her growing feminist consciousness in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Di Prima has also translated poems from Latin and written several treatises on Paracelsus, the sixteenth century alchemist and physician. She has expressed her opinions on poetics, politics, feminism, and the Beat generation in numerous interviews.

Puerto Rican-born musician and composer. Rafael Hernández Marín, better known as Rafael Hernández (rah-fah-EHL ehr-NAN-dehz) was born of African-Puerto Rican heritage in the coastal town of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. He was the son of a poor tobacco farmer, José Miguel Rosa; his mother, María Hernández, was a laundress. Hernández grew up under American occupation and economic domination after Puerto Rico became a U.S. possession following the Spanish-American War. As a young boy, Hernández rolled cigars to supplement the family income, and he became steeped in the songs the other cigar makers sang as they worked. At the age of twelve, he traveled to the capital, San Juan, to study music. Under the tutelage of private teachers, he learned to play a variety of instruments, including clarinet and saxophone, tuba and trombone, piano and guitar. Hernández composed his first tune while still in his teens. By the age of fourteen, he was already performing professionally with the Cocolia Orchestra and with the San Juan Municipal Orchestra.

American educator, home economist, and writer. Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert (FAH-bee-OH-lah kah-BEH-zah deh BAH-kah GIHL-bahr) was a descendant of sixteenth-century Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and a niece of Ezequial Cabeza de Baca, New Mexico’s second governor. She was one of four children born to Graciano Cabeza de Baca y Delgado and his wife, Indalecia Delgado. Fabiola and her siblings—Luis, Guadalupe, and Virginia—grew up in San Miguel County on a large, prosperous land-grant cattle ranch, Llano Estacado (Staked Plain) that had been in the family since the 1820’s. Her mother Indalecia died when Fabiola was four years old, and the Cabeza de Baca children were then cared for by their grandparents, Tomas and Estefana, who lived in a large, elegant stone mansion in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Little Richard, born Richard Wayne Penniman, was the third of twelve children born to Charles "Bud" Penniman and Leva Mae Stewart Penniman. Part of a poor but deeply religious family, he began performing in African Methodist Episcopal and Pentecostal churches at an early age. He and his siblings formed a spiritual group known as the Penniman Singers. He also sang with the Tiny Tots Gospel Quartet, where he earned a reputation for shouting lyrics and entertained thoughts of becoming a preacher. Little Richard attended Hudson High School, where he played alto saxophone in the marching band. As a teenager, he also learned to play piano from the openly gay performer Esquerita (Steven Quincy Reeder, Jr., also known as Eskew Reeder, the Magnificent Malochi, and Fabulash).

Mexican-born activist, journalist, and politician. Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magón (SIHP-ree-AH-noh rih-CAR-doh FLOH-rehs mah-GOHN) was born into a poor family in a village in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. He was the son of an Indian, Teodoro Flores, and a mestiza (a woman of mixed European and Indian ancestry), Margarita Magón. Seeking better opportunities for their children, Teodoro and Margarita moved their family to Mexico City in the late 1870’s. In the capital, Flores Magón enrolled in the national high school system and graduated from a national preparatory school. In 1893, he entered the National School of Jurisprudence to study law but dropped out after three years without obtaining a degree in order to campaign against the Mexican government.

Blackouts were instituted voluntarily immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor, out of fear of incoming enemy aircraft, which could use lights to hone in on targets. The necessity for such precautions became evident after Allied ships, silhouetted against bright East Coast cities, proved easy pickings for German U-boats. From early 1942, seaward lights remained extinguished at night. Lights also could be used by aerial bombers. Blackouts and dim-outs continued periodically on both coasts throughout the war.

German astronomer. Johann Gottfried Galle Johann Gottfried Galle was the eldest of seven children, born at the Pabsthaus (“Pope’s house”) near Wittenberg, Germany. His father operated a tar kiln business, dry-heating wood to derive pitch used in coating wooden ships to preserve them from rot. Johann received his primary education from a neighborhood pastor before he entered Wittenberg Gymnasium. After graduating in 1830, he hiked from Berlin to the Rhine River and Switzerland. He then enrolled at Berlin University. Among Galle’s teachers were many leading scholars, including the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, astronomers Enno Dirksen, Christian Ideler, and Johann Encke, mathematician Johann Dirichlet, and physicists August Seebeck and Heinrich Dove. Galle graduated in three years and afterward taught mathematics for two years in high schools in Guben and Berlin.

Author. Terry David John Pratchett was born on April 28, 1948, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, the son of engineer David Pratchett and secretary Eileen Kearns Pratchett. An eager reader and writer, but an indifferent scholar, the young Pratchett published his first short story at the age of thirteen. When it was reprinted in a paying publication, he bought a typewriter with the proceeds. After high school graduation, Pratchett immediately became a journalist, working from 1965 to 1980 at a number of regional newspapers in southwest England. He wrote his first novel, a juvenile fantasy called The Carpet People, when he was seventeen years old but it was not published until 1971.

French immunologist. Jean Dausset Jean Baptiste Gabriel Joachim Dausset was the youngest of four children born to physician Henri Dausset and Elizabeth Brullard Dausset on October 19, 1916, in Toulouse, France. After World War I, Dausset’s family moved to Biarritz, France, where his father, a war veteran, worked as a physiotherapist, rheumatologist, and radiologist at nearby Bayonne Hospital.

Australian anatomist. Raymond Dart Raymond Arthur Dart was the fifth of nine children born just outside Brisbane, Australia, to Samuel Dart and Eliza Anne Brimblecome Dart, both devout Baptists. Raymond grew up on a dairy farm near the pioneering agricultural community of Laidley, west of Brisbane, the capital of Queensland.

The son of an American father stationed in Germany and his American wife, Clyde Jackson Browne was born in Heidelberg, Germany. The family returned to the United States in 1951, settling in Los Angeles, where Browne learned to play keyboards and guitar. After graduating from high school, Jackson joined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Under contract, he also wrote and published songs for Nina Music. Following a short stint with Tim Buckley’s band in Greenwich Village, New York, in 1972 Browne released the first of more than a dozen well-received albums.

Gerard Peter Kuiper Gerard Peter Kuiper was born as Gerrit Pieter Kuiper in a village in North Holland. He was the eldest of four children born to tailor Gerrit Kuiper and his wife, Antje de Vries. Kuiper became interested in astronomy as a child, thanks to his grandfather, who gave him a telescope as a present. From boyhood, he was gifted with exceptional eyesight, capable of spotting with his naked eye faint stars that most people could not see without magnification.

Dutch physician and physiologist. Jan Ingenhousz Jan Ingenhousz was born on December 8, 1730, the son of Arnoldus Ingenhousz and Maria Beckers Ingenhousz. His father bought and sold hides for use in leather goods before becoming a successful apothecary—a dispenser of curative advice and pharmaceutical substances—and the later occupation may have inspired his son to train for the medical profession.

Physicist and radio engineer. Karl Guthe Jansky Karl Guthe Jansky (kahrl gewth JAN-skee) was born in Oklahoma Territory just two years before it became a state. He was the third of six children of Cyril M. Jansky and Nellie Moreau Jansky. His father, a physicist and electrical engineer, was head of the engineering department at the University of Oklahoma. Jansky, his elder brother Cyril Jr., and his younger brother Maurice all followed their father into engineering. It was perhaps inevitable that Jansky became a scientist: He was named after physicist Karl Guthe, who had taught and mentored his father at the University of Michigan.

American Earth scientist. Robert E. Horton Robert Elmer Horton was the son of Van Rensselaer W. Horton and Rowena Spencer Rafter Horton. He was born and raised in the rural agricultural village of Parma, Michigan, and took an early interest in nature and natural phenomena. Robert was educated within the Parma Union School District, which served his hometown and students from surrounding areas.

American biologist. Roger Arliner Young Roger Arliner Young was born on August 20, 1899. An only child, she was the daughter of a poor African American couple living in Clifton Forge, Virginia, a small town in the Allegheny Mountains near the border of West Virginia. Her family relocated to Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, a village west of Pittsburgh, when she was a young girl. Young faced significant challenges as a female minority in a white community during an era of endemic racial discrimination and gender prejudice. Because little schooling was provided for black children, Young was largely self-educated. In addition, she was required from an early age to work part-time jobs in order to support her family. Her mother was a woman of fragile physical constitution, and was often sick. Perhaps because of the difficulties of her early years, Young suffered from bouts of depression throughout her life.

Astronomer. Fritz Zwicky Fritz Zwicky was born on February 14, 1898, in Varna, Bulgaria. He was the eldest of the three children of wealthy Swiss merchant and longtime Bulgarian resident Fridolin Zwicky and his Czech wife, Franziska Wrcek Zwicky. When he was six years old, Zwicky was sent to Glarus, Switzerland, where his father’s family had originated. He lived with his grandparents and enrolled at a boarding school in the village of Mollis. During his early education, when he demonstrated skills in scientific subjects, Zwicky became an avid skier and mountain climber; he would retain a strong interest in sports throughout his life.

Whiteout was originally serialized in four thirty-six-page issues published by Oni Press in 1998. The limited series was the first of several creations for Oni Press by writer Greg Rucka, who had previously established himself through his work on many titles for Marvel Comics and DC Comics as well as a series of novels featuring hard-nosed New York-based security consultant Atticus Kodiak. Artist Steve Lieber was known for his work on titles as Hawkman (1993-1996), Conan the Usurper (1997), and Grendel Tales (1997). The individual issues of Whiteout were slightly reformatted and published as a collected graphic novel in 1999. The following year, Rucka and Lieber collaborated to create a sequel, Whiteout: Melt.

Box Office Poison was originally published in twenty-one installments of about thirty pages each at Antarctic Press, an independent comic book publisher founded in San Antonio, Texas, specializing in the style known as American manga. Box Office Poison was the first major work to be published by New York author, artist, and School of Visual Arts graduate Alex Robinson. The content of the black-and-white series is loosely based on events and acquaintances from the creator’s life. The episodic format was inspired by the work of Dave Sim in his Cerebus (1977-2004) series, of which Robinson is an avowed admirer.

The first blind man, the first patient in a plague of blindness that sweeps across an unnamed community in an unnamed European country. The first blind man's experience of being struck blind is an exemplar for what happens to other characters. He does not descend into darkness, as in conventional sightlessness, but views everything as milky whiteness and exhibits the relative helplessness of the newly blind. The initial individual in a group of characters all linked by eye afflictions to the doctor, he is also first among the major surviving blind characters to regain his sight.

Writer. Marghanita Laski was born on October 24, 1915, in London, England, the daughter of Neville J. Laski, an attorney, and Phina Gaster Laski. She grew up in an environment charged with religion, intellectualism, and politics. Her grandfather, Moses Gaster, was chief rabbi of the Sephardic Jewish community in England, and her uncle was the eminent Fabian, Harold Laski, a well-known political theorist, economist, socialist, author, and lecturer, who chaired the British Labour Party from 1945 until 1946.

Writer. Edward Mathis was born on February 12, 1927, in Evansville, Indiana, the son of Hardie H. Mathis and Mary Hill Mathis. He joined the navy at the age of seventeen and served as a pharmacist’s mate during the latter stages of World War II. Following his discharge in 1946, Mathis married Bonnie Goodman, with whom he had a daughter, Janet.

Writer. William O’Connell McGeehan was born on November 22, 1879, in San Francisco, California, the eldest of six children of Hugh and Theresa O’Connell McGeehan. Following high school graduation, McGeehan enrolled at Stanford University, but he dropped out during his freshman year to enlist in the army and fight in the Spanish-American War. In 1899, he was sent to the Philippines to help quell an insurrection.

Author. Juan María Montalvo Fiallos was born on April 13, 1832, in Ambato, Ecuador, the tenth of fourteen children born to Marcos Montalvo Oviedo and Josefa Fiallos Villacrés. Montalvo grew up in a period of great turmoil in his country’s history. Ecuador had formally achieved independence from Gran Colombia in 1830, and for decades afterward was wracked by revolution, assassinations, and clashes with neighboring counties.

Paul Edward Nason was born on April 14, 1910, in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Will and Mabel Nason. He was born at Newton Hospital, located along the course of the Boston Athletic Association’s annual marathon, and he drew his first breath five days before the start of the 1910 Boston Marathon. Seldom has a time and a place exerted such an influence as it did on the newborn infant.

Author. Albert Cornelis “Appie” Baantjer was born September 19, 1923, on the island of Urk, near Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His father was a fisherman and his mother a homemaker. In the mid-1920’s, the family moved to the Dutch capital, where Mrs. Baantjer educated her son according to strict Calvinist traditions, liberally quoting Bible verses and making certain her young son religiously attended Sunday school and church.