Authors, Poets & Novelists Posters & Prints, “Pr...-Py...-”
for literature, language arts and social studies classrooms and home schoolers.

Premchand
b. 7-31-1880; Lamhi, India
d. 10-8-1936; Varanasi

Novelist, dramatist and short story writer, Munshi Premchand, is regarded as one of the foremost Hindi-Urdu writers of the 20th centuries. He used writing and literature for arousing public awareness about social issues such as corruption, child widowhood, prostitution, feudal system, poverty, colonialism and India's freedom movement.

In 1921, while a government employee, Premchand heard Mahatma Gandhi asking people to resign from government jobs. After consideration for his own poor health, and family responsibilities, he left his secure position with the blessings of his wife.

Premchand's novel Goddan was pulbished as The Gift of a Cow in the UNESCO Asian Literature Series.

Premchand quotes ~
• “Like timidity, bravery is also contagious.”
• “To be successful in life what you need is education, not literacy and degrees.”
• “Trust is the first step to love.”
• “Beauty doesn't need ornaments. Softness can't bear the weight of ornaments.”

Antoine François Prévost
b. 4-1-1697; Hesdin, Artois, France
d. 12-23-1763

Abbé Prévost is remembered for his Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité (Memoirs and Adventures of a Man of Quality). A portion of the work is known as Manon Lescaut (L'Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut), and is a basis for a number of ballets and operas (Auber, Massenet, Puccini).

Marcel Proust
b. 7-10-1871; Auteuil, France
d. 11-18-1922; Paris

Novelist, critic and essayist Marcel Proust is best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time; earlier translated as Remembrance of Things Past). It was published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927.

Proust suffered from ill health and spent the last years of his life confined to his bedroom, to complete his novel.

Jules Amedee Barbey d'Aurevilly was an influence on Proust. The actress Gabrielle Rejane was the inspiration for Proust's character ‘la Berma’ in his novel In Remembrance of Things Past.

• A Reader's Guide to Marcel Proust

Rene-Francois-Armand “Sully” Prudhomme
b. 3-16-1839; Paris, France
d. 9-6-1907; Châtenay-Malabry

Poet and essayist, “Sully” Prudhomme was the first winner of the first Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1901 “in special recognition of his poetic composition, which gives evidence of lofty idealism, artistic perfection and a rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect”.

Sully Prudhomme quote ~
• “In my soul rages a battle without victor. Between faith without proof and reason without charm.”

• La France: Sonnets

Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin
b. 6-6-1799; Moscow, Russia
d. 2-10-1837; St. Petersburg

Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin, a Russian author of the Romantic era, is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet. He pioneered the use of vernacular speech in his work, creating a style of storytelling that mixes drama, romance, and satire that was compatible with his radical social reform that got him exiled to southern Russia in the 1820s.

The libretto for the opera “Boris Godunov”, by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, is based on Pushkin's work.

• Collected Narrative and Lyrical Poetry by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin

Ernie Pyle
b. 8-3-1900; Dana, Indiana
d. 4-18-1945

Pulitizer Prize winning journalist Ernie Pyle was a roving correspondent for the Scripps Howard newspaper chain from 1935 until his death in combat during World War II. He wrote in a folksy style about the out-of-the-way places he visited and the people who lived there.

FYI - Ernie Pyle described Omar Bradley as “the soldier's general”.

Ernie Pyle quotes ~
• “If you go long enough without a bath, even the fleas will leave you alone.”