Writers
The authors behind the worlds: how they wrote, what shaped their books and how those books were received, drawn from interviews, letters and biographies.
4 articles on Stars & Spells
Isaac Asimov (Not Azimov): Life, Books and Films
Who was Isaac Asimov (not Azimov)? A Russian-born American writer of more than 500 books, including Foundation and I, Robot, and why his name has an S.
J. R. R. Tolkien: The Life Behind Middle-earth
An orphan, a soldier of the Somme, an Oxford professor of Anglo-Saxon: how the life of J. R. R. Tolkien shaped The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Ursula K. Le Guin: Earthsea, Anarres and the Art of Balance
The author of A Wizard of Earthsea and The Left Hand of Darkness: her life, her most important books, the ideas behind them and where to start.
Frankenstein: How a Teenager Wrote the First Modern Monster
Mary Shelley began Frankenstein at eighteen, in the cold summer of 1816. How the book was written, what it is really about, and why it still matters.