Li Yaotang is considered to be one of the most important and widely-read Chinese writers in the 20th century. He wrote under the pen name of Ba Jin. Ba Jin started writing his first work in the late 1920s.

Ba Jin was born in Chengdu, Sichuan. He was born in a rich family. As a child, Ba Jin was taught to read and write first by his mother. In 1920, he entered Chengdu Foreign Language School to study English. Three years later, he moved to Shanghai and studied in Dongnan University. On February 15th, 1927, he went to Paris with his friend for further study. After returning to Shanghai in 1928, he continued writing and working on translation. His first novel came out in 1929. Then he wrote a lot of famous novels during ten years. Most of his works could be easily understood by anyone with high school education, which made him one of the easiest modern Chinese writers.

Ba Jin died of cancer in Shanghai at the age of 100. His death marked the end of a century for Chinese literature. He was one of the masters of language.

Charles L. Dodgson, best known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was the author of the children’s classics Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland（《爱丽丝漫游仙境记》）and Through the Looking-Glass（《爱丽丝镜中奇遇记》）.

Carroll was born in a village in England, on January 27, 1832. As the eldest boy in a family of 11 children, Carroll was good with his brothers and sisters. He made up stories and created games for them when they were bored. At the age of 20, he received a chance to study math for he was excellent in math and won many prizes when he was very young. Then he worked as a teacher in a college.

In his spare time, Carroll liked taking pictures, reading poems and writing stories. Among them, writing stories was certainly his favorite. The young man was shy because of his stammer（口吃）and he found that he could only speak better when talking with children. The relaxing time he spent with kids might be the beginning of his best-known writing. One of the kids was Alice, the daughter of Henry George Liddell. During an afternoon picnic with Alice and her two sisters, Carroll told the first Alice’s story. When Alice arrived home that day, she asked him to write the story down for her and it later became Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The great writer died in 1898. By the time of his death, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland had become the most popular children’s book in England, and by 1932 it had been one of the most popular books in the world.

The life of O. Henry

1862 O. Henry was born as William Porter.

1887 He began writing for newspaper and magazines.

1896 He was accused of stealing money. He ran away to Central America.

1897 He returned to the US because his wife was dying. Then he was sent to prison.

1901 He left prison. Later he moved to New York City and began a successful writing career.

1910 He died.