Break the Rules

Pierre-François Hugues, known as ‘baron d’Hancarville’ (Nancy 1719 – Padua 1805) was an art historian and historian of ideas. Pierre Francois Hugues was born in 1719 at Nancy, France, the son of a bankrupt cloth-merchant. He himself later added the title of ‘baron d’Hancarville’ to his name. Read:  Trade It All (The Barrington Billionaires Book […]

Frank Harris (14 February 1855 – 26 August 1931) was an Irish editor, novelist, short story writer, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day. Born in Ireland, he emigrated to the United States early in life, working in a variety of unskilled jobs before attending the University of Kansas […]

According to late Greek sources on classical mythology, Astyanassa (Ancient Greek: Ἀστυάνασσα) was Helen of Troy’s maid. The 10th century scholar Photius, citing Ptolemy Chennus, mentions the story that Aphrodite lent her magical embroidered band (kestos himas) to Helen, to ensure that Paris would fall in love with her, and that Astyanassa stole it.[1] The […]

Paul Păun, September 5, 1915 – April 9, 1994 (born Zaharia Herșcovici, and who later in life changed his legal name to Zaharia Zaharia), also signed his work Paul Paon and Paul Paon Zaharia.[1][2][3] He was a Romanian and Israeli avant-garde poet and visual artist, who wrote in Romanian and French and produced surrealist and […]

Jan Hendrik Wolkers (Oegstgeest, 26 October 1925 – Texel, 19 October 2007) was a Dutch author, sculptor and painter. Wolkers is considered by some one of the “Great Four” writers of post-World War II Dutch literature, alongside Willem Frederik Hermans, Harry Mulisch and Gerard Reve (the latter authors are also known as the “Great Three”).[1] […]