Matsuo Basho (1644 November 28, 1694) - was the most famous poet of the Edo

period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bash was recognized for his works in the
collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is
recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku. His poetry is internationally renowned,
and within Japan many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional
sites.
Early life
Bash was born in 1644, near Ueno, in Iga Province. His father may have been a lowranking samurai, which would have promised Bash a career in the military, but not
much chance of a notable life. It was traditionally claimed by biographers that he worked
in the kitchens. However, as a child, Bash became a servant to Td Yoshitada, who
shared with Bash a love for haikai no renga, a form of collaborative poetry
composition.
Yoshitada's sudden death in 1666 brought Bash's peaceful life as a servant to an end.
No records of this time remain, but it is believed that Bash gave up the possibility of
samurai status and left home. Biographers have proposed various reasons and
destinations, including the possibility of an affair between Bash and a Shinto miko
named Jutei, which is unlikely to be true. Bash's own references to this time are vague;
he recalled that "at one time I coveted an official post with a tenure of land", and that
"there was a time when I was fascinated with the ways of homosexual love", but there is
no indication whether he was referring to real obsessions or even fictional ones.
In any case, his poems continued to be published in anthologies in 1667, 1669, and
1671, and he published his own compilation of work by him and other authors of the
Teitoku school, The Seashell Game, in 1672. In about the spring of that year he moved
to Edo, to further his study of poetry.
Last years
He became sick with a stomach illness and died peacefully, surrounded by his disciples.
Although he did not compose any formal death poem on his deathbed, the following,
being the last poem recorded during his final illness, is generally accepted as his poem
of farewell:
tabi ni yande / yume wa kareno wo / kake meguru
falling sick on a journey / my dream goes wandering / over a field of dried grass [1694]

Khalil Gibran (January 6, 1883 April 10, 1931) - was a Lebanese-American artist,
poet, and writer. Born in the town of Bsharri in modern-day, as a young man he
emigrated with his family to the United States where he studied art and began his
literary career. He is chiefly known in the English-speaking world for his 1923 book The
Prophet, an early example of inspirational fiction including a series of philosophical
essays written in poetic English prose. The book sold well despite a cool critical
reception, and became extremely popular in the 1960s counterculture.
Early life
Gibran was born to a Maronite Catholic family from the historical town of Bsharri in
northern Lebanon. His mother Kamila, daughter of a priest, was thirty when he was
born; his father Khalil was her third husband. As a result of his family's poverty, Gibran
received no formal schooling during his youth. However, priests visited him regularly
and taught him about the Bible, as well as the Arabic and Syriac languages. Gibran's
father initially worked in an apothecary but, with gambling debts he was unable to pay,
he went to work for a local Ottoman-appointed administrator.
His mother began working as a seamstress, peddler, selling lace and linens that she
carried from door to door. Gibran started school on September 30, 1895. School officials
placed him in a special class for immigrants to learn English. Gibran also enrolled in an
art school at a nearby settlement house. Through his teachers there, he was introduced
to the avant-garde Boston artist, photographer, and publisher Fred Holland Day. who
encouraged and supported Gibran in his creative endeavors. A publisher used some of
Gibran's drawings for book covers in 1898.
Death
Gibran died in New York City on April 10, 1931: the cause was determined to be
cirrhosis of the liver and tuberculosis. Before his death, Gibran expressed the wish that
he be buried in Lebanon. This wish was fulfilled in 1932, when Mary Haskell and his
sister Mariana purchased the Mar Sarkis Monastery in Lebanon, which has since
become the Gibran Museum.

James Thurber (December 8, 1894 November 2, 1961) - was an American author,

cartoonist and celebrated wit. Thurber was best known for his cartoons and short
stories, published mainly in The New Yorker magazine then collected in his numerous
books. One of the most popular humorists of his time, Thurber celebrated the comic
frustrations and eccentricities of ordinary people.
Early life
Thurber was born in Columbus, Ohio, to Charles L. Thurber and Mary Agnes (Mame)
Fisher Thurber on December 8, 1894. Both of his parents greatly influenced his work.
His father, a sporadically employed clerk and minor politician who dreamed of being a
lawyer or an actor, is said to have been the inspiration for the small, timid protagonist
typical of many of his stories. Thurber described his mother as a "born comedienne" and
"one of the finest comic talents I think I have ever known." She was a practical joker, on
one occasion pretending to be crippled and attending a faith healer revival, only to jump
up and proclaim herself healed.
Many of his short stories are humorous fictional memoirs from his life, but he also wrote
darker material, such as "The Whip-Poor-Will," a story of madness and murder.
While Thurber was able to sketch out his cartoons in the usual fashion in the 1920s and
1930s, his failing eyesight later required him to draw them on very large sheets of paper
using a thick black crayon.
Thurber teamed with college schoolmate (and actor/director) Elliot Nugent to write a
major Broadway hit comic drama of the late 1930s, The Male Animal, which was made
into a film in 1942, starring Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland, and Jack Carson. In 1947
Danny Kaye played the title character in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, a film that had
little to do with the original short story and which Thurber hated.
Career
Uniquely among major American literary figures, he became equally well known for his
simple, surrealistic drawings and cartoons. Both his skills were helped along by the
support of, and collaboration with, fellow New Yorker staff member E. B. White, who
insisted that Thurber's sketches could stand on their own as artistic expressions.
Thurber would go on to draw six covers and numerous classic illustrations for The New
Yorker.

Project
In
English
Alyssa Maureen Yusi
II - St. Lorenzo
Ms. Maricel Marquez