Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form. (Wikipedia)

Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) was a 19th-century French author, remembered as a master of the short story form. (Wikipedia)

Herbert George Wells (1866–1946) was an English writer. He was prolific in many genres, writing dozens of novels, short stories, and works of social commentary, satire, biography, and autobiography. He is now best remembered for his science fiction novels. (Wikipedia)

Herbert George Wells (1866–1946) was an English writer. He was prolific in many genres, writing dozens of novels, short stories, and works of social commentary, satire, biography, and autobiography. He is now best remembered for his science fiction novels. (Wikipedia)

Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was a Danish author. He is best remembered for his fairy tales. (Wikipedia)

Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was a Danish author. He is best remembered for his fairy tales. (Wikipedia)

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. (Wikipedia)

Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American novelist, short story writer and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Typee (1846), a romantic account of his experiences of Polynesian life, and his magnum opus: Moby-Dick (1851). (Wikipedia)

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus. (Wikipedia)

Howard Murphet (1906-2004) was an author and devotee of Sathya Sai Baba. Howard Murphet was born in Tasmania and educated at the University of Hobart. During the Second World War he served with the Eighth Army at El Alamein and Tunis, took part in the invasion of Sicily and Italy and, later, with the British Second Army, in the invasion of Normandy. He was also in charge of the British Press Section at the Nuremberg Trials. After a period as a Public Relations Officer in the chemical industry, Murphet and his wife travelled to India to visit the international headquarters of the Theosophical Society in Adyar, Madras and also wanted to discover if there was any deeper spiritual dimension in the life of modern India.

They heard about Sai Baba from a wandering yogi. Howard Murphet met Sai Baba in 1966. During those days, it was a very difficult journey to the village of Puttaparthi; he had to travel by bus from Madras to Bangalore, followed by journey through roads of broken rocks ending with a ride on bullock-cart, or on foot across slushy fields of paddy. (dharmapedia.net/wiki)

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE FRSL (1892-1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and academic, who is best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. (Wikipedia)

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE FRSL (1892-1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist, and academic, who is best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. (Wikipedia)

John Griffith London (John Griffith Chaney)(1876-1916) was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer in the world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first writers to become a worldwide celebrity. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction. (Wikipedia)

James Churchward (1851-1936) was a British occult writer, inventor, engineer, and fisherman.

James Churchward (1851-1936) was a British occult writer, inventor, engineer, and fisherman.

James Churchward (1851-1936) was a British occult writer, inventor, engineer, and fisherman.

James Churchward (1851-1936) was a British occult writer, inventor, engineer, and fisherman.

James Churchward (1851-1936) was a British occult writer, inventor, engineer, and fisherman.

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works critique the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. Her use of biting irony, along with her realism, humour, and social commentary, have long earned her acclaim among critics, scholars, and popular audiences alike. (Wikipedia)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a German writer and statesman. (Wikipedia)