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- Joe Ackerley, later known as J.R. Ackerley, was the son of Roger Ackerley, who had at least two separate families, both of which he lived with at times. Joe's mother Janetta Aylward had another son, Peter Ackerley, and a daughter, Nancy, by the same father. Joe realized in school that he was attracted to his own sex, but was slow to act on his feelings. During the First World War, he and his older brother, Peter, became officers in the British army. Both were wounded and Peter was killed. Ackerley was taken prisoner by the Germans, an experience which would lead him to write a modestly successful play called "Prisoners of War", which was first performed in 1925.
After the war, Ackerley attended Magdalene College at Cambridge University where he graduated in 1921. After working for part of a year in India (which later led to his writing a book called "Hindoo Holiday") he returned to London where he began to enjoy the literary life. He worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as a literary editor, starting a career that included reviewing books and plays. He encouraged many young literary figures including W.H. Auden.
He wrote several books on a variety of subjects, including two books about his dog, Queenie. His memoir "My Father and Myself" was published in 1968, the year after Ackerley's death. In it, he frankly discussed his life, including homosexuality and illegitimacy.
At least three of his books have been made into movies, and the BBC series "Omnibus" presented a drama based on his life. - Lloyd Berkner was born on 1 February 1905 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He died on 4 June 1967 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
- Canadian writer Douglas Leader Durkin was born on 9 July 1884 in the small town of Parry Sound on the eastern shore of Georgian Bay, an inlet of Lake Huron in south central Ontario. Early in life he abandoned the notion of becoming a missionary after acquiring an appreciation for literature and in time taught literature at Brandon College, the University of Manitoba and Columbia University.
In 1918 Durkin published a book of poetry entitled "The Fighting Men of Canada". His first two novels, "The Heart of Cherry McBain" (1920) and "The Lobstick Trail" (1921), were dramas set in the rugged terrain of Northern Manitoba. In 1921, after moving to New York, Durkin left his wife and sons and discarded his academic career. It was during this period that he wrote "The Magpie" (1923), a story set in post-war Winnipeg that is considered by some to be his best work.
In 1944, he married his long-time companion; Norwegian-American author Martha Ostenso, whom he had known since she was a high school student in Manitoba. Durkin early on saw her potential as a writer and began to work as her mentor. She later followed Durkin to New York and in time collaborated with him on the writing of her award-winning novel, "Wild Geese" (1925). An earlier work by Durkin was very similar to "Wild Geese" and it is thought that Durkin and Ostenso were afraid that the Dodd Mead First Novel Award committee might have disqualified the book if he was listed as co-author.
Durkin and Ostenso married after his first wife passed away. By then the couple had collaborated on a dozen or so novels and a number of short stories. Durkin and Ostenso lived and worked primarily in Brainerd, Minnesota and in Hollywood, California, where they became friends with such stars as 'Douglas Fairbanks Jr' Mary Pickford' and Henry Fonda. Douglas Durkin passed away on 4 June, 1967 at Seattle. He was survived by two sons from his first marriage. Martha Ostenso preceded him in death on 23 November, 1963 - Ondrej Sekora was born on 25 September 1899 in Brno, Morava, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]. He was a writer, known for The Tales of Pouch the Beetle (1978), Ferda Mravenec (1944) and Ferdy (1984). He died on 4 June 1967 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic].