Mr. Vargas Llosa, who ran for Peru’s presidency in 1990 and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010, transformed episodes from his personal life into books that reverberated far beyond the borders of his native country.
Merle Oberon was a popular actress who was once nominated for an Oscar. But a fact that she hid from the public threatened to unspool her entire life’s work.
Her “Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself,” a guide to shedding toxic relationships, has sold more than seven million copies.
A real estate developer, he was instrumental in revitalizing the New York Public Library and transforming Bryant Park from a dangerous dead zone into a glorious sanctuary.
“Ceasefire,” his most famous poem, invoked the “Iliad” in exploring his country’s sectarian strife. But his work wasn’t Homeric in length: “Michael was a miniaturist.”