Born and brought up in England during the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods, Algernon Henry Blackwood spent his early adult life in a variety of occupations in Canada and the U.S.A. before returning to England (Wikipedia). He was a lifelong bachelor. His fascination with the supernatural and mysticism was reflected in many of his writings, which influenced numerous 20th century science fiction and fantasy writers.
Carl Van Vechten was an American writer and artistic photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. He gained fame as a writer, and notoriety as well, for his 1926 novel Nigger Heaven. In his later years, he took up photography and took many portraits of notable people. Although he was married to women for most of his adult life, Van Vechten engaged in numerous homosexual affairs over his lifetime.
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1815. ([Source][1].)
[1]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor%C3%A9_de_Balzac