Frank Thomas Bullen, British novelist, was born of poor parents in Paddington, London, on 5 April 1857, and was educated for a few years at a dame school and Westbourne school, Paddington. At the age of 9, his aunt, who was his guardian, died. He then left school and took up work as an errand boy. In 1869 he went to sea and travelled to all parts of the world in various capacities including that of second mate of the Harbinger and chief mate of the Day Dawn, under Capt. John R. H. Ward jun in 1879 when she was dismasted and disabled.
Having spent 15 years of his life at sea, since the tender age of 12, he would later describe the hardships of his early life thus:
I have been beaten by a negro lad as big again as myself, and only a Frenchman interfered on my behalf. Those were the days when boys in Geordie colliers or East Coast fishing smacks were often beaten to insanity and jumped overboard, or were done to death in truly savage fashion, and all that was necessary to account for their non returning was a line in the log to the effect that they had been washed or had fallen overboard.
A parallel may be drawn with Joseph Conrad's career at sea aboard Torrens 1891–1893.
He was a clerk in the Meteorological Office from 1883 to 1889. His reputation was made over the publication of The Cruise of the "Cachalot" (1898); and he also wrote, amongst other books, Idylls of the Sea (1899); Sea Wrack (1903); The Call of the Deep (1907) and A Compleat Sea Cook (1912), besides many articles and essays. He lectured extensively and was highly critical of Australasia's lack of defences against what he saw as imminent naval threats from Germany and Japan. He died at Madeira on 1 March 1915.
Frank Thompson Jr. was an American politician. He represented New Jersey's 4th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat from 1955 to 1980, and was chairman of the House Administration Committee from 1976 to 1980.
Frank Trentmann is a professor of history in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is a specialist in the history of consumption.
Francis Edward Turner is an English punk and folk singer-songwriter from Meonstoke, Hampshire. He began his career as the vocalist of post-hardcore band Million Dead, then embarked upon a primarily acoustic-based solo career following the band's split in 2005. In the studio and during live performances, Turner is accompanied by his backing band, The Sleeping Souls, which consists of Ben Lloyd, Tarrant Anderson (bass), Matt Nasir and Callum Green (drums).
Frank Waters was an American writer. He is known for his novels and historical works about the American Southwest. The Frank Waters Foundation, founded in his name, strives to foster literary and artistic achievement in the Southwest United States.
Benjamin Franklin Wedekind was a German playwright. His work, which often criticizes bourgeois attitudes, is considered to anticipate expressionism and was influential in the development of epic theatre.
Frank Weitenkampf,, was an American authority on engraving and chief of the art and print departments at the New York Public Library (NYPL), where his papers are archived.
Frank Martin Westerman is a Dutch writer and a former journalist. He studied tropical agricultural engineering at Wageningen University and worked as a news correspondent for de Volkskrant in Belgrade and NRC Handelsblad in Moscow. He is currently a full-time writer of non-fiction books, among which are The Republic of Grain (1999), Engineers of the Soul (2002), and Ararat (2007).
