Birthdays of Authors: Home

July

George Sand, (1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876) aka Aurore Dudevant, French novelist . July 1

Hermann Hesse, (1877; d.1962), German-Swiss novelist and poet who received the Nobel prize for literature in 1946, the novel Siddhartha (1922). July 2

Franz Kafka, (1883; d.1924), Czech writer, "Die Verwandlung" ("The Metamorphosis"), Der Process (The Trial), and Das Schloss (The Castle), most were published posthumously, by his friend Max Brod, who ignored Kafka's wish to have the manuscripts destroyed.  July 3

Sir Tom Stoppard, Czech born, Tomáš Straussler, (1937), playwright, one Academy Award and four Tony Awards, The Real Thing; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Shakespeare in Love. July 3

Nathaniel Hawthorne, (1804; d.1864), American novelist and short story writer (born Salem, Mass.) author of The House of the Seven Gables (1851) and The Scarlet Letter (1850). July 4

Neil Simon, (1927), American playwright, Barefoot in the Park (1963) and The Odd Couple (1965 Tony Award), Pulitzer Prize for drama in1991 for Lost in Yonkers. July 4

Jean Cocteau, (1889; d.1963) French writer, artist, and filmmaker, novel Les Enfants Terribles (1929), and the films Blood of a Poet (1930), Les Parents Terribles (1948), Beauty and the Beast (1946) and Orpheus (1949). July 5

Jan Neruda (1834), Czech writer and poet of the Czech Realism school, Povídky malostranské (1877, Tales of the Lesser Quarter). July 7

Robert Heinlein, (1907- May 8, 1988), Missouri-born science-fiction writer, In his lifetime, Heinlein received four Hugo Awards, for Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966), Starship Troopers (1959), and Double Star (1956), and was nominated for four Nebula Awards, for Stranger in a Strange Land, Friday, Time Enough for Love, and Job: A Comedy of Justice. He was also given two posthumous Hugos, for Farmer in the Sky and The Man Who Sold the Moon. July 7

Louise Erdrich, (1954) Native American novelist, raised in North Dakota, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, a band of the Anishinaabe (also known as Ojibwe and Chippewa), Love Medicine won the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award; The Plague of Doves (2009); the 2012 National Book Award for Fiction for The Round House. July 7

Margaret [Abigail] Walker, (1915-1998), Alabama native, African American poet and novelist, the award-winning poem For My People (1942) and the novel Jubilee (1966). July 7

Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, (1926-2004), born in Zurich, Switzerland, On Death and Dying (1969) which described her theory of the five stages of grief. July 8

Oliver Sacks, (1933-2015), British neurologist, Awakenings (later made into a movie); Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain; The Mind's Eye (2010), and a number of popular books on neurological phenomena. July 9

Marcel Proust, (1871; d.1922), French novelist, À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time; earlier translated as Remembrance of Things Past; published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927). July 10

Alice Munro, (1931) Canadian short story writer, 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature for her work as "master of the contemporary short story, and the 2009 Man Booker International Prize for her lifetime body of work. July 10

E.B. White, (1899- October 1, 1985), New England writer, books for children, including Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte's Web (1952), and The Trumpet of the Swan (1970). In 1978, White won a special Pulitzer Prize citing "his letters, essays and the full body of his work". Also the co-author of the English language style guide The Elements of Style, which is commonly known as "Strunk & White". July 11

Harold Bloom, (1930), NYC native literary critic, Yeats; The Anxiety of Influence: A Map of Misreading; The Western Canon (1994). July 11

Henry David Thoreau, (July 12, 1817 - May 6, 1862), American writer and Transcendentalist. Walden (1854); Civil Disobedience; Life Without Principle; Slavery in Massachusetts; and Walking.  July 12

Pablo Neruda, (1904-1973), Chilean poet and Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924). July 12

Clifford Odets, (1906), U.S. playwright, Waiting for Lefty (1935); Awake and Sing! (1935); The Country Girl (1950); The Flowering Peach (1954). July 18

Hunter S. Thompson, (1937; d.2005), American journalist, Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (1967); Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (1971); Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72; The Rum Diary (written in the 1960s but released in 1998). July 18

Ernest [Miller] Hemingway, (July 21, 1899 - July 2, 1961),  American novelist and short-story writer, The Sun Also Rises (1926), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), The Old Man and the Sea (1953), which won the 1953 Pulitzer prize; he also won the 1954 Nobel prize for literature. July 21

[Harold] Hart Crane, (1899; d.1932), Ohio-born poet, leapt to death from ship as he was returning from Mexico to New York, most famous work is The Bridge (1930). July 21

Marshall McLuhan, (1911;d.1980), Canadian writer and media analyst, is known for coining the expressions “the medium is the message”, “the global village”, and “Turn on, tune in, drop out” by its popularizer, Timothy Leary. Understanding Media (1964). July 21

Raymond Chandler, (1888; d.1959), Chicago-born mystery writer and creator of "private detective" Philip Marlowe. The Big Sleep (1939), Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Little Sister (1949), and The Long Goodbye (1953). July 23

Alexandre Dumas pere, (1802; d.1870), born Davy de la Pailleterie Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo (1845–1846), Three Musketeers (1844). July 24

Robert Graves, (1895; d.1985), British poet (The White Goddess) and novelist, writing popular historical novels such as I, Claudius, King Jesus, The Golden Fleece and Count Belisarius. July 24

George Bernard Shaw, (1856-1950), Irish playwright, Man and Superman, Mrs. Warren's Profession, Major Barbara, Saint Joan, Caesar and Cleopatra, and Pygmalion. The only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize (Literature, 1925) and an Academy Award (Best Adapted Screenplay, 1938), the first for his contributions to literature and the second for his film adaptation of his most popular play, Pygmalion into My Fair Lady. July 26

Aldous [Leonard] Huxley, (1894; d.1963), British novelist and essayist (though he lived in California from 1930s to death), best known for novel Brave New World (1932). July 26

[Helen] Beatrix Potter, (1866; d.1943), British children's author, The Tale of Peter Rabbit.  July 28

Alexis de Tocqueville, (1805 – 16 April 1859), French political scientist and writer author of the four-volume Democracy in America (1835 and 1840). July 29

Emily [Jane] Bronte (1818;d.1848), whose only novel was Wuthering Heights (1847). July 30

JK Rowling, (1965), born Joanne 'Jo' Rowling, Harry Potter series (1997-2007) and Cormoran Strike series:The Cuckoo's Calling (as Robert Galbraith) (18 April 2013), The Silkworm (as Robert Galbraith) (19 June 2014), Career of Evil (as Robert Galbraith) (20 October 2015). July 31

 

August

Herman Melville, (1819–1891) American writer, sea adventure Typee (1846) and whaling novel Moby-Dick (1851), short fiction for magazines, such as "Bartleby, the Scrivener" and "Benito Cereno.". August 1

James [Arthur] Baldwin, (1924-1987), Harlem-born novelist, playwright, and essayist. Essays collected in Notes of a Native Son (1955), "Sonny's Blues" appears in many anthologies of short fiction used in introductory college literature classes. First novel is Go Tell It On the Mountain (1953). August 2

Percy Bysshe Shelley, (1792-1822), Romantic English poet, best known for such classic poems as Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, Music, When Soft Voices Die. August 4

Guy de Maupassant, (1850-1893), French short story writer, His first published story, "Boule de Suif" ("Ball of Fat", 1880), is often considered his masterpiece. August 5

Alfred Lord Tennyson, (1809-1892), English poet and Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland. "Break, Break, Break", "The Charge of the Light Brigade", "Tears, Idle Tears" and "Crossing the Bar". August 6

Piers Anthony, (1934), British-born,  American sci-fi/fantasy writer author of the Xanth series. August 6

Garrison Keillor (1942), humorist, author, and host of ' A Prairie Home Companion'. Lake Wobegon Days and Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories. August 7

Daniel Keyes (1927; d.2014), American author, the 1960 Nebula award-winning novel Flowers for Algernon. August 9

Alex [Murray Palmer] Haley, New York-born biographer, scriptwriter, and novelist (Roots) (1921). August 11

Jacinto Benavente y Martinez, (1866-1954), Spanish dramatist and 1922 Nobel prize winner. August 12

Mary Jo Salter, (1954), Michigan-born poet and a co-editor of The Norton Anthology of Poetry.  August 15

Stieg Larsson, (1954; d.2004), Swedish journalist and crime novelist, (Millennium series: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest). August 15

[Edward James] Ted Hughes, (1930-1998), English Poet Laureate, married to American poet Sylvia Plath from 1956 until her suicide in 1963 at age 30. The Hawk in the Rain (1957), Crow (1970), Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being (1992), Tales from Ovid (1998), and children’s book The Iron Man (1968). August 17

V[idiadhar] S[urajprasad] Naipaul, (1932), Trinidad-born British novelist and essayist, won the 2001 Nobel Prize for Literature "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories.".  August 17

Ogden Nash, (1902-1971) American light verse writer. Examples include "If called by a panther / Don't anther"; "Who wants my jellyfish? / I'm not sellyfish!".  August 19

H[oward] P[hillips] Lovecraft, (1890-1937), U.S. Gothic (or supernatural) novelist, known primarily as a writer of weird fantasy and horror fiction and a prodigious correspondent. August 20

Ray Bradbury, (1920-2012), U.S. science fiction writer. Fahrenheit 451 (1953), The Martian Chronicles (1950), and The Illustrated Man (1951). August 22

Dorothy Parker, (1893-1967), American short story writer/poet/critic and wit, her first volume of poetry, Enough Rope (1926), Her best-known short story, "Big Blonde", published in The Bookman magazine, was awarded the O. Henry Award as the best short story of 1929. August 22

E. Annie Proulx, Connecticut-born novelist, short story writer, and how-to writer (1935) August 22

Edgar Lee Masters, (1869-1950), Kansan poet, playwright, and novelist. Twelve plays (Spoon River Anthology , 1915), twenty-one books of poetry, six novels and six biographies, including those of Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Vachel Lindsay, and Walt Whitman. August 23

Jorge Luis Borges, (1899-1986), Argentine fiction writer and essayist, His best-known books, Ficciones (Fictions) and El Aleph (The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are compilations of short stories. August 24

A.S. Byatt, (1936), born Antonia Susan Drabble, British novelist. Possession: A Romance (1990 Booker Prize for Fiction), The Children's Book (2009).  August 24

Confucius, (551-479 BC), aka K'ung-fu-tzu, Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher, who wrote the Analects (Lun Yu) and may have authored or edited many of the Chinese classic texts including all of the Five Classics. August 27

Theodore Dreiser, (1871; d.1945), American novelist and newspaper writer (born Indiana) who wrote Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925). August 27

C.S. Forester, (1899-1966), Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, Horatio Hornblower naval officer series, and The African Queen (1935). August 27

William Least Heat Moon (1939) born in Kansas City as William Lewis Trogdon, author of Blue Highways and other books about place. August 27

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, (1749; d.1832), German dramatist, poet, and novelist, his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther (1775), his second novel, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795-96), his first major scientific work, the Metamorphosis of Plants (1791), and 'Faust' (1770 and 1831). August 28

Leo Tolstoy, (1828; d.1910), Russian author, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). August 28

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (née Godwin;  1797-1851) was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). August 30

William Saroyan, (1908-1981), U.S. novelist and playwright, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and 1943 Academy Award for Best Story for the film adaptation of his novel The Human Comedy. The Time of Your Life, My Name Is Aram and My Heart's in the Highlands. August 31

 

September

Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875; d.1950), Tarzan of the Apes (1912 and beyond) and Under the Moons of Mars and other books in the Barsoom series.  September 1

Francois-René de Chateaubriand, (1768; d.1848), French writer and statesman, poet, and historian. Génie du christianisme (1802), and the autobiography Mémoires d'outre-tombe ("Memoirs from Beyond the Grave'", published posthumously in 1849–1850). September 4

Richard [Nathaniel] Wright, (1908; d.1960), Mississippi-born African American novelist. Native Son (1940) and Black Boy (1945). September 4

Robert Pirsig, (1928), Minnesota-born writer, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (1974). September 6

Dame Edith Sitwell, (1887; d.1964), English poet and eccentric, two books about Queen Elizabeth I of England: Fanfare for Elizabeth (1946) and The Queens and the Hive (1962), English Eccentrics (1933) and Victoria of England (1936). September 7

Franz Werfel (1890; d.1945), Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet. Forty Days of Musa Dagh (1933) and The Song of Bernadette (1941).  September 10

Stephen Jay Gould, (1941; d.2002), New York City-born paleontologist, zoologist, and essayist who wrote science for the layperson. Ever Since Darwin (1977), The Panda's Thumb (1980), Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes (185), and The Flamingo's Smile (1985).  September 10

O. Henry (1862; d.1910), pseudonym of William Sidney Porter, American short story writer (born North Carolina), who began writing while serving jail time for embezzlement, and whose tales, including 'The Gift of the Magi' and 'The Ransom of Red Chief,' are noted for their surprise endings. September 11

D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence (1885; d.1930), English novelist and poet, Sons and Lovers (1913), Women in Love (1920), and Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928). September 11

Michael Ondaatje, (1942), Canadian (born Sri Lanka) poet and author. The English Patient (1992). September 12

James Fenimore Cooper, (1789; d.1851), New Jersey-born social critic, historian, and the first major American novelist. The Leatherstocking Tales (1823-1827) which includes The Last of the Mohicans (1826). September 15

Dame Agatha Christie, (1890; d.1976), British mystery writer, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple series (starting in 1920, composed of 33 novels and 54 short stories), and the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery, The Mousetrap (1952) . September 15

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., (1950), West Virginia-born African American literary critic, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, and editor. The Signifying Monkey (1989 American Book Award winner), the host and co-producer of African American Lives (2006) and African American Lives 2 (2008), and Faces of America, a four-part series presented by PBS in 2010. September 16

William Carlos Williams, (1883; d.1963), New Jersey native, doctor and poet. Spring and All, which contained the classic poems "By the road to the contagious hospital," "The Red Wheelbarrow," and "To Elsie" and Paterson (published between 1946 and 1958). September 17

Ken Kesey, (1935; d.2001), Colorado-born novelist and countercultural figure. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962), Sometimes a Great Notion (1964).  September 17

Upton Sinclair, (1878; d.1968), novelist who exposed the Chicago stockyards in The Jungle (1906), and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Dragon's Teeth (1943). September 20

Donald Hall, (1928), Connecticut native (now living in New Hampshire) and poet, playwright, essayist, and U.S. Poet Laureate. 1979 Caldecott Medal, for children’s book Ox-Cart Man. September 20

Stephen King, (1947), Maine thriller/horror/suspense writer. Carrie (1973), The Shining (1977), The Dark Tower series (1970s), short story "The Man in the Black Suit" (1994) received the O. Henry Award. September 21

H. G. Wells, (1866; d.1946), English writer of novels, history, politics, and social commentary. The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898). September 21

Euripides, (480? B.C.; d.406 B.C.), Greek playwright, of which eighteen or nineteen have survived more or less complete, including Medea (431), Hippolytus (428), and Electra (c. 420). [birthdate is 'according to legend' September 23

Edgar Lee Masters, (1869; d.1950), midwestern poet. The Spoon River Anthology (1914). September 23

F[rancis] Scott [Key] Fitzgerald, (1896; d.1940), American novelist and short-story writer (born St. Paul, Minnesota) author of The Great Gatsby (1925), Tender is the Night (1934), and other works that vividly evoke the time of the Jazz Age, the Roaring Twenties, and the Wall St. Crash. September 24

William [Harrison] Faulkner, born William Cuthbert Falkner (1897; d.1962), Mississippi-born novelist, 1949 Nobel Prize for literature for . novel The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930), Light in August (1932), and Absalom, Absalom! (1936). Two of his works, A Fable (1954) and his last novel The Reivers (1962) won Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature. September 25

T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, (1888; d.1965), American born English poet, dramatist, and critic (born St. Louis, MO), his poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915), The Waste-Land (1922), Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry." September 26

Kate Douglas Wiggin, (1856; d.1923), Maine novelist and children's writer. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903), and The New Chronicles of Rebecca (1907). September 28

Miguel de Cervantes, (1547; d.1616), Spanish novelist, playwright, and poet. El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605): First volume of Don Quixote; Four novelas: El amante liberal, La señora Cornelia, Las dos doncellas, and La española inglesa.  Sonnets include Al Túmulo del Rey Felipe en Sevilla. Poetry includes Canto de Calíope, Epístola a Mateo Vázquez, and the Viaje del Parnaso (Journey to Parnassus – 1614) c. September 29

Truman Capote, (1924; d.1984), American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, actor, and celebrity. The novella Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958), Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948), and the true crime novel In Cold Blood (1966). September 30

 

October

Wallace Stevens, (1879; d.1955), Connecticut-born poet, insurance salesman, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his Collected Poems (1955). Some of his best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar," "Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock," "The Emperor of Ice-Cream," "The Idea of Order at Key West," "Sunday Morning," "The Snow Man," and "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." October 2

Graham Greene, (1904; d.1991), prolific English novelist. Stamboul Train (1932) which was adapted as the film Orient Express (1934). Most of his novels and many of his plays and short stories have been adapted for film or television at least once, examples of multiple adaptations include Brighton Rock in 1947 and 2011, The End of the Affair in 1955 and 1999, and The Quiet American in 1958 and 2002. October 2

Thomas Wolfe, (1900; d.1938), North Carolinian novelist. Look Homeward, Angel (1929), Of Time and the River (1935). October 3

James Herriot, (1916; d.1995), Scottish writer and veterinarian. His books have been adapted for film and television, including a 1975 film titled All Creatures Great and Small, sequelled by 1976 It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet, and a long-running BBC television programme of the same title. October 3

Gore Vidal, (1925-2012), NY native writer, playwright, and public intellectual. Myra Breckinridge (1968), Burr (1973) and Lincoln (1984). Two plays, The Best Man: A Play about Politics (1960) and Visit to a Small Planet (1955) were, respectively, theatre and movie successes. October 3

Edward Stratemeyer (1862; d.1930), creator of the Stratemeyer Syndicate that produced over 1,300 juvenile novels, including the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, and Bobbsey Twins series. October 4

Denis Diderot, (1713; d.1784), French encyclopaedist, literary critic, and man of letters. His plays: Jacques the Fatalist, Rameau's Nephew, and D'Alembert's Dream, were published only after his death October 5

Vaclav Havel, (1936-2003), Czech playwright, political leader, and first president of the Czech Republic (1993–2003). His works such as The Garden Party and The Memorandum critique communism. October 5

Frank Herbert, (1920; d. 1986), science fiction writer; author of the Dune series. October 8

Harold Pinter, (1930-2008), English playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978); His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1993), and Sleuth (2007). He won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature. October 10

e. e. cummings, (1894; d.1962), Massachusetts-born poet, playwright, and painter. Tulips and Chimneys (1923), Xaipe: Seventy-One Poems (1950), and the play Santa Claus: A Morality (1946). October 14

Virgil, (70 B.C.; d.19 B.C.), Publius Vergilius Maro, Roman poet. The Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the Aeneid. October 15

(Sir) P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, (1881; d.1975), comedic British novelist who wrote the Jeeves and Wooster series, including Right Ho, Jeeves, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, and Blandings Castle.  October 15

Italo Calvino, (1923; d.1985), Italian novelist (born Cuba). Our Ancestors trilogy (1952–1959), the Cosmicomics collection of short stories (1965), and the novels Invisible Cities (1972) and If on a winter's night a traveler (1979). October 15

Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (1917; d.2007), historian, primary speechwriter and adviser to Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson II. 1946 Pulitzer Prize for History for his book The Age of Jackson; 1966 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for his book A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House; Robert Kennedy and His Times (1978). October 15

Oscar Wilde (1854; d.1900), Irish wit and author.  The novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1990-91), and his plays An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). October 16

Eugene O'Neill, (1888; d.1953), American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), The Iceman Cometh (1940), A Moon for the Misbegotten (1947), and Long Day's Journey Into Night (Pulitzer Prize 1957). October 16

Günter Grass, (1927-2015), German novelist and playwright. 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Tin Drum (1959) and the film adaptation won the 1979 Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. October 16

Arthur Miller, (1915; d.2005), American playwright. Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), awarded the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. October 17

John Le Carré, nee David John Moore Cornwell (1931), English spy novelist. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963). October 19

[Jean Nicolas] Arthur Rimbaud, (1854-1891), French poet.  Poésies (1895), Une Saison en enfer (1873), Les Illuminations (1874), Derniers Vers (Last Verses) (1886). October 20

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, (1772; d.1834), English Romantic poet. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) and Kubla Khan (1816). Biographia Literaria, a collection of his thoughts and opinions on literature (1817). October 21

Ursula LeGuin, (1929), California-born sci-fi and fantasy writer, She has won the Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Locus Award, and World Fantasy Award, each more than once. The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) (Hugo Award;Nebula Award), The Dispossessed, 1974 (Nebula Award; Hugo Award; Locus Award), The Word for World is Forest (1976) (Hugo Award, best novella). October 21

Michael Crichton, (1942-2008), Chicago-born novelist. The Andromeda Strain (1969), Congo (1980), Sphere (1987), Travels (1988), Jurassic Park (1990), and many others. October 23

Anne Tyler, (1941), Minnesota-born, NC-raised, long-time Baltimore resident. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1983), The Accidental Tourist (1985), Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Breathing Lessons (1989). October 25

Pat Conroy, (1945), American writer. The Great Santini (1976), The Prince of Tides (1986), South of Broad (2009). October 26

Dylan Marlais Thomas, (1914-1953), Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", the "Play for Voices", Under Milk Wood, and stories and radio broadcasts such as A Child's Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog.  October 27

Sylvia Plath, (1932-1963), American poet, married to poet Ted Hughes, committed suicide in 1963. The Colossus and Other Poems (1960), Ariel (1965). In 1982, she won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for The Collected Poems.  October 27

Evelyn [Arthur St. John] Waugh, (1903-1966), British novelist. The early satires Decline and Fall (1928), A Handful of Dust (1934), and the novel Brideshead Revisited (1945). October 28

Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883), Russian novelist, poet and playwright. Short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches (1852), and novel Fathers and Sons (1862). October 28

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, (1821-1881), Russian novelist. Crime and Punishment (1866) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). October 30

Ezra [Weston Loomis] Pound, (1885-1972), Idaho-born poet and critic, helped discover and shape the work of contemporaries such as T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Robert Frost, and Ernest Hemingway.  Ripostes (1912), Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920) and the unfinished 120-section epic, The Cantos (1917–69). October 30

John Keats, (1795; d.1821), British Romantic poet. the sonnet O Solitude (1816), his collection Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes and other poems (1820). "the Ode to a Nightingale” October 31

 

November

Stephen Crane, (1871; d.1900), New Jersey-born novelist, reporter, and poet. The Red Badge of Courage (1895), and short stories such as "The Open Boat", "The Blue Hotel", "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky", and The Monster. November 1

William Cullen Bryant, (1794; d.1878), Massachusetts-born American romantic poet, editor, and lawyer. The poems 'Thanatopsis' (1817), "To a Waterfowl" (1821).  November 3

Sam Shepard, born Samuel Shepard Rogers III, (1943), playwright and actor, born in Illinois. Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child, a multiple Obie Award-winning playwright.  November 5

Jonas Lauritz Idemil Lie, (1833; d.1908), Norwegian novelist, one of the Four Greats of 19th-century Norwegian literature.  Familien paa Gilje (" The Family at Gilje: A Domestic Story of the Forties") (1883), and the short stories Trold and Elias and the Draugh. November 6

James Jones, (1921; d.1977), Illinois novelist. From Here To Eternity (1951). November 6

Albert Camus (1913; d.1960), French existentialist essayist, novelist, journalist (born Algeria), awarded 1957 Nobel in Literature, the novels L'Etranger (1942; The Stranger) and La Peste (1947; The Plague). November 7

Bram Stoker (1847; d.1912), Irish, the personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, creator of Dracula (1897). November 8

Margaret Mitchell (1900; d.1949), Gone with the Wind (1936), Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. November 8

Kazuo Ishiguro, (1954), Japanese/English Booker Prize winning novelist for The Remains of the Day (1989). November 8

Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1877 d.1938), widely known as Allama Iqbal, Muslim poet, philosopher and politician; his poetry in Urdu and Persian is considered to be among the greatest of the modern era. in In the Persian language, books of poetry include Rumuz-i-Bekhudi, Payam-i-Mashriq and Zabur-i-Ajam. Amongst these his best known Urdu works are Bang-i-Dara, Bal-i-Jibril, Zarb-i Kalim and a part of Armughan-e-Hijaz. November 9

[Johann Christoph] Friedrich von Schiller, (1759; d.1805), German poet, lyricist, and playwright. Two important essays entitled "Vom Erhabenen" and "Über das Erhabene", the play The Robbers (Die Räuber), and On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters (Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen in einer Reihe von Briefen) (1794). November 10

Winston Churchill, (1871; d.1947), American novelist. Richard Carvel (1899), The Crisis (1901) and The Crossing (1904). November 10

Neil Richard Gaiman, (1960), British writer (lives Minnesota), author of science fiction and fantasy short stories and novels, graphic novels, comics, and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards, as well as the Newbery and Carnegie medals. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same work, The Graveyard Book (2008). November 10

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., (1922; d.2007), American writer. Cat's Cradle (1963) God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1964), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). November 11

Robert Louis Stevenson, (1850-1894), Scottish author.  Treasure Island (1883), Kidnapped (1886), and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886). November 13

José Saramago, (1922-) Portuguese playwright, novelist, short story writer. Nobel Prize winner in 1998.  The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (1991),The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (1984),The Stone Raft (1986), Blindness (1995). November 16

Margaret Atwood, (1939), Canadian novelist, poet, and short-story writer. The Handmaid's Tale (Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987), Cat's Eye, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, Oryx and Crake, and Surfacing. She has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times. November 18

Nadine Gordimer, (1923; d.2014), South African novelist, short-story writer, and 1991 Nobel Prize for Literature. Booker Prize for her novel The Conservationist (1974). Works such as Burger's Daughter and July's People were banned. November 20

Voltaire, born Francois-Marie Arouet; (1694; d.1778), French philosopher, a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. Candide (1759). November 21

George Eliot, aka Mary Anne Evans, (1819-1880), English novelist.  Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), and Middlemarch (1871–72). November 22

Benedict [Baruch] de Spinoza, born Benedito de Espinosa (1632; d.1677), Dutch philosopher, author, and lens-grinder. Theological Political Treatise (1670), the posthumous Ethics (1677).  November 24

Carlo Collodi, aka Carlo Lorenzini, (1826; d.1890), Italian journalist and author of the world-renowned fairy tale novel The Adventures of Pinocchio (1880s). November 24

Lope Felix de Vega (1562; d.1635), Spanish dramatist and poet, in the world of Spanish literature, he is second only to that of Cervantes. Some 3,000 sonnets, 3 novels, 4 novellas, 9 epic poems, and about 500 plays. He published two hundred sonnets in the collection La Hermosura de Angélica (1602) and in 1604 he republished them with new material in Rimas. His religious sonnets appeared in a book entitled Rimas sacras (1614), and Rimas humanas y divinas del licenciado Tomé de Burguillos (1634). November 25

Eugene Ionesco, (1909; d. 1994), Romanian/French playwright. Participated in the Theatre of the Absurd  with plays such as The Killer, The Chairs, A Stroll in the Air, Amédée, Victims of Duty. November 26

William Blake, (1757; d.1827), visionary and revolutionary English poet and painter well-known for Songs of Innocence (1789), Songs of Experience (1794), and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (c.1790). November 28

Louisa May Alcott (1832; d.1888), Pennsylvania-born author of Little Women (1868) and Little Men (1871). November 29

C. S. Lewis (1898; d.1963), English essayist, children's writer, and Christian apologist. The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.  November 29

Jonathan Swift, (1667; d.1745), English satirist. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms – such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, Drapier's Letters as MB Drapier – or anonymously. A Modest Proposal (1729) and Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts, by Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon, and then a captain of several ships, better known as Gulliver's Travels (1726). November 30

Mark Twain, aka Samuel Clemens (1835; d.1910), American humorist.  "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", was first published in the New York Saturday Press on November 18, 1865. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, (1889). November 30

David Mamet, (1947), Chicago-born playwright, screenwriter and director. As a playwright, Mamet has won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988). As a screenwriter, he has received Oscar nominations for The Verdict (1982) and Wag the Dog (1997). Mamet has also written the screenplays for such films as The Verdict (1982), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), The Untouchables (1987) Hoffa (1992), Ronin (1998), Wag The Dog (1997), The Edge (1997), and Hannibal (2001). November 30

 

December

Woody Allen, aka Allen Stewart Konigsberg (1935), Brooklyn native, director and screenwriter. Four Academy Awards. His books include Getting Even, Without Feathers, Side Effects and Mere Anarchy. The best-known of his over 40 films are Bananas (1971), Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (1972), Sleeper (1973), and Love and Death (1975) Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Midnight in Paris (2011), and Blue Jasmine (2013).  December 1

T[homas] C[oraghessan] Boyle, (1948), NY-born humour novelist and short story writer. World's End (1988), The Road to Wellville (1993). His short stories regularly appear in the major American magazines, including The New Yorker,[8] Harper's,[9] Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly and Playboy. December 2

Ann Patchett, (1963), California native, novelist. Bel Canto (2001). December 2

Joseph Conrad, born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, (1857; birthdate also given as Dec. 6; d.1924), Polish-born English writer famous for short stories, and the novels Heart of Darkness (1899), and Lord Jim (1900). December 3

Mark Salzman, (1959), born Greenwich, Connecticut, novelist and memoirist, awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 2000. Iron & Silk (1986), The Soloist (1994). December 3

Rainer Maria Rilke, (1875; d.1926), German poet. Poetry collections Duino Elegies (Duineser Elegien) and Sonnets to Orpheus (Die Sonette an Orpheus), the semi-autobiographical novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge), and a collection of ten letters that was published after his death under the title Letters to a Young Poet (Briefe an einen jungen Dichter). December 4

Willa [Sibert] Cather, (1873, d.1947), born near Winchester, Virginia, and raised in Nebraska, author of O Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), and My Ántonia (1918). In 1923 she was awarded the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours (1922). December 7

Horace, born Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace in Latin), (65 BC; d.8 BC), Roman poet. Known for his lyric poetry Odes, elegant hexameter verses (Sermones and Epistles), and caustic iambic poetry (Epodes). December 8

James Thurber, (1894; d.1961), Ohio cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright, and celebrated wit. His best-known short stories are "The Dog That Bit People" and "The Night the Bed Fell"; they can be found in My Life and Hard Times, which was his "break-out" book. Among his other classics are The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Catbird Seat, A Couple of Hamburgers, The Greatest Man in the World, and If Grant Had Been Drinking at Appomattox.  Thurber wrote over seventy-five fables, some of which were first published in "The New Yorker" (1939), then collected in Fables for Our Time & Famous Poems Illustrated (1940) and Further Fables for Our Time (1956). December 8

John Milton, (1608; d.1674), British poet. His celebrated Areopagitica (1644) is among history's most influential and impassioned defences of free speech and freedom of the press. Wrote the epic poem Paradise Lost (1667). December 9

Emily [Elizabeth] Dickinson, (1830; d.1886), 'the Belle of Amherst' (Massachusetts), poet. The first volume of Dickinson's Poems, edited jointly by Mabel Loomis Todd and T. W. Higginson, appeared in November 1890. The Poems of Emily Dickinson (1955).  December 10

Naguib Mahfouz, (1911, d.2006), Egyptian novelist, playwright, and short-story writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He published 34 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie scripts, and five plays. The Cairo Trilogy (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Street.), Tharthara Fawq Al-Nīl (Adrift on the Nile, 1966), and Children of Gebelawi (1959, also known as Children of the Alley).  December 11

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, (1918; d.2008), Russian novelist, historian, and outspoken critic of the Soviet Union, awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature". One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962), The Gulag Archipelago (1973). December 11

Gustave Flaubert, (1821; d.1880), French novelist. Madame Bovary (1857), and his life-long Correspondence. December 12

Betty Smith, née Elisabeth Wehner, (1906; d.1972), American novelist and dramatist. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943), Joy in the Morning (1963). December 15

Jane Austen, (1775; d.1817), English novelist. Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1815), and Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1818. December 16

George Santayana, Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, (1863-1952), Spanish poet, novelist, and philosopher, known for famous sayings, such as "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it", and "Only the dead have seen the end of war." The Sense of Beauty (1896), The Life of Reason (five volumes, 1905–6), The Last Puritan (1935). December 16

Sir Noel Coward, (1899-1973), English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit and flamboyance, won an Academy Honorary Award in 1943 for his naval film drama, In Which We Serve, 1933 film adaptation won the Academy Award for Cavalcade (1931). The plays Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter and Blithe Spirit; a cabaret performer, performing his own songs, such as "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", "London Pride" and "I Went to a Marvellous Party", the movie Around the World in 80 Days (1956), and the comic novel, Pomp and Circumstance (1960).  December 16

Arthur C. Clarke, (1917-2008), futurist and science fiction writer. Winner of many Hugo and Nebula awards, and co-writer of the screenplay for the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Childhood's End (1953), A Fall of Moondust (1961), Rendezvous with Rama (1972) (Nebula Award winner, 1973; Hugo Award winner, 1974), The Fountains of Paradise (1979) (Hugo Award winner, 1979; and Nebula Award winner, 1980). December 16

Philip K. Dick, (1928-1982), Chicago-born novelist, short story writer, essayist and philosopher.  The Man in the High Castle (Hugo Award 1963), popular films based on his works include Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, The Adjustment Bureau, and Impostor. December 16

Ford Madox Ford, born Ford Hermann Hueffer, (1873; d.1939), very prolific English novelist, critic, biographer, and editor. The Good Soldier (1915), the Parade's End tetralogy (1924–28) and The Fifth Queen trilogy (1906–08). Ford founded The English Review (1908) and The Transatlantic Review (1924), publishing works by Thomas Hardy, H. G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, Henry James, May Sinclair, John Galsworthy and William Butler Yeats; and debuted works of Wyndham Lewis, D. H. Lawrence and Norman Douglas. December 17

Ossie Davis, (1917-2005), Georgia native, African-American actor, dramatist, screenwriter, and novelist who wrote the play Purlie Victorious (1961) and its musical adaptation Purlie (1970), and Paul Robeson: All-American. Directed the movie Cotton Comes to Harlem. December 18

Jean Genet, (1910-1986), French novelist and playwright. Novels include Querelle of Brest (1947), The Thief's Journal (1949), and Our Lady of the Flowers (1943); and the plays The Balcony (1957), The Blacks (1959), The Maids (1947) and The Screens (1964) which were later adapted into films. December 19

Sir Benjamin 'Dizzy' Disraeli, (1804; d.1881), 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, British Tory statesman, twice served as Prime Minister, and pioneer of the political novel. Vivian Grey (1826), The Young Duke (1831), Henrietta Temple (1837), Coningsby; or, The New Generation (1844), and Sybil; or, The Two Nations (1845).  December 21

Heinrich Boll, (1917-1985), German writer, and 1972 Nobel Prize for Literature for “his writing which through its combination of a broad perspective on his time and a sensitive skill in characterization has contributed to a renewal of German literature". Billiards at Half-past Nine (1959), And Never Said a Word (1953), The Bread of Those Early Years (1955), The Clown (1963), Group Portrait with Lady (1971), The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1974), and The Safety Net (1979). December 21

Juan Ramón Jiménez, (1881; d.1958), Spanish poet and journalist (born Andalusia), went into exile in Puerto Rico, where he settled in 1946. Received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956 "for his lyrical poetry, which in the Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity". The book Platero y yo (1917; "Platero and I"). His poetic output during his life was immense. Among his better known works are Sonetos espirituales 1914–1916 (1916; “Spiritual Sonnets, 1914–15”), Piedra y cielo (1919; “Stones and Sky”), Poesía, en verso, 1917–1923 (1923), Poesía en prosa y verso (1932; “Poetry in Prose and Verse”), Voces de mi copla (1945; “Voices of My Song”), and Animal de fondo (1947; “Animal at Bottom”). A quotation from Jiménez, "If they give you ruled paper, write the other way," is the epigraph to Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953). December 24

Carlos Castaneda, (1931-1998), U.S. mystic and writer. The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (1968); A Separate Reality (1971); and Journey to Ixtlan (1972). December 25

Henry Miller, (1891-1980), American writer. Tropic of Cancer (1934), Black Spring (1936), Tropic of Capricorn (1939) and The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy (1949–59). The publication of Miller's Tropic of Cancer in the United States in 1961 by Grove Press led to a series of obscenity trials that tested American laws on pornography. The U.S. Supreme Court, in Grove Press, Inc., v. Gerstein, citing Jacobellis v. Ohio (which was decided the same day in 1964), overruled the state court findings of obscenity and declared the book a work of literature; it was one of the notable events in what has come to be known as the sexual revolution. The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin holds a selection of Miller's watercolors. December 26

Manuel Puig, born Juan Manuel Puig Delledonne,  (1932-1990), Argentinian writer, lived in exile throughout most of his life. La traición de Rita Hayworth (1968) (Betrayed by Rita Hayworth), Boquitas pintadas (1969) (Heartbreak Tango), and El beso de la mujer araña (1976) (Kiss of the Spider Woman), which was adapted as the film Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), directed by the Argentine-Brazilian director Héctor Babenco; and as the Broadway musical Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993). December 28

[Joseph] Rudyard Kipling, (1865; d.1936), English author (born Bombay, India), 1907 Nobel prize for Literature "In consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author.". His works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888).[3] His poems include "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If—" (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story. December 30

Paul Bowles, (1910; d.1999), New York-born novelist, short story writer, composer, and travel writer who spent many years in Morocco. The Sheltering Sky (1949), collection of short stories A Little Stone (John Lehmann, London, August 1950), . His light opera The Wind Remains, based on a poem by Federico García Lorca, was performed in 1943 with choreography by Merce Cunningham and conducted by Leonard Bernstein. His translation of Sartre's play Huis Clos ("No Exit"), directed by John Huston, won a Drama Critic's Award in 1943. The score of his 1955 opera Yerma receives much radio-play, and he made field recordings from 1959 to 1961 of traditional Moroccan music. December 30