March 24

Born:

1855 - Olive Schreiner
South African author best remembered for The Story of an African Farm.

1916 - Donald Hamilton
American author of pulp spy fiction, notably his Matt Helm series.

1919 - Lawrence Ferlinghetti
American poet and founder of San Francisco's City Lights Booksellers & Publishers.

1920 - Mary Stolz
American children's author, two-time Newbery Honor winner.

1923 - Michael Legat
British author of romance novels and guides for writers.

1924 - Vincent Cronin
British author of cultural histories and biography. Son of the novelist A.J. Cronin.

1926 - Dario Fo
Italian playwright, actor, director, and winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature because he "emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden."

1970 - Erica Kennedy
African-American author, journalist and singer.





Died:
1882 - Henry W. Longfellow
1905 - Jules Verne
1993 - John Hersey