July 14

Born:

1860 - Owen Wister
American author and "Father of the Western," with novels like The Virginian. He also wrote non-fiction and biographies.

1903 - Irving Stone
American writer who specialized in biographical fiction. Most known for his books on Vincent Van Gogh (Lust For Life) and Michelangelo (The Agony and the Ecstasy.)

1921 - Leon Garfield
British author of historical fiction for children, mostly set in the 18th and 19th century.

1927 - Peggy Parish
American author of the children's series Amelia Bedelia.

1931 - E.V. Thompson
Retired English police officer and author of historical novels

1936 - Pema Chödrön
American Buddhist nun, author and teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage.

1940 - Susan Howatch
English author of historical and domestic fiction, often with religious and philosophical themes.

1943 - Christopher Priest
British author of fiction and fantasy, known for works like The Prestige, which was adapted into the 2006 movie of the same name.

1953 - Laura Numeroff
American children's author, best known as the author of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

1958 - Joe Keenan
American screenwriter and author, sometimes referred to as a "gay P.D. Wodehouse."

1966 - Brian Selznick
American author and illustrator of children's books. Won the Caldecott Medal in 2008 for The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

1976 - Ranj Dhaliwal
An Indo-Canadian author whose 2006 novel Daaku was controversial for breaking the code of silence in the Indo-Canadian community.




Died:
1817 - Germaine de Staël
1936 - Dhan Gopal Mukerji
1954 - Jacinto Benavente
1984 - Ernest Tidyman