August 9

Born:

1593 - Izaak Walton
English writer and fisherman, best known for the book The Compleat Angler.

1896 - Jean Piaget
Swiss developmental psychologist known for his studies of children and cognitive development.

1899 - P.L. Travers
Australian-born novelist whose series of books about the magical English nanny Mary Poppins were adapted many times, into film and on stage.

1914 - Tove Jansson
Finnish novelist and cartoonist, best known for the Moomin books.

1922 - Philip Larkin 
English poet and novelist, whose poetry could be described as stereotypically British.

1927 - Daniel Keyes
American author best known for his Hugo and Nebula-winning work Flowers for Algernon.

1927 - Robert Shaw
English actor (From Russia With Love Bond villain) and novelist.

1941 - Shirlee Busbee 
American romance author whose first published work was in 1977, and is still writing today.

1944 - Pat McKissack 
American children's writer, who has written in the Dear America series.

1945 - Barbara Delinsky 
American writer of romantic suspense novels, nine of whose books have been on the New York Times Bestseller List. She has also written under the pen names Bonnie Drake and Billie Douglass.

1947 - John Varley
American science fiction author , sometimes compared to Robert Heinlein.

1949 - Jonathan Kellerman
American author of suspense novels, whose main series feature the characters Alex Delaware and Petra Connor respectively.

1973 - Gene Yang
Chinese American author of graphic novels and comics.




Died:
1919 - Ernst Haeckel
1962 - Hermann Hesse
1978 - James Gould Cozzens
2005 - Judith Rossner
2012 - David Rakoff