Monday, November 30, 2015

November 30

Born:



1667 - Jonathan Swift
Anglo-Irish writer, now known for works like Gulliver's Travels.








1817 - Theodore Mommsen
German classicist; winner of the 1902 Nobel Prize in Literature as "the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work A History of Rome."



1835 - Mark Twain
Pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, American author and humorist.








1874 - Winston Churchill
British politician and leader who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values."







1874 - L.M. Montgomery
Canadian author of the Anne of Green Gables series.








1906 - John Dickson Carr
American author of "Golden Age" mysteries.








1931 - Margot Zemach
American illustrator of children's books, winner of the 1974 Caldecott medal for Duffy and the Devil.







1940 - Kevin Phillips
American writer and political commentator.






Died:
1900 - Oscar Wilde
1972 - Compton Mackenzie
1997 - Kathy Acker
1998 - Margaret Walker
2000 - Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Sunday, November 29, 2015

November 29

Born:



1832 - Louisa May Alcott
American novelist best known for her work Little Women.








1898 - C.S. Lewis
Irish novelist and writer known for both his fiction and his non-fiction, but primarily for The Chronicles of Narnia.







1918 - Madeline L'Engle
American novelist primarily known for the Newbery Medal winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels.







1943 - Sue Miller
American author whose While I Was Gone was an Oprah's Book Club pick in 2000.







1956 - Leo Laporte
American podcast netcast host and author.




Died:
1991 - Frank Yerby
2001 - John Knowles

Saturday, November 28, 2015

November 28

Born:



1628 - John Bunyan
English Christian writer and preacher, known for his book The Pilgrim's Progress.








1757 - William Blake
English poet of the Romantic Age.








1864 - James Allen
English philosophical author and founder of the self-help movement.








1904 - Nancy Mitford
English novelist and biographer who wrote about upper-class life in England and France.







1931 - Ed Young
Chinese-born author and illustrator of children's books; three-time winner of the Caldecott award.







1944 - Rita Mae Brown
American mystery writer whose main series is "coauthored" with her cat, Sneaky Pie Brown.







1948 - Alan Lightman
American physicist and science writer, whose Einstein's Dreams became a bestseller, translated into 30 languages.



1962 - Jon  Stewart
American political satirist and comedian.




Died:
1859 - Washington Irving
1960 - Richard Wright
1968 - Enid Blyton
2003 - Antonia Forest
2012 - Zig Ziglar

Friday, November 27, 2015

November 27

Born:



1894 - Katherine Milhous
American author and illustrator best known for The Egg Tree, which won the 1951 Caldecott Medal.



1907 - L. Sprague de Camp
American author of science fiction, non-fiction and biography








1909 - James Agee
American writer and critic whose autobiographical novel A Death in the Family won him a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1958.







1933 - Gordon S. Wood
American historian; winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize in History for The Radicalism of the American Revolution.



1937 - Gail Sheehy
American author and journalist, best known for her book Passages.








1942 - Marilyn Hacker
American poet who won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1974.



1957 - Michael Stackpole
American science fiction and fantasy author who writes within the Star Wars and Battletech series.







1960 - Kevin Henkes
American children's book author and illustrator who has won both the Caldecott and Newbery awards.







1964 - David Rakoff
Canadian-born writer known for his humorous, self-deprecating essays.




Died:
8 BC - Horace
1895 - Alexandre Dumas (fils)
1953 - Eugene O'Neill
1999 - Elizabeth Gray Vining
2000 - Malcolm Bradbury

Thursday, November 26, 2015

November 26

Born:



1919 - Frederik Pohl
Prolific American science fiction writer, known for his series and collaborations.







1922 - Charles Schulz
American cartoonist, famous for his long-running Peanuts cartoons.








1943 - Marilynne Robinson
American novelist who won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her book Gilead.








1949 - David Poyer
American retired naval officer and author, known for his sea fiction.








1953- Jonathan Weiner
American science writer who won the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction in 1995 for The Beak of the Finch.



1971 - Vicki Petterson
American urban fantasy author, author of the Las Vegas-based Zodiac series.




Died:
1997 - Marguerite Henry
2005 - Stan Berenstain

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

November 25

Born:



1893 - Joseph Wood Krutch
American writer and naturalist whose The Measure of Man won the 1955 National Book Award for Nonfiction.




1895 - Helen Hooven Santmeyer
American author of novels and poetry, whose And Ladies of the Club was a bestseller.



1904 - Ba Jin
Pen name of Chinese writer Li Feigan, one of the most important Chinese writers of the 20th century.







1909 - P.D. Eastman
American screenwriter and children's author.








1926 - Poul Andersen
American science fiction author, winner of seven Hugo and three Nebula awards.







1946 - Marc Brown
American children's book author, creator of the Arthur series.





1951 - Charlaine Harris
American mystery author, famous for her Southern Vampire series and it's protagonist Sookie Stackhouse.



1951 - Arturo PĂ©rez-Reverte
Spanish novelist and journalist, best known for his Alatriste series.








1952 - Crescent Dragonwagon
American author (born Ellen Zolotow) who primarily writes cookbooks and childrens's books.







1953 - Mark Frost
American writer, known in the television world for Twin Peaks and Hill Street Blues, and in the literature world for fiction and golf books.




Died:
1950 - Johannes Vilhelm Jensen
1968 - Upton Sinclair
1970 - Yukio Mishima

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

November 24

Born:



1713 - Laurence Sterne
Anglo-Irish novelist and clergyman, best known for his novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.









1849 - Frances H. Burnett
English playwright and author whose children's stories like The Secret Garden are considered classics.







1888 - Dale Carnegie
American writer and lecturer whose most famous work is How to Win Friends and Influence People.







1925 - William F Buckley Jr.
American conservative author, who founded the magazine National Review.








1935 - Mordecai Gerstein
American children's book author and illustrator, winner of the 2004 Caldecott Medal for The Man Who Walked Between the Towers.



1948 - Spider Robinson
American born Canadian science fiction author.









1961 - Arundhati Roy
Indian author and political activist, best known for her 1997 book The God of Small Things.







1975 - Thomas Kohnstamm
American author and travel writer.





Died:
1980 - Herbert Agar
1990 - Dodie Smith
2004 - Arthur Hailey
2004 - Joseph Hansen