January 17

Born:

1814 - Ellen Wood
English novelist, better known as Mrs. Henry Wood and known for her novel East Lynne.

1820 - Anne Brontë
British author and poet, and the youngest of the Brontë sisters.

1883 - Compton Mackenzie
Scottish writer best known for comedies like The Monarch of the Glen.

1886 - Ronald Firbank
British author of mostly short fiction.





1891 - Leonard D. White
American historian; posthumous winner of the 1958 Pulitzer Prize for History.

1899 - Neville Shute
British novelist and aeronautical engineer.

1914 - William Stafford
American poet; u.S. Poet Laureate in 1970 and Oregon Poet Laureate in 1975.

1925 - Robert Cormier
American author of young adult fiction, known for his oft-challenged book The Chocolate War.

1938 - John Bellairs
American author best known for his fantasy novel The Face in the Frost.

1962 - Sebastian Junger
American author and journalist, known for works like The Perfect Storm.

1967 - Wendy Mass
American author of children's and young adult novels.




Died:
1964 - T.H. White
1972 - Betty Smith
1984 - Marie Hall Ets
2001 - Gregory Corso
2002 - Camilo José Cela
2007 - Art Buchwald
2010 - Erich Segal