March 31

Born:

1823 - Mary Boykin Chestnut
American author from South Carolina known for her published Civil War Diary.

1912 - William Lederer
American author of both non-fiction and novels; noted for The Ugly American, which was adapted into the film of the same name.

1914 - Octavio Paz
Mexican poet and diplomat; winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature "for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity."

1924 - Leo Buscaglia
American author and motivational speaker, also known as "Dr. Love."

1926 - John Fowles
English author, possibly best known for his period romance The French Lieutenant's Woman.

1926 - Beni Montresor
Italian artist and children's book illustrator, winner of the 1965 Caldecott Medal for his work in May I Bring a Friend?

1932 - John Jakes
American writer best known for his American historical fiction.

1935 - Judith Rossner
American novelist whose 1975 book Looking for Mr. Goodbar is her most well known work.

1936 - Marge Piercy
American writer and political activist, author of the novel Gone to Soldiers.

1960 - Ian McDonald
British science fiction novelist known for his postcyberpunk fiction.




Died:
1855 - Charlotte Brontë
2002 - John Middleton Murry Jr.

March 30

Born:

1820 - Anna Sewell
English novelist whose only published work was Black Beauty.

1844 - Paul Verlaine
French poet associated with the Symbolist movement.

1895 - Jean Giono
French author whose novels were mostly set in the south of France.

1903 - Countee Cullen
American poet and leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance.

1924 - Alan Davidson
British diplomat also known for his food writing, in particular the editing of the Oxford Companion to Food.

1928 - Tom Sharpe
English satirical author best known for his Wilt novels.




Died:
1956 - Edmund Clerihew Bentley
1964 - Nella Larsen
1967 - Jean Toomer
2006 - John McGahern

March 29

Born:

1865 - Stephen Bonsal
American journalist, author and traveler, winner of the 1945 Pulitzer Prize in History.

1936 - Judith Guest
American novelist and screenwriter, best known for her book Ordinary People and it's film adaptation.

1952 - Jo-Ann Mapson
American author of fiction set in the Southwest.

1957 - Elizabeth Hand
American author of science fiction and fantasy, including various film and television tie-ins.

1961 - Amy Sedaris 
American comedian and author of various humor titles.





Died:
1957 - Joyce Cary

March 28

Born:

1868 - Maxim Gorky
Russian/Soviet writer founder of the Socialist Realism literary movement.

1909 - Nelson Algren
American writer, best known for his 1949 novel The Man with the Golden Arm, which was adapted into a movie starring Frank Sinatra.

1924 - Byrd Baylor
American author of children's books, four of which were Caldecott Honor books.

1936 - Mario Vargas Llosa
Peruvian-Spanish writer; recipient of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt and defeat."

1948 - Jayne Ann Krentz
American author of romance novels, who also writes under her maiden name, Jane Quick, and a pseudonym, Amanda Quick.

1968 - Iris Chang
American historian and journalist best known for her 1997 account of the Nanking Massacre, The Rape of Nanking.

1970 - Jennifer Weiner
American author, much of whose fiction deals with women's issues.

1977 - Lauren Weisberger 
American author of the 2003 best seller The Devil Wears Prada.




Died:
1941 - Virginia Woolf 
1993 - Scott Cunningham
2000 - Anthony Powell
2012 - Harry Crews
2013 - Robert V. Remini

March 27

Born:

1892 - Thorne Smith
American writer of humorous supernatural fantasy fiction; notably his two Topper novels, which were fairly racy for the 1930s.

1914 - Budd Schulberg
American novelist and screenwriter. Known more for his film work than his books, yet some of them were made into movies.

1922 - Barnaby Conrad
American artist and author, best known for his novel Matador.

1922 - Dick King-Smith
English author of children's books whose book The Sheep-Pig was published in the US as Babe The Gallant Pig, and adapted into the movie Babe.




1923 - Louis Simpson
Jamaican poet; winner of the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for At the End of the Open Road.

1926 - Frank O'Hara
American poet; winner of the 1972 National Book Award for Poetry.

1942 - Michael Jackson
English writer and journalist; well known for his books on beer and whisky.

1952 - Dana Stabenow
American author most popular for her mysteries, usually set in Alaska.

1955 - Patrick McCabe 
Irish author whose dark novels are set in modern-day Ireland.

1962 - Kevin J. Anderson
American science fiction author, working in the Star Wars universe in addition to his own works.




Died:
1918 - Henry Adams
1931 - Arnold Bennett
1987 - Martin Provensen
2006 - Stanisław Lem
2009 - Irving R. Levine
2012 - Adrienne Rich

March 26

Born:

1859 - A.E. Housman
English classical scholar and poet, best known for his A Shropshire Lad poems.

1874 - Robert Frost
American poet, winner of four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry.

1904 - Joseph Campbell
American writer and lecturer, known for his work in comparative mythology and religion.

1905 - Viktor Frankl
American neurologist and psychiatrist; his Man's Search for Meaning chronicles his time in a Nazi concentration camp.

1911 - Tenessee Williams
Pen name of Thomas Lanier Williams III, creator of many classics of American drama.

1930 - Gregory Corso
American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers.

1941 - Richard Dawkins
English evolutionary biologist, best known for his book The Selfish Gene and his outspoken views on religion.

1942 - Erica Jong
American author who pushed the boundaries of female sexuality with her 1973 novel Fear of Flying.

1943 - Bob Woodward
American journalist and author who, with Carl Bernstein, did much of the investigative reporting on the Watergate scandal.

1952 - T.A. Barron 
American author of fantasy literature for children and young adults.





Died:
1890? - B. Traven
1892 - Walt Whitman
1959 - Raymond Chandler
1969 - John Kennedy Toole
1979 - Jean Stafford
2000 - Alex Comfort
2011 - Diana Wynn Jones

March 25

Born:

1920 - Paul Scott
British writer, winner of the 1977 Booker Award for Staying On.

1925 - Flannery O'Connor
American author in the Southern Gothic style whose works dealt with questions of morality and ethics.

1934 - Gloria Steinem
American feminist and leader of the Women's Liberation movement in the 1960's and 70's.

1946 - Stephen Hunter
American author of thrillers, in particular the Bob Lee Swagger series. Won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for his film reviews.

1958 - Susie Bright
American "sex-positive feminist" author.

1960 - Linda Sue Park
American author of teen fiction who won the 2002 Newbery Medal for A Single Shard.

1964 - Kate DiCamillo
American writer of children's fiction, most notably Because of Winn-Dixie and The Tale of Despereaux, both of which were adapted into feature films.




Died:
1914 - Frédéric Mistral
1980 - James Wright

2021 - Beverly Cleary

        Larry McMurtry