April 30

Born:

1877 - Alice B. Toklas
American-born member of the early 20th century Parisian literary scene; lifelong companion of Gertrude Stein.





1888 - John Crowe Ransom
American poet, winner of a National Book Award for Poetry in 1964.

1938 - Larry Niven
American science fiction writer, best known for his Ringworld novels.

1945 - Annie Dillard
American author whose work Pilgrim at Tinker Creek won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

1971 - John Boyne
Irish author of novels for both adults and younger readers.

1973 - Naomi Novik
American science fiction fantasy writer best known for her Temeraire series.





Died:
1795 - Jean-Jacques Barthélemy
1936 - A.E. Housman
1966 - Richard Fariña
1994 - Richard Scarry
2006 - Jean-François Revel

April 29

Born:

1908 - Jack Williamson
Early American science fiction writer.

1920 - Edward Blishen
English author best known for his children's novels based on Greek mythology.

1926 - Elmer Kelton
American writer, primarily of western novels.

1937 - Jill Paton Walsh
English novelist and children's book writer.

1947 - Yusef Komunyakaa
American poet, winner of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

1952 - David Icke
English writer and conspiracy theorists. All about the lizard people.

1953 - Nicole Rubel
American illustrator of children's books; known for Rotten Ralph.

1960 - Robert J. Sawyer
Canadian science fiction writer, winner of many awards in the genre.

Died:

1951 - Ludwig Wittgenstein

1979 - Hardie Gramatky
2011 - Joanna Russ

April 28

Born:

1919 - Antonio Frasconi
Uruguayan-American artist and Caldecott Honor recipient.

1926 - Harper Lee
American author known for her only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, which won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Literature.

1934 - Lois Duncan
American author of children's and young adult books.

1934 - Diane Johnson
American writer whose novels often feature American heroines living abroad in France.

1944 - Alice Waters
American chef and author, founder of the Berkeley, California restaurant Chez Panisse.

1946 - Kit Williams
English artist, illustrator and author best known for his 1979 real-life treasure hunt book Masquerade.

1947 - Christian Jacq
French author and Egyptologist.

1948 - Terry Pratchett
British author of comic fantasy, particularly the Discworld series.

1953 - Roberto Bolaño
Chilean novelist and poet.

1960 - Ian Rankin
Scottish crime writer, author of the Inspector Rebus series.

1965 - Jennifer Rardin
American author of urban fantasy novels, known for the Jaz Parks series.



Died:
1976 - Richard Hughes
1992 - Iceberg Slim
1994 - Berton Roueché
1997 - Anne Petry
2000 - Penelope Fitzgerald

April 27

Born:

1737 - Edward Gibbon
English historian and Member of Parliament, known for his major work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

1759 - Mary Wollstonecraft
British writer and woman's rights advocate; mother of Mary Shelley.

1898 - Ludwig Bemelmans
Austria-Hungary born American writer, best known for the Madeline children's books.

1904 - Cecil  Day-Lewis
Anglo-Irish poet; Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968 to 1972. Father of the actor Daniel Day-Lewis.

1913 - Irving Adler
American author of science books, primarily for children, some under the name Robert Irving.

1926 - Tim LaHaye
American evangelical Christian minister and author, best known for the Left Behind series of books which he co-authored with Jerry B. Jenkins.

1934 - Jean Valentine
American poet; New York Poet Laureate from 2008-2010 and 2004 National Book Award winner.

1942 - Ruth Glick
American author of cookbooks, romance and young adult novels, some under the pseudonym Rebecca York.




Died:
1882 - Ralph Waldo Emerson
1927 - Albert J. Beveridge
1932 - Hart Crane
1998 - Carlos Castaneda
2017 - Peter Spier

April 26

Born:

1564 - William Shakespeare (baptised)
Shakespeare's birth date isn't actually known (although it's commonly celebrated on April 23rd), but he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26th.

1785 - John James Audubon
French-American ornithologist and painter, known for his book The Birds of America.

1889 - Anita Loos
American author ad screenwriter best known for her comic novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and the movie it spawned.

1889 - Ludwig Wittgenstein
Austrian-British philosopher who worked in logic, mind and language.

1898 - Vincente Aleixandre
Spanish poet, winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize for Literature "for a creative poetic writing which illuminates man's condition in the cosmos and in present-day society, at the same time representing the great renewal of the traditions of Spanish poetry between the wars."

1912 - A.E. van Vogt
American "Golden Age" science fiction writer.

1914 - Bernard Malamud
American novelist, popularly best known for the book The Natural and it's film adaptation.

1935 - Patricia Reilly Giff
American children's author, two-time Newbery Honor winner.

1946 - Marilyn Nelson
American poet and children's author.

1966 - Natasha Trethewey
American poet; U.S. Poet Laureate since 2012 and 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner.





Died:
1910 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
1926 - Armstrong Sperry
1991 - A.B. Guthrie Jr.
2004 - Hubert Selby Jr.

April 25

Born:

1873 - Walter De La Mare
English poet and writer, best remembered for his children's stories.

1892 - Maud Hart Lovelace
American author best known for her Betsy-Tacy series.

1914 - Ross Lockridge Jr.
American novelist whose Raintree County is a contender for Great American Novel. 

1933 - J. Anthony Lukas
American journalist and author pf the 1985 book Common Grounds: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families.

1939 - Ted Kooser
American poet, U.S. Poet Laureate from 2004-2006.

1961 - Dinesh D'Souza
Indian-born American conservative political commentator.

Died:

1878 - Anna Sewell
1968 - R. Carlyle Buley

1988 - Clifford D. Simak

2010 - Alan Sillitoe

April 24

Born:

1815 - Anthony Trollope
English Victorian-era novelist, known for his novels set around the fictional county of Barsetshire.






1845 - Carl Spitteler
Swiss poet, winner of the 1919 Nobel Prize for Literature "in special appreciation of his epic, Olympian Spring."

1900 - Elizabeth Goudge
English author of novels and children's books.

1905 - Robert Penn Warren 
American novelist and poet; winner of the Pulitzer Prize in both of those genres.

1908 - George Oppen
American poet, 1969 Pulitzer Prize winner.

1911 - Evaline Ness
American children's book author; winner of the 1967 Caldecott Medal for Sam, Bangs and Moonshine.

1923 - Doris Burn
American children's book author and Illustrator from the Pacific northwest.

1924 - Clement Freud
English writer, politician and chef, known for the children's book Grimble.

1934 - Shirley MacLaine
American actress and author of many new-agey autobiographies.

1939 - Brian Garfield
American writer who has won awards in both fiction and non-fiction genres.

1940 - Sue Grafton
American mystery author, particularly the Kinsey Millhone "alphabet series."




Died:
1731 - Daniel DeFoe
1942 - Lucy Maude Montgomery
1947 - Willa Cather
2017 - Robert M. Pirsig