June 2

Born:

1740 - Marquis de Sade
French aristocrat and writer known as a sexual libertine.

1840 - Thomas Hardy
English novelist of the Victorian realist school.





1857 - Karl Adolph Gjellerup
Danish poet and novelist; co-winner of the 1917 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his varied and rich poetry, which is inspired by lofty ideals."

1899 - Edwin Way Teale
American naturalist whose Wandering Through Winter won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-fiction in 1966.

1907 - Dorothy West
American novelist and writer of the Harlem Renaissance, best known for her book The Living is Easy.

1913 - Barbara Pym
English novelist, once called "the most underrated writer of the century."

1929 - Norton Juster
American architect and author of children's books, notably The Phantom Tollbooth.

1934 - Anita Lobel
Polish-American illustrator of children's book, whose memoir No Pretty Pictures was a finalist for the 1998 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.








1935 - Carol Shields
American-born Canadian author whose 1993 novel The Stone Diaries won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

1965 - Jim Knipfel
American writer whose series of memoirs chronicle his retinal pigmentosis.

1965 - Sean Stewart
U.S.-Canadian science fiction and fantasy author.

1975 - Salvatore Scibona
American novelist and short story writer whose book The End was a 2008 National Book Award finalist.




Died:
1962 - Vita Sackville-West
1996 - Leon Garfield
2009 - David Eddings