July 12

Born:

1817 - Henry David Thoreau
American author, poet and philosopher, best known for his works Walden and Civil Disobedience.

1904 - Pablo Neruda
The pen name and , later, legal name of the Chilean poet Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. Many people are familiar with his work.

1933 - Donald Westlake
American writer of crime fiction. He also wrote under many pseudonyms.

1944 - Delia Ephron
American author, screenwriter and playwright; sister of Nora Ephron.

1951 - Joan Bauer
American author of young adult literature whose book Hope Was Here won a Newbery Honor in 2001.

1967 - Adam Johnson
American novelist and short story writer; winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.




Died:
1946 - Ray Stannard Baker
1992 - Caroline Pafford Miller
2001 - Fred Marcellino
2010 - James P. Hogan
2010 - Harvey Pekar
2012 - Else Minarik