August 14

Born:

1863 - Ernest Thayer
American writer and poet who wrote "Casey at the Bat."

1867 - John Galsworthy
English novelist and playwright; winner of the 1932 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his distinguished art of narration which takes it's highest form in The Forsyte Saga."

1925 - Russell Baker 
American writer who won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize in Biography for his autobiography Growing Up.

1926 - René Goscinny
French comics writer who is most well known for the Astérix books, which he co-wrote with Albert Underzo.

1940 - Alexei Panshin
American science fiction author, winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards.

1945 - Steve Martin
American banjoist who also writes books and does some other stuff.

1947 - Danielle Steel
The pen name of Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel, an American drama and romance novelist. You probably haven't heard of her. She's kind of indie.

1950 - Gary Larson
The cartoonist responsible for The Far Side. Having voiced himself in The Simpsons does not make him any less my hero.





Died:
1956 - Bertolt Brecht
1973 - Fred Gipson
1984 - J.B. Priestly
1994 - Elias Canetti
1994 - Alice Childress
2004 - Czesław Miłosz