September 30

Born:

1898 - Edgar Parin d'Aulaire
Swiss-born American author of children's book, who worked as a team with his wife Ingri.

1924 - Truman Capote
American author and playwright responsible for many modern classics.

1927 - W.S. Merwin
American poet, winner of the Pulitzer prize for Poetry in 1979 and 2009, and the 17th US Poet Laureate.

1928 - Elie Wiesel
Romanian-born Jewish-American writer, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. Author of 57 books including his most well-known, Night.

1929 - Carol Fenner
American author of children's books, winner of the Coretta Scott King and the Christopher Awards.

1937 - Jurek Becker
Polish-born German writer, whose most famous work is Jacob the Liar, which has been made into two different movies.

1950 - Laura Esquivel
Mexican author most well known for her first novel, Like Water for Chocolate.

1953 - S.M. Stirling 
 French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels

1960 - Nicola Griffith
British science fiction author, winner of the World Fantasy Award and the Nebula Award, among others.

1985 - Téa Obreht
Belgrade-born American novelist whose first novel, The Tiger's Wife, won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2011.

Died:
1987 - Alfred Bester

1990 - Patrick White

1998 - Robert Lewis Taylor

2010 - Stephen J. Cannell