October 20

Born:

1854 - Arthur Rimbaud
French poet, most of whose works were created while he was still in his late teens.

1891 - Samuel Flagg Bemis
American historian and biographer, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes - one in history and one in biography.

1905 - Frederic Dannay
Alias of American writer Daniel Nathan, who with his cousin Manford Lepofsky (alias Manfred Bennington Lee) wrote as the fictional detective Ellery Queen.

1925 - Art Buchwald
American humorist best known for his long-running column in the Washington Post.










1940 - Robert Pinsky
American poet and translator, who was the United States Poet Laurate from 1997 to 2000.

1946 - Lewis Grizzard
American writer and humorist, known for his southern demeanor.

1946 - Elfriede Jelinek
Austrian playwright and novelist; winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that, with extraordinary linguistic zeal, reveal the absurdity of society's cliches and their subjugating power."

1955 - David Profumo
English novelist and 6th Baron Profumo.

1957 - Gennifer Choldenko
American children's author whose book Al Capone Does My Shirts won a 2005 Newbery Honor.

1958 - Lynn Flewelling
American fantasy author.




Died:
1890 - Sir Richard Francis Burton
2004 - Anthony Hecht
2010 - Eva Ibbotson