May 24

Born:

1892 - Elizabeth Foreman Lewis
American children's author who won the 1933 Newbery Award for Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze.

1898 - Kathleen Hale
British children's author known for the the Orlando the Marmalade Cat books.

1905 - Mikhail Shokolov
Soviet Russian novelist, winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the artistic power and integrity with which, in his epic of the Don, he has given expression to a historic phase in the life of the Russian people."

1940 - Joseph Brodsky
Russian poet and essayist; winner of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature "for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity."

1963 - Michael Chabon
American author whose The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

1968 - Mo Willems
American children's book author and illustrator, best known for his Pigeon books.





Died:
2002 - Wallace Markfield
2015 - Tanith Lee

May 23

Born:

1891 - Pär Lagerkvist

Swedish author; winner of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the artistic vigour and true independence of mind with which he endeavours in his poetry to find answers to the eternal questions confronting mankind."

1898 - Scott O'Dell
American author primarily of young adult fiction; best known for the 1961 Newbery Award winning Island of the Blue Dolphins.

1910 - Margaret Wise Brown
American author of classic children's books.

1918 - Walter Jackson Bate
American literary critic known for two Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies, of John Keats and Samuel Johnson.

1921 - James Blish
American science fiction and fantasy author.

1933 - Joan Collins
British soap opera actress and author.

1935 - Susan Cooper
English-born American author of children's books, best known for The Dark Is Rising series.

1936 - Peter Parnall
American children's author and illustrator.

1958 - Mitch Albom
American author whose books often have an inspirational theme.

1958 - Paul Street
American journalist, author and political commentator.

1967 - Sean Williams
Australian NYT bestselling science fiction author.





Died:
1906 - Henrik Ibsen
1988 - Aya Kitō

2021 - Eric Carle

May 22

Born:

1859 - Arthur Conan Doyle
Scottish physician and writer, most well known for his Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

1907 - Hergé
Pen name of Belgian comic book artist Georges Prosper Remi, creator of The Adventures of Tintin series.

1914 - Vance Packard
American journalist and author who wrote a popular series exploring topics of sociology.

1927 - Peter Matthiessen
American novelist and wilderness writer, co-founder of The Paris Review.

1933 - Arnold Lobel
American children s author known for the Frog and Toad books.

1934 - Gary Willis
american author, journalist and historian whose book Lincoln at Gettysburg won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-fiction.




Died:
1885 - Victor Hugo
1967 - Langston Hughes
1970 - Joseph Wood Krutch
1972 - Cecil Day-Lewis
2008 - Robert Asprin
2010 - Martin Gardner
2018 - Philip Roth

May 21

Born:

1688 - Alexander Pope
English poet best known for his use of satirical verse.

1916 - Harold Robbins
American author of popular novels; some known for their graphic sexuality.

1944 - Janet Dailey
American author of romance novels, with many different series.

1948 - Elizabeth Buchan
British writer of both fiction and non-fiction.





Died:
1926 - Ronald Firbank
2000 - Barbara Cartland

May 20

Born:

1799 - Honore de Balzac
French novelist and playwright, one of the founders of European realism.

1830 - Hector Malot
French novelist now best known for his 1878 work Sans Famille (Nobody's Boy.)

1882 - Sigrid Undset
Norwegian novelist and author of Kristen Lavransdattar; winner of the 1928 Nobel Prize in Literature "principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages"

1890 - Allan Nevins
American historian and biographer, winner of the 1933 Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Grover Cleveland.

1949 - Mary Pope Osborne
American children's book author known for her Magic Tree House series.

1956 - Douglas Preston
American author of thriller novels; often with collaborator Lincoln Child.

1963 - Christopher Sorrentino
American novelist of Puerto Rican descent.

1969 - Jon Meacham
American author and editor, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer in Biography for American Lion: Andrew Johnson in the White House.




Died:
1940 - Verner von Heidenstam
1956 - Max Beerbohm
1960 - Audrey Wurderman
2002 - Stephen Jay Gould

May 19

Born:
1886 - Bernadotte Everly Schmitt
American historian, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History for The Coming of the War, 1914.

1903 - Ernest Samuels
American biographer and lawyer, winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Biography for his work on Bernard Berenson.

1909 - T. Harry Williams
American historian, Pulitzer Prize in Biography winner for his bio of Huey Long.

1932 - Paul Erdman
American author of novels based on the business and financial world.

1933 - Tom Feelings
American children's author and illustrator whose most famous book is The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo.

1934 - Ruskin Bond
Indian writer of British descent who wrote for both a children's and adult audience.

1941 - Nora Ephron
American writer of romantic comedy screenplays and collections of personal essays.

1966 - Jodi Picoult
American author, some of whose works have been made into films or TV movies.




Died:
1795 - James Boswell
1864 - Nathaniel Hawthorne
1935 - T.E. Lawrence
1946 - Booth Tarkington
1971 - Ogden Nash
1987 - James, Jr. Tiptree

May 18

Born:

1048 - Omar Khayyám
Persian polymath and poet; known in literature for his collection of poetry that translator Edward FitzGerald titled the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám.





1879 - Henry James
American writer who won Pulitzer for a biography of Charles W. Eliot. Son of William James and nephew of Henry James.

1872 - Bertrand Russell
British philosopher and social critic; winner of the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought"

1907 - Irene Hunt
American children's author whose book Up a Road Slowly won the 1967 Newbery Medal.

1925 - Lillian Hoban
American children's writer and illustrator

1930 - Fred Saberhagen
American science fiction and fantasy author best known for his Berserker series.

1952 - Diane Duane
American science fiction and fantasy author who writes in the Star Trek universe, as well as her own settings.

1957 - Lionel Shriver
American journalist and author; born Margaret Ann Shriver. Winner of the 2005 Orange Prize.




Died:
1849 - James Truslow Adams
1909 - George Meredith
1981 - William Saroyan
2001 - Irene Hunt