It’s the birthday of Sir William Golding (1911-1993), author of Lord of the Flies (1954), winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1983), and lifelong proponent that “man produces evil as a bee produces honey.” Golding was born in the village of St. Columb Minor near the coastal town of Newquay in Cornwall, England. He [...]
It’s the birthday of one of the most important intellectual and literary figures of the 18th century, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784). Johnson wrote everything from essays to biography to poetry but is best known for his Dictionary of the English Language. Johnson was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England, and had lifelong health problems after contracting tuberculosis [...]
Today is the birthday of William Carlos Williams (1883-1963), one of those people who thought he could be both a successful doctor and a brilliant poet and writer, and who turned out to be right. Among his accomplishments were becoming chief of pediatrics at a general hospital in Paterson, New Jersey, winning the National Book [...]
Today is the birthday of Irish novelist and short story author Bernard MacLaverty (b. 1942), whose novels have been called quietly brilliant and whose first novel in 16 years, Midwinter Break, just came out in 2017. MacLaverty’s novels have been shortlisted for many major awards, including the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Novel Award. MacLaverty [...]
Today is the birthday of such an array of fascinating and important authors that one is tempted to give up and go hide with a good book. It’s the birthday of one of the big ones, Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), best known for his novel Robinson Crusoe, sometimes called the first English novel (but them’s fightin’ [...]
It’s the birthday of one of science fiction’s most prominent authors, Stanisław Lem (1921-2006), whose first name required me to figure out how to get a Polish “L with stroke” out of my keyboard, so that’s six or seven minutes of my life I’m not getting back. Lem is best known for his novels Solaris [...]
It’s the birthday of famed short story author O. Henry (1862-1910), known for writing stories with a *twist* at the end, such as occurs in one of his most famous and beloved stories, “The Gift of the Magi.” Henry was born William Sidney Porter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and began his working life in his [...]
Today is the birthday of poet Mary Oliver (b. 1935), whose poetry usually focuses on the natural world and who has been called one of America’s finest poets (and best-selling poets). Oliver was born in Maple Heights, Ohio, a few miles southeast of Cleveland. She had a deeply unhappy childhood (abusive father, neglectful mother), and [...]
Today is the birthday of Elinor Morton Wylie (born Elinor Hoyt, 1885-1928), whose novels and poetry were very popular in her short lifetime, though she was as famous for her “ethereal beauty and personality” as she was for her literary works. (I struggle with that too. It’s a burden.) Wylie was born in Somerville, New [...]
It’s quite possibly the birthday of Jennifer Egan (b. 1962—sources vary as to whether she was born on the 6th or 7th), whose 2010 novel, A Visit from the Good Squad, won the Pulitzer, and who may be the greatest living writer ever to receive a marriage proposal from Steve Jobs. Egan was born in [...]
It’s the birthday of novelist Frank Garvin Yerby (1916-1991), whose books sold more than 60 million copies, mostly historical novels set in the antebellum South. Like Richard Wright from yesterday’s post, Yerby got fed up with American racism after WWII and eventually settled in Europe—in Yerby’s case, Madrid, Spain. But the two authors were otherwise [...]
It’s the birthday of Richard Wright (1908-1960), whose novel Native Son (1940) was one of the first major novels by a black author to protest racism and thus established Wright as the father of black American literature (though James Baldwin would take issue with that). Native Son was also both the first bestseller and the [...]