It’s the birthday of Carl Bernstein, the journalist who, along with Bob Woodward, broke the Watergate scandal that—SPOILER ALERT—led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Bernstein and Woodward, writing for The Washington Post, received the Pulitzer Prize for their trouble and chronicled their coverage in the bestselling All the President’s Men (1974). In 1976 [...]

It’s the birthday of the insanely prolific Belgian-French novelist Georges Simenon, best known for creating Inspector Maigret, featured in no fewer than 84 detective novels. Simenon wrote roughly 200 pulp novels pseudonymously and more than 200 more serious novels, making him probably the most widely published author of the last century, and could write a [...]

It’s the birthday of someone who frequently tops the American Library Association’s list of most banned authors, Judy Blume, known for such middle grade and young adult books as Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing; Then Again, Maybe I Won’t; and Blubber. Blume consequently has worked hard against [...]

It’s the birthday of Mo Willems (b. 1968), who as any young child can tell you is the author and illustrator of the wildly popular and funny Pigeon books, Elephant and Piggie books, and many others. Willems was raised in New Orleans and spent much of his youth drawing Snoopy and Charlie Brown, even writing [...]