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 [...]
It’s the birthday of Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909), known for her stories set on the coast of Maine, and in particular for one slim novel—really more a series of loosely connected stories or sketches— The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896), which Henry James himself famously called a “beautiful little quantum of achievement.” Jewett was [...]