It’s the birthday of Hortense Calisher (1911-2009, #nicelonglife), whose fiction explored “the isolation within families that cannot be avoided yet cannot be faced” and whose style ranged from spare to complex in works ranging from very short to epic. Calisher’s work was a finalist for the National Book Award three times and an O. Henry [...]
NB: This is a re-post from two years ago because I have a soft spot for Saki. It’s the birthday of Scottish writer Hector Hugh Munro or H.H. Munro (1870-1916, #diedtooyoung), better known as Saki. Though he was born in Burma where his father was an officer with the police, Saki was mostly raised in [...]
It’s the birthday of two hugely influential science fiction authors who were both fond of their middle initials: Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008, #nicelonglife), best known for the film and novel 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and Philip K. Dick (1928-1982, #diedtooyoung), best known for the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), adapted into [...]
NB: This post was first published last year. Anyone who survives the Gulag to write brilliantly and courageously about it deserves a re-post. It’s the birthday of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008, #nicelonglifeinspiteofallthattimeinsovietprisoncamps), whose works of fiction and nonfiction brought international attention to conditions in the camps under Stalin, and no, we don’t mean the kind of [...]
It’s the birthday of British children’s book author Mary (Pearson) Norton (1903-1992, #nicelonglife), best known for her series on the Borrowers, a race of tiny people six inches tall who live secretly alongside humans and “borrow” from them. The original book, The Borrowers (1952), won England’s Carnegie Medal, which recognizes outstanding books for children, and [...]
It’s the birthday of John Milton (1608-1674), who, while not often chosen as the person from history you’d most like to have dinner with, is hailed as the most important writer in the English language after Barbara Cartland. (Just kidding. Shakespeare. You knew that.) Milton was born in London to a father who’d been kicked [...]
NB: This is an update of last year's post, although really more of a backdate...you'll see what I mean. As far as I know, the Alfred Joyce Kilmer Memorial Bad Poetry Contest has not taken place yet this year. It’s the birthday of journalist and poet Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918, #diedtooyoung), best known for a single [...]
It’s the birthday of Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), often hailed as one of the greatest woman Victorian poets—they used to divide poets into man poets and woman poets—but more frequently hailed today as one of the great Victorian poets, period. (Back in the man poet/woman poet days, it used to be a thing to argue over [...]
Yesterday was the birthday of Rex Stout (1886-1975, #nicelonglife), author of the Nero Wolfe detective novels. The 46 novels (and numerous novellas) have sold 45 million copies in 22 languages. (Yes. I’m one day off, addled by all the turkey and stuffing I’ve ingested. Sue me.) Stout was born in Noblesville, Indiana, but grew up [...]