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 book banning and serves on the board of the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC). (N.B.: It does seem odd that the NCAC capitalizes the “Against” in their name, since “against” is a preposition and should not be capitalized in titles. I am not trying to silence the NCAC in pointing this out, merely gently correcting them.)

Blume was born Judy Sussman in 1938 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and studied education at New York University, marrying attorney John Blume in 1959. She had two children and started writing, and in 1970 published Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret to huge acclaim. The book focuses on Margaret’s fears about starting (or not starting) her period and her thoughts on religion, and yes, this is one of Blume’s oft-banned books due to her frank handling of menstruation. (It’s understandable that people found this disturbing, given that at the time of publication women had only been menstruating for somewhere between 200,000 to 2.8 million years, depending on how you count things.) Between then and now, Blume has published nearly thirty books, selling more than 85 million copies in 32 languages.

Fun fact: if you go to Blume’s website, you can click on the title of a book and learn about Blume’s inspiration for the book. For example, Tiger Eyes, which deals with the tragic loss of a loved one, was inspired by Blume’s own father’s sudden death when Blume was just 21. She was close to her father and was with him when he died of a heart attack; Blume writes, “I still can’t write this without choking up, remembering.”

Blume and her first husband divorced, and she is now married to George Cooper, with whom she founded and runs a bookstore in Key West. She was awarded the Library of Congress’ Living Legends Award in 2000, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2004, and the E.B. White Award for achievement in children’s literature (American Academy of Arts and Letters) in 2017.

It is also the birthday of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, both born in 1809. According to smithsonianmag.com, there’s no evidence that either ever mentioned the other by name in writing, so we can surmise they never got together for a joint birthday celebration. Darwin did rail against slavery and was certainly aware of what the president of the U.S. was up to. Lincoln did not pay much attention to Darwin’s work, but then, he had his hands full.

Have the best Monday possible and stay scrupulously honest to the data.