It’s the birthday of Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), the Polish-born author who did not learn any English until his twenties and then went on to become one of the greatest novelists in the English language. (This is crazy hard to do. Attaining native-like proficiency in a second—actually Conrad’s third—language is nearly always impossible for someone who [...]
It’s the birthday of Nigerian author Chinua Achebe (1930-2013, #nicelonglifebutmaybenotlongenough), who began writing about Africa after becoming disillusioned in college about the novels that white authors were writing about Africa. His best-known novel is Things Fall Apart (1958), about the devastating effects of British colonialism on tribal Africa. The novel has been translated into 45 [...]
It’s the birthday of Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881), known as one of the greatest novelists in history and one of the greatest influences on all of 20th century literature. (You may know him from such works as Crime and Punishment, 1866; The Idiot, 1869; and The Brothers Karamazov, 1880.) Considered one of the most brilliant psychological [...]
It’s the birthday of British novelist, industrialist, and eccentric Henry Green (1905-1973), real name Henry Vincent Yorke, once famously called by The Paris Review a “writer’s writer’s writer.” You won’t have heard of him (five life points to you if I’m wrong), so here are a few folks who have: W.H. Auden called Green “the [...]
It’s the birthday of author and former Jesuit priest John L’Heureux (b. 1934), many of whose short stories and novels explore themes of divine intervention (or interference), sanctification, and the miraculous in ordinary human lives. L’Heureux was born in South Hadley, Massachusetts, to an engineer and a secretary, the second of two children. He trained [...]
It’s the birthday of Anne Tyler (b. 1941), an immensely popular novelist who never intended to be a writer. She’s written 22 novels and is best known for novels about family relationships in all their glory and dysfunction, such as Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1982), The Accidental Tourist (1985), and the Pulitzer-winning Breathing Lessons [...]
It’s the birthday of Louis Auchincloss (1917-2010), estate lawyer and novelist who wrote over 60 books about the privileged upper crust old money Manhattan world he hailed from. (Think of Auchincloss as a male Edith Wharton, only less so.) Auchincloss was born on Long Island, New York, and raised on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. From [...]
It’s the birthday of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), known for his novels and stories about the Jazz Age, and particularly known for writing the novel zillions of American high school students are forced to read every year, The Great Gatsby (1925). I don’t think you’re allowed to call yourself an American if you haven’t read [...]
It’s the birthday of Stephen King (b. 1947), the King of Horror (ha—see what I did there? I’m sure I’m the first to think of that) and one of the bestselling authors of all time—the sort of author, in fact, that prompts one to google “bestselling authors of all time,” which I have done for [...]
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 [...]
It’s the birthday of Jayne Anne Phillips (b. 1952), renowned author of short stories and novels and often lumped in with the likes of Raymond Carver, Bobbie Ann Mason, Richard Ford, and Tobias Wolff. Phillips was born in Buckhannon, West Virginia. Many of her stories are set in West Virginia and portray the loneliness and [...]