The Petrini Page

1689 – Mary Wortley Montagu (née Pierrepont), English poet, travel writer, letter writer, playwright, explorer, and aristocrat who is remembered for her works written during her travels to the Ottoman Empire; her writings address and challenge her society’s attitudes toward women’s intellectual growth. She is also known for introducing and advocating for smallpox inoculation in Britain after her return from Turkey.

1820 – Grímur Thomsen, Icelandic poet, writer, essayist, translator, and editor who is considered one of Iceland’s most important Romantic writers.

1833 – Sofie Podlipská (née Rottová), Czech writer of historical novels, juvenile works, and feminist literature.

1837 – Vanchinbalyn Injinash, Mongolian poet, novelist, short-story writer, and historian whose work is characterized by civic sentiments and strong social criticism.

1856 – L. Frank Baum, U.S. children’s author who created the classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its sequels.

1857 – Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming. Scottish astronomer and writer who helped develop a common designation system for stars and cataloged thousands of stars and other astronomical phenomena; among several career achievements that advanced astronomy, Fleming is noted for her discovery of the Horsehead Nebula in 1888. Most of her career was spent in the U.S.

1869 – Concha Espina (full name María de la Concepción Jesusa Basilisa Rodríguez-Espina y García-Tagle), Spanish novelist, writer, and journalist who was nominated for a Nobel prize in Literature 25 times.

1886 – Douglas Southall Freeman, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. historian, author, newspaper editor, and biographer who won Pulitzers for his four-volume biography of Robert E. Lee and his seven-volume biography of George Washington.

1890 – Katherine Ann Porter, Pulitzer Prize-winning and National Book Award-winning U.S. novelist, essayist, short-story writer, and political activist.

1891 – Mikhail Bulgakov, Ukrainian-born Russian writer and playwright, best known for his novel The Master and Margarita.

1891 – David Vogel, Ukrainian-born Jewish-Austrian poet, novelist, and diarist.

1900 – Fily Dabo Sissoko, Malian author, poet, and influential political leader who was a key writer of the Negritude Movement.

1903 – Luz Elisa Borja Martínez, Ecuadorian writer, poet, pianist, painter, composer, and sculptor.

1903 – Maria Reiche (full name Maria Reiche Grosse-Neumann), German-born Peruvian mathematician, archaeologist, author, and technical translator who became known as the “Lady of the Lines” for her work on the Nazca Lines, a group of geoglyphs made in the soil of the Nazca Desert in southern Peru; she made the documentation, preservation, and public dissemination of knowledge about the Nazca Lines her life’s work.

1904 – Clifton “Kip” Fadiman, U.S. intellectual, author, editor, and broadcaster.

1904 – Annada Shankar Ray, Indian Bengali and Odia poet, essayist, and travel writer who wrote several poems criticizing the Partition of India; his best known work is Pathe Prabaase, a diary of his European travels.

1907 – Ursula Kuczynski (also known as Ruth Werner, Ursula Beurton, and Ursula Hamburger), German author, autobiographer, Communist activist, resistance fighter, and spy who published a series of books related to her spy work, including her bestselling autobiography, Sonjas Rapport (Sonya’s Report).

1907 – Chote Praepan (pen name Jacob) Thai writer and journalist whose most famous work is Phu Chana Sip Thit (The Man Who Gained Victory in Ten Directions).

1911 – Max Frisch, Swiss playwright, and novelist known for his ironic works.

1912 – Margaret Diesendorf (née Máté), Austrian-born Australian poet, editor, linguist, translator, and educator.

1912 – Margarita Madrigal, Costa Rican writer, children’s author, and linguist who wrote books in seven different languages.

1915 – Hilda Bernstein, British-born South African author, artist, and activist against apartheid and for women’s rights.

1922 – Jakucho Setouchi, award-winning Japanese novelist, activist, and Buddhist nun; she is noted for first-person narrative biographical novels.

1922 – Kala Keerthi Regi Siriwardena, Sri Lankan academic, journalist, poet, writer, playwright, and screenwriter.

1926 – Peter Shaffer and Anthony Joshua Shaffer, identical-twin English playwrights.

1927 – Assia Wevill, German-born poet and writer who escaped the Nazis to emigrate to Palestine and then the U.K., where she had a relationship with the English poet Ted Hughes; she killed herself and their four-year-old daughter Shura using a gas oven, similar to the suicide of Hughes’s first wife Sylvia Plath, six years earlier.

1930 – Grace Emily Ogot (née Akinyi), Kenyan author, nurse, journalist, politician, and diplomat.

1931 – Norma Fox Mazer, U.S. author and teacher who won a Newbery Honor and was nominated for the National Book Award.

1931 – Nechama Tec (born Nechama Bawnik), award-winning Polish-born writer, historian, sociologist, professor, and Holocaust survivor.

1933 – Santanu Kumar Acharya, Indian Odia novelist, children’s writer, and lecturer.

1934 – John Keegan, British military historian and writer.

1936 – Ruth Almog, Israeli novelist, journalist, and children’s writer

1936 – Paul Zindel, U.S. playwright and young-adult author best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, which was adapted into a film starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.

1949 – Alice Major, Canadian poet, writer, and essayist who served as poet laureate of Edmonton, Alberta and founded the Edmonton Poetry Festival.

1949 – Lalsangzuali Sailo, Indian author, gospel singer, music composer, and social worker.

1951 – David Almond, British author of children’s and young-adult novels.

1957 – Meg Gardiner, Edgar Award-winning U.K.-based U.S. crime writer.

1962 – Gro Dahle, Norwegian writer, poet, playwright, children’s author, novelist, and librettist.

1962 – Julie Otsuka, Japanese-U.S. author known for her historical fiction; she has been a winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and a finalist for the National Book Award.

1864 – Isabella Grinevskaya (pen name of Beyle Berta Friedberg), award-winning Russian writer, poet, playwright, translator, and novelist who frequented Jewish literary circles in Saint Petersburg; in her books, she depict the lives of the Jewish middle class, especially of enlightened Jewish young girls; Tolstoy praised her work.

1967 – Laura Hillenbrand, bestselling U.S. author of nonfiction books and magazine articles, best known for her book Seabiscuit, about the racehorse that became an unlikely champion.

1968 – Lene Rachel Andersen, Danish author, publisher, economist, futurist, and philosopher who writes in both Danish and English.

1969 – Lauren Myracle, U.S. author of young-adult fiction.

1970 – Judith Hermann, German novelist and short-story writer who is a leading figure of the Fräuleinwunder (“girl wonder”) literary movement of women writers.

1975 – S. Hareesh, award-winning Indian Malayalam novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and translator who is considered one of the major writers in the Malayalam language; his controversial debut novel, Meesha, was challenged because of its discussion of the caste system.

1553 – Margaret of Valois, French princess of the Valois dynasty who became queen consort of Navarre and later of France and was a well-known writer and woman of letters; she was the first woman known to have written and published her memoirs. The daughter of King Henry II of France and Catherine de’Medici, she was also the sister of kings Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III.

1607 – Alberte-Barbe d’Ernécourt (Madame de Saint-Baslemont), French writer and soldier who was a heroine of the Thirty Years’ War.

1851 – Anna Laurens Dawes, U.S. author, biographer, suffragist, and trustee of Smith College who served on the board of the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1892-94 and the St. Louis Exposition of 1902-04 and was the daughter of a U.S. Senator. Her written works covered topics including U.S. history, government, and sociology.

1876 – Luis Llorens Torres, Puerto Rican poet, playwright, lawyer, and politician.

1899 – Charlotte Auerbach, German author, professor, geneticist, zoologist, and biologist who was one of the founders of the science of mutagenesis.

1900 – Hal Borland, U.S. author, editorial writer, and journalist who wrote about the nature.

1908 – Agnes Betty Jeffrey, Australian author and nurse who wrote about her World War II nursing experiences in the book White Coolies.

1921 – Fernanda Villeli, Mexican writer, screenwriter, actress, and activist who was one of her country’s major writers of telenovelas.

1929 – George Selden (real name George Thompson), U.S. children’s author who won a Newbery Honor for his novel, The Cricket in Times Square; he sometimes used pen name Terry Andrews.

1935 – June Beer, Afro-Nicaraguan poet, writer, and artist who gained international acclaim for her works depicting African and feminist themes.

1937 – Zehra Nigah, award-winning Pakistani Urdu poet and screenwriter who was one of only two female Pakistani poets to gain prominence in the 1950s when the field was dominated by men.

1939 – Colette Nys-Mazure, award-winning Belgian author, poet, essayist, children’s writer, playwright, and professor who writes in French.

1944 – George Lucas, wildly popular and influential U.S. film writer, director, and producer, best known for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises.

1946 – Sarah Hogg (Viscountess Hailsham), English economist, journalist, and life peer

1952 – Kathleen Ann Goonan, U.S. science-fiction novelist and short-story writer whose work was often set in New Orleans. Her writing is sometimes considered cyberpunk and often incorporates biotechnology, and jazz music; she was also an essayist, professor, literary critic, Campbell Award winner, and Nebula Award nominee.

1952 – Robert L. Zemeckis, U.S. screenwriter, director, and producer known for special-effects films.

1958 – Anna Höglund, Swedish author and artist, considered to be one of Sweden’s best illustrators.

1959 – Robert Greene, bestselling U.S. nonfiction author and speaker who writes about power, strategy, and seduction.

1965 – Eoin Colfer, (pronounced “Owen”) Irish author best known for the Artemis Fowl series of young-adult books, though he also writes for adults.

1971 – Sofia Carmina Coppola, Oscar-winning U.S. film director, and screenwriter; ex-wife of film director Spike Jonze, daughter of film director Francis Ford Coppola, niece of actress Talia Shire, and cousin of actor Nicolas Cage.

1974 – Jana Žitňanská, Slovak writer, journalist, and member of the European Parliament.

1611 – Jacques Moisant de Brieux, French poet, writer, and historian.

1786 – Anna Ehrenström (née Gråberg), Swedish poet and writer who has been called the first female poet of Gotland, Sweden’s largest island.

1795 – Pavel Jozef Šafárik, Slovak poet, linguist, writer, science writer, literary historian, educator, publicist, journalist, and translator.

1809 – Giuseppe Giusti, Italian poet, writer, and satirist who is best known for his witty satires about public figures and for his light, playful verses.

1840 – Alphonse Daudet, French novelist of the naturalist movement.

1845 – Emily Matilda Manning (pen name Australie), Australian writer, journalist, poet, and essayist.

1869 – H. Isabel Graham, Canadian poet whose work was often religious or patriotic in theme, and which sometimes incorporated the vocabulary, spelling, and other features of her parents’ native Scottish dialect.

1885 – Hideo Nagata, Japanese Modernist poet, novelist, and playwright.

1901 – Murilo Monteiro Mendes, Brazilian Modernist poet who is considered a forerunner of the Surrealist movement in Brazil.

1904 – Gilberto Owen Estrada, Mexican writer, poet, journalist, translator, and diplomat.

1905 – Roestam Effendi, Indonesian writer, playwright, and poet who was also a member of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands; in his written work, he was known for experimenting with the Malay language.

1907 – Daphne du Maurier (Lady Browning), English author and playwright whose stories have been described as “moody and resonant,” with overtones of the paranormal; much of her work was set in Cornwall. Her book Rebecca won the U.S. National Book Award, and has never gone out of print.

1914 – Shareef Kunjahi, Pakistani writer, poet, translator, literary critic, and linguist.

1916 – Sachidananda Routray, award-winning Indian Odia poet, novelist, and short-story writer; he was popularly known as Sachi Routray.

1916 – N.V. Krishna Warrier, prolific, award-winning Indian poet, journalist, scholar, academic, and political thinker whose works spanned the genres of poetry, drama, travelogue, translation, children’s literature, and science.

1927 – Clive Barnes, British-born theater and dance critic.

1929 – Rigoberto López Pérez, Nicaraguan poet, journalist, and composer who was declared a national hero for his assassination of dictator Anastasio Somoza García.

1935 – Manuel José Leonardo Arce Leal, award-winning Guatemalan poet and dramatist who was considered one of the most relevant national writers of the second half of the 20th century.

1935 – Taku Miki (pen name for Tomita Miki), Japanese poet, novelist, translator, and literary critic.

1936 – Jemal Karchkhadze, award-winning Georgian novelist, short-story writer, poet, playwright, and essayist.

1937 – Roger Zelazny, U.S. poet and author of science-fiction and fantasy novels and short stories. He often portrayed characters from myth, set in the modern or future world, with tension between the ancient and the contemporary, and the surreal and the familiar; his style was also influenced by that of wisecracking hardboiled detective stories.

1938 – Norma Klein, U.S. author of popular young-adult novels, middle-grade books, and picture books; her work often deals with controversial subjects such as racism, homosexuality, teen sexuality, adoption, and death, leading to many of her books being challenged for exclusion in school libraries.

1938 – Francine Pascal, U.S. author of young-adult novels, best known as creator of the Sweet Valley High series.

1940 – Bruce Chatwin, English novelist, journalist, and travel writer, best known for his book, In Patagonia; he is ranked among The Times‘s list of “50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945.”

1940 – Rachel Holmes Ingalls, British-based U.S. author of short-stories, novellas, and novels.

1940 – Mircea Sandu, Romanian poet, writer, biographer, editor, translator, and essayist who is best remembered for his two volumes of interviews with King Michael I of Romania, which offers the most complete insight available into the King’s political and personal way of thinking.

1944 – Armistead Maupin, U.S. writer known for his series of novels set in San Francisco, Tales of the City.

1945 – Rajko Petrov Nogo, Serbian poet, children’s writer, literary critic, university teacher, and politician.

1946 – Anne Lee Tzu Pheng, award-winning Singaporean writer and poet.

1947 – Charles Baxter, U.S. author, essayist, and poet.

1947 – Stephen R. Donaldson, U.S. science-fiction and fantasy writer best known for his ten-novel series The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.

1947 – Alexander Keyssar, U.S. author, professor, and historian whose work explores historical problems that have contemporary policy implications.

1948 – Natasha Lako, Albanian writer, poet, politician, translator, screenwriter, and journalist.

1950 – Manning Marable, Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. professor, historian, author, and Malcom X biographer.

1957 – Koji Suzuki, Japanese author whose Ring books were adapted into a manga series and a feature film; he has also written books about fatherhood.

1960 – Jen Bryant, U.S. poet, novelist, biographer, and children’s author.

1964 – Stephen Colbert, U.S. comedian, television personality, and author.

1967 – Masha Gessen, National Book Award-winning Russian and U.S. journalist, author, and translator.

1089 – Mahsati Ganjavi, eminent Persian poet who is remembered for her quatrains and for her association with both Omar Khayyam; her name Mahsati is a compound of two Persian words “Mah/Maah” (Moon) and “Sati” (Lady).

1665 – Albertus Seba, Dutch writer, ornithologist, pharmacist, zoologist, and pharmacologist who accumulated one of the largest cabinets of curiosities in the Netherlands during his time; his early work on taxonomy and natural history influenced Linnaeus.

1812 – Edward Lear, English author and illustrator, best known today for his nonsense poetry and his children’s books.

1820 – Florence Nightingale, English social reformer, statistician, and the founder of modern nursing who came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War and became an icon of Victorian culture. She was also a prodigious and versatile writer, especially on topics dealing with spreading medical knowledge and written in simple English; she was also a pioneer in data visualization with the use of infographics.

1828 – Dante Gabriel Rossetti (born Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti), pre-Raphaelite English poet, translator, illustrator, and painter; the renowned poet Christina Rossetti was his sister.

1835 – José María Cordovez Moure, Colombian writer and historian

1841 – Ricardo Rossel Sirot, Peruvian author, poet, politician, scholar, and entrepreneur who was the founder of the Club Literario de Lima.

1843 – Margaret Veley, English writer, poet, and novelist.

1868 – Ricardo Jaimes Freyre, Peruvian-born Bolivian poet whose Symbolist-influenced verse, which frequently took advantage of free-verse forms, was important in the development of Latin American modernism.

1869 – Albert Engström, Swedish writer, poet, historian, illustrator, comics artist, songwriter, painter, cartoonist, and journalist.

1875 – Minnie Louise Haskins, British poet and academic in the field of sociology, best known for being quoted by King George VI in his Royal Christmas Message of 1939.

1885 – Saneatsu Mushanokōji, Japanese artist, novelist, screenwriter, photographer, writer, poet, playwright, painter, and philosopher.

1892 – Ramanlal Vasantlal Desai, Indian Gujarati novelist and essayist who is considered a key figure in Gujarati literature.

1907 – Leslie Charteris (born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin), Singapore-born Chinese-English author of screenplays and adventure fiction; his character Simon Templar, “The Saint,” has appeared not only in Charteris’s books, but also in books by other authors as well as in television shows, movies, and radio plays.

1916 – Albert L. Murray, U.S. African-American author and essayist who incorporated a blues aesthetic into his novels.

1919 – Wu Wenjun, Chinese writer, historian, mathematician, and editor of the ten-volume Grand Series of Chinese Mathematics, covering the time from antiquity to late part of the Qin dynasty.

1921 – Farley Mowat, award-winning Canadian author, children’s writer, and environmentalist who wrote about the Canadian north; he has been praised for his poetic language, vivid descriptions, and advocacy for environmental causes, but has also been ridiculed for inaccuracies in his books.

1924 – Claribel Alegria, Nicaraguan poet, novelist, and documentary filmmaker.

1925 – John Simon (born Ivan Simmon), acerbic Yugoslavian culture critic who wrote literature, film, and art reviews for New York Magazine; his book Reverse Angle: A Decade of American Films recommended only 15 of the 245 films discussed.

1930 – Mazisi Kunene, South African poet best known for his poem “Emperor Shaka the Great”; he was part of the anti-apartheid movement and became the Poet Laureate of both South African and Africa, as well as being the author of Anthem of the Decades: A Zulu Epic.

1933 – Andrey Andreyevich Voznesensky, Soviet Russian poet and writer whom poet Robert Lowell called, “one of the greatest living poets in any language”; as part of the new wave of Russian intellectuals called the “Children of the ’60s,” he was counted among the most daring writers of the Soviet era, and was once threatened with expulsion by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

1934 – Elechi Amadi, Nigerian novelist and playwright who wrote about African village life, customs, beliefs, and religious practices prior to contact with the Western world.

1937 – George Carlin, U.S. comedic author, social critic, stand-up comedian, actor, and television personality who was called, “the dean of counterculture comedians”; his “seven dirty words” routine has become a classic, but he was caused controversy because of his use of language that was considered by many to be obscene.

1937 – Misha Defonseca (born Monique de Wael), Belgian-born author of a fictitious Holocaust memoir titled Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years, first published in 1997 and at that time professed to be a true memoir.

1938 – Andrei Amalrik, Russian writer, historian, journalist, dissident, human rights activist, and opinion journalist.

1939 – Rosellen Brown, award-winning U.S. novelist, short-story writer, poet, and essayist; the film Before and After was adapted from her novel of the same name.

1942 – Vittal Rao K., Indian Tamil short-story writer, novelist, and essayist.

1945 – Tormod Haugen, Norwegian children’s writer, author, translator, and linguist.

1946 – L. Neil Smith, U.S. science-fiction author and libertarian political activist; he also wrote in the “Star Wars” universe.

1947 – Penelope Shuttle, British poet, writer, playwright, and novelist.

1949 – Hans Leyendecker, German writer and author who is one of Germany’s best-known investigative journalists.

1949 – Paul Starr, Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. professor and nonfiction author.

1955 – Blue Balliett, U.S. author and teacher who is best known for her award-winning, groundbreaking children’s novel, Chasing Vermeer; she was born Elizabeth Balliett, but her family started calling her Blue when she was still a baby.

1961 – Jennifer Armstrong, U.S. author of children’s adventure novels, historical fiction, post-apocalyptic fiction, and nonfiction; she has also edited an anthology.

1964 – Lijia Zhang, Chinese writer, journalist, and public speaker who describes herself as a communicator between China and the world.

1645 – William Scott (2nd Baronet of Thirlestane), Scottish lawyer, lyricist, and neo-Latin poet.

1763 – János Batsányi, Hungarian poet, writer, translator, editor, and literary critic.

1771 – José Mamerto Gómez Hermosilla, Spanish writer, journalist, and literary critic.

1817 – Isabella Letitia Woulfe, British writer known for a popular and acclaimed debut novel, Guy Vernon, which included gypsies, scandals, and two cases of bigamy; she died before she could complete a second book.

1828 – Eleanor Anne Ormerod, pioneering English entomologist, writer, and autobiographer; based on her studies in agriculture, she became one of the first to define the field of agricultural entomology, publishing an influential series of articles on useful insects and pests in the Gardeners’ Chronicle and the Agricultural Gazette along with annual reports from 1877 to 1900 and two books. Virginia Woolf wrote a story, “Miss Ormerod” that was based on her life.

1888 – Elisabeth Erdmann-Macke (nee Gerhardt), German memoir writer whose work focused on her marriage to the expressionist painter August Macke.

1889 – Burhan Felek, Turkish journalist, columnist, sportsperson, writer, teacher, and lawyer.

1894 – Ōmi Komaki, Japanese writer, translator, and university teacher.

1897 – Shuddhananda Bharati, award-winning Indian writer, composer, poet, essayist, novelist, autobiographer, playwright, librettist, translator, yogi, and philosopher whose teachings are focused mainly on the search for God in Self, through the Sama Yoga practice he created. He wrote more than 250 published works in five different languages: Tamil, English, French, Hindi, and Telugu. “Shuddhananda” is a title he adopted; it means “pure bliss.”

1901 – Rose Ausländer, German Jewish poet who spent part of World War II in the Czernowitz ghetto; she wrote in English and German and eventually became an American citizen.

1902 – Enrique Labrador Ruiz, award-winning Cuban journalist, novelist, essayist, short-story writer, and poet.

1904 – Gladys May Casely-Hayford (pen name Aquah Laluah), Gold Coast-born Sierra Leonean writer and teacher; she is credited as the first author to write in the Krio language. She celebrated her blackness in poems such as “Rejoice” and “Nativity”; writers of the Harlem Renaissance in the U.S. cited her work as an influence.

1905 – Ida Gerhardt, award-winning Dutch writer, classicist, translator, and Post-Symbolist poet whose poems are characterized by a special focus on nature and landscape; she also received recognition for her careful translation of the Psalms.

1905 – Mikhail Sholokhov, Nobel Prize-winning Russian Soviet writer, screenwriter, poet, politician, journalist, and novelist; he is known for writing about the lives of Cossacks during the Russian Revolution, the civil war and the period of collectivization, primarily in his most famous novel, And Quiet Flows the Don.

1908 – Kim Kirim (born Kim In-son), North Korean poet, literary critic, journalist, essayist, teacher, and university lecturer who wrote mostly intellectualist and imagist poetry. In 1946 he fled Soviet-occupied North Korea for the South, but during the Korean War he was kidnapped and returned to North Korea.

1909 – Aneirin Talfan Davies, Welsh poet, literary critic, broadcaster, translator, and publisher; he was also known by the bardic name of Aneurin ap Talfan. Religious themes characterize much of his writing.

1916 – Camilo José Cela, Nobel Prize-winning Spanish novelist, renowned for “rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man’s vulnerability.”

1918 – Sheila Burnford, British-Canadian novelist who was best known for her book The Incredible Journey, which was not originally intended as a children’s book, but was later adapted into the popular animated Disney move, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey.

1918 – Richard Feynman, U.S. theoretical physicist, lecturer, and semi-autobiographical writer.

1920 – Fatma Nezihe Araz, bestselling Turkish author, poet, playwright, biographer, screenwriter, and journalist.

1925 – Rubem Fonseca, Brazilian novelist, short-story writer, journalist, and scriptwriter.

1926 – Mark Sergeev, prolific Ukrainian-born Russian poet and children’s writer.

1927 – Gene Savoy, U.S. explorer and author who is especially associated with discoveries in Peru.

1927 – Zilpha Keatley Snyder, three-time Newbery Honor-winning U.S. children’s author.

1928 – Mo Yun-tuan (pen name Luo Fu, or Luòfū), Taiwanese writer, poet, essayist, and translator; in 2001 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1929 – Gane Todorovski, award-winning Macedonian writer, poet, translator, author, editor, essayist, historian, professor, screenwriter, journalist, and literary critic

1930 – Kamau Brathwaite (born Lawson Edward Brathwaite), Barbadian poet, historian, and essayist.

1934 – Ofelia Giudicissi Curci, Italian poet, writer, and archeologist; her archeological work focused on Calabria, in southern Italy.

1934 – Wakako Hironaka, Japanese writer, translator, and politician; she served four terms in the Japanese House of Councillors.

1936 – Olga Xirinacs Díaz, award-winning Spanish writer, poet, playwright, pianist, essayist, translator, short-story writer, university teacher, and children’s author who usually writes in Catalan and whose work is influenced by the writing of Virginia Woolf and Marcel Proust.

1938 – Aline Pettersson, Mexican novelist and poet whose work deals with themes of loneliness, heartbreak, isolation, and the passage of time that razes all.

1939 – Yves-Emmanuel Dogbé, Togolese novelist, essayist, poet, philosopher, educator, and sociologist who holds a prominent position among French-speaking Togolese writers and was regarded in his lifetime as Togo’s greatest living writer.

1939 – Samih al-Qasim al Kaissy, Jordanian-born Israeli Palestinian poet, writer, journalist, author, and newspaper editor whose work is well known throughout the Arab-speaking world.

1942 – Clive Algar, South African novelist and short-story writer.

1942 – Rachel Billington, British author of fiction and nonfiction books for both adults and children; she is also a screenwriter, journalist, and columnist.

1947 – Latif Nazemi, award-winning Afghani-born Persian poet, author, literary critic, and university teacher who now lives in exile in Germany.

1949 – Peter Sís, award-winning Czech-born U.S. children’s author and illustrator, filmmaker, and editorial cartoonist.

1952 – Mike Lupica, U.S. sports columnist, children’s author, and mystery writer whose stories tend to revolve around sports.

1952 – Reza de Wet, award-winning South African dramatist who is considered one of South Africa’s greatest playwrights; in addition to chipping away at the societal mores of Apartheid and racism, her stories masterfully weave Biblical myths, tribal and Afrikaner folktales, magical realism, and stream-of-consciousness storytelling in a poignant and original way, to completely reinvent the psychological-thriller format.

1953 – David Garrow, Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. historian, author, and biographer.

1955 – Fang Fang (pen name of Wang Fang), award-winning Chinese novelist and poet.

1962 – Mirela Ivanova, Bulgarian poet, essayist, literary critic, theater critic, translator, and literary historian who is one of the most famous modern Bulgarian poets.

1962 – Joko Pinurbo, award-winning Indonesian poet, editor, and university teacher whose poetry is a mixture of narrative, irony, and self-reflection.

1965 – Marie Koizumi, Japanese novelist, manga writer, and screenwriter.

1965 – Dante Lam, Hong Kong Chinese screenwriter, film director, and actor.

1979 – Mohammad Tolouei, Iranian poet, writer, screenwriter, playwright, translator, and novelist.

0893 – Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani, Yemeni Arab writer, poet, historian, linguist, grammarian, geographer, chemist, astronomer, and astrologer.

1843 – Benito Pérez Galdós, prolific Spanish novelist, short-story writer, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, painter, and politician who was the leading literary figure in 19th century Spain.

1863 – Kaarle Krohn, Finnish folklorist, writer, and professor who developed the geographic-historic method of folklore research and devoted much of his career to the study of the epic poetry that forms the basis for the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala.

1866 – Constance Piers, Canadian journalist, poet, and newspaper editor.

1876 – Ivan Cankar, Slovenian writer, playwright, essayist, novelist, poet, and political activist whose work marks the beginning of modernism in Slovene literature; he is regarded as the greatest writer in the Slovene language, and has been compared to Franz Kafka and James Joyce.

1898 – Ariel Durant (born Chaya Kaufman), Pulitzer Prize-winning Russian-born U.S. author, historian, and researcher who coauthored the 11-volume Story of Civilization with her husband, writer Will Durant.

1898 – Younghill Kang, Korean-born novelist, memoirist, and playwright who has been called “the father of Korean American literature.”

1900 – Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin, British-born U.S. astronomer, astrophysicist, and author who proposed in her doctoral thesis that stars were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, a conclusion that was initially rejected but eventually proven correct; her work on the nature of variable stars, carried out with her husband, Sergei Gaposchkin, was foundational to modern astrophysics.

1903 – Kathleen Coad “Kay” Petre (née Defries), Canadian racecar driver who turned to writing and became a journalist and food writer after a 1937 racing accident resulted in serious injuries and the end of her racing career.

1906 – Eisuke Yoshiyuki, Japanese author who was part of the Japanese Dada movement.

1910 – Nguyễn Tuân, Vietnamese writer who is ranked as one of the top authors of contemporary Vietnamese literature; he is especially known for his essays, and for his clever and creative use of language.

1911 – Bel Kaufman, U.S. teacher and author best known for her 1965 bestseller Up the Down Staircase.

1915 – Monica Dickens, English author who wrote both adult and children’s books and was the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens.

1919 – T. Berry Brazleton, U.S. pediatrician and author of parenting books.

1919 – Antônio Olinto Marques da Rocha, Brazilian writer, essayist, poet, novelist, literary critic, political analyst, children’s author, dictionary editor, and translator.

1922 – Rosihan Anwar, renowned Indonesian journalist, editor, critic, translator, and author who founded a newspaper and a magazine.

1924 – Yulia Vladimirovna Drunina, Soviet poet and lyricist who wrote in Russian and whose works are characterized by moral clarity and real-life experience; some of the life experience she drew on came from working as a nurse and combat medic during World War II.

1924 – Zareh Yaldizciyan (better known by his pen name Zahrad), Turkish poet who wrote in the Western Armenian language.

1927 – Kunjunni, award-winning Indian poet of Malayalam literature who was known for short poems with philosophical overtones and for works that were popular among children as well as adults; he was commonly known as Kunjunni Mash (Mash is the Malayalam equivalent of teacher.)

1927 – Nayantara Sahgal, Indian novelist who writes in English; her best-known book is Rich Like Us. She also served as ambassador to Italy.

1933 – Barbara Taylor Bradford, bestselling English novelist who says she writes about “ordinary women who go on to achieve the extraordinary.”

1934 – Jayne Cortez, U.S. African-American jazz and performance poet whose poetry is concerned with racial injustice and political oppression.

1934 – Richard Peck, prolific Newbery Medal-winning U.S. young-adult novelist.

1937 – Manik Godghate (popularly known by his pen name Grace), award-winning Indian Marathi prose writer, poet, and lyricist.

1940 – Wayne Dyer, U.S. self-help author and motivational speaker whose first book, Your Erroneous Zones, is one of the bestselling books of all time.

1942 – Legson Didimu Kayira, Malawian novelist whose early works focused on Malawi’s rural life, while his later writings satirized the Hastings Banda regime.

1945 – Koos du Plessis, South African author, poet, journalist, editor, songwriter, and musician.

1947 – May Lenna Balisidya Matteru, Tanzanian novelist, playwright, children’s author, and university teacher who wrote in Swahili.

1947 – Caroline B. Cooney, U.S. author of books for children, teens, and adults, best known for her young-adult suspense, romance, horror, and mystery novels.

1948 – Zacarías Reyán (pseudonym of Reinaldo Antonio Plazas Peralta, also known as Z), Colombian novelist, poet, and epic writer.

1949 – Mana Al Otaiba, Emirati writer, poet, economist, businessperson, and politician.

1952 – Meta Kušar, award-winning Slovenian poet and essayist.

1953 – Christopher Paul Curtis, Newbery Award-winning U.S. author of children’s books, best known for his novel, Bud, Not Buddy.

1953 – Ahdri Zhina Mandiela, award-winning Jamaican-born, Canadian-based poet, author, theatre producer, and artistic director.

1954 – Arjun Deo Charan, award-winning Indian Rajasthani poet, critic, playwright, theatre director, and translator who is prominent figure in Indian theatre.

1955 – Rick Steves, U.S. travel writer, author, activist, and television personality.

1955 – Janine Louise Zwicky, Canadian philosopher, poet, essayist, university teacher, and musician.

1960 – Gong Byeong-Ho, South Korean libertarian scholar, economist, and nonfiction author who writes about leadership, creativity, business, and religion.

1964 – Kristine Næss, Norwegian novelist, poet, short-story writer, and editor.

1967 – Jon Ronson, Welsh journalist and nonfiction author who is best known for his book The Men Who Stare at Goats, which explored the work of U.S. army officers who experimented with military applications of paranormal phenomenon; a movie based loosely on the book starred George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, and Kevin Spacey.

1967 – John Scalzi, Hugo Award-winning U.S. science-fiction author, nonfiction author, columnist, critic, and short-story writer who is best known for his Old Man’s War series and was also a creative consultant on science-fiction television show Stargate Universe.

1976 – Elizabeth Bachinsky, award-winning Canadian poet and educator.

1977 – Oliver Jeffers, Australian-born, Northern Ireland-raised, children’s book author and illustrator, now based in the U.S.

1981 – Roja Chamankar, Iranian-born Persian poet, writer, playwright, and film director.

1588 – Herman Hugo, Belgian writer, Jesuit priest, and military chaplain whose Pia Desideria, a religious emblem book published in Antwerp, was the most popular religious emblem book of the seventeenth century; it went through 42 Latin editions and was widely translated up to the 18th century. (An emblem book is a collection of emblems with accompanying explanatory text, typically morals or poems.)

1738 – John Wolcot, English writer, poet, satirist, and physician who wrote under the pseudonym Peter Pindar.

1752 – Johann Anton Leisewitz, German lawyer and dramatic poet who was a central figure of the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) era, an artistic movement characterized by expressions of turbulent emotion; he is best known for his play Julius of Tarent, which inspired playwright Friedrich Schiller.

1819 – Dadoba Pandurang, Indian social reformer, writer, grammarian, and linguist from Bombay who wrote extensively on religion and social reform as an opponent of rituals and caste, while supporting widow-remarriage and education for women; he was born with the surname Tarkhadkar, but he never used it in later life.

1832- Jessie White Mario, English and Italian writer, biographer, journalist, nurse, and philanthropist who was a nurse to General Giuseppe Garibaldi’s soldiers in four wars and was sometimes referred to as “Hurricane Jessie” in the Italian press; she researched living conditions in subterranean Naples and working conditions in Sicily’s sulphur mines and wrote copiously (in English and Italian) as both a journalist and a biographer. Her most famous biography was about Garibaldi.

1844 – Sarah Newcomb Merrick, Canadian and U.S. writer, educator, inventor, businesswoman, and physician.

1845 – Georgina Castle Smith (née Georgina Meyrick, pseudonym Brenda), popular and prolific English writer of children’s books, notable for her books that highlighted the needs of homeless children and encouraged people to donate clothing and food to them.

1851 – Sarah Elizabeth Pratt Grinnell, U.S. author, photographer, writer, editor, naturalist, and social activist.

1857 – Luigi Illica, Italian writer, poet, playwright, journalist, and librettist who wrote lyrics for some of the best known opera composers of his day, including Giacomo Puccini; he was always photographed with his head slightly turned, because he lost his right ear in a duel over a woman.

1860 – J.M. Barrie, Scottish novelist, playwright, and biographer who is best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan.

1861 – Anna Pappritz, German novelist, short-story writer, nonfiction author, pamphleteer, and activist for women’s rights and the abolition of prostitution.

1871 – Volodymyr Hnatiuk, Ukrainian writer, literary scholar, translator, editor, and journalist who was one of the most influential and notable Ukrainian ethnographers; he focused primarily on western Ukraine, gathering information about folk songs, legends, customs, and dialects.

1872 – Teffi (pseudonym of Nadezhda Alexandrovna Lokhvitskaya), Russian writer, poet, playwright, translator, satirist, memoirist.

1878 – Anna Myrberg, Swedish author, poet, and lyricist; much of her work appeared under the pseudonym Svarta Masken (The Black Mask).

1891 – Rudolf Pečjak, Slovene writer, poet, editor, playwright, songwriter, children’s writer, education writer, fairytale collector, lecturer, and teacher.

1895 – Lucian Blaga, Romanian philosopher, poet, and playwright.

1897 – Rudolph Fisher, U.S. African-American novelist, short-story writer, and physician who wrote the first U.S. detective novel with a Black protagonist, The Conjure-Man Dies: A Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem.

1897 – Abraham Nahum Stencl, Polish poet and editor who wrote, in Yiddish, in a pioneering modernist and expressionist style.

1898 – León Pacheco Solano, award-winning Costa Rican writer and journalist who belonged to the Generación de los 40 literary movement.

1901 – Lempi Ikävalko, Finnish writer, poet, journalist, actress, and performance artist.

1905- Lilí Álvarez, Italian and Spanish author, journalist, equestrian, alpine skier, skier, racing automobile driver, tennis player, sports journalist, figure skater, and feminist; she was best known as a tennis player, and even competed on Spain’s Olympic team.

1906 – Eleanor Estes, Newbery Medal-winning and three-time Newbery Honor-winning U.S. children’s author and librarian.

1908 – A.N. Krishna Rao (full name Arakalagudu Narasingarao Krishna Rao, but popularly known as Anakru), Indian author who was one of the best-known writers in the Kannada language; he was popularly known as Kadambari Sarvabhouma or “King of Novels.”

1910 – Carmela Carabelli (born Carmelina Negri; better known as Mamma Carmela), famous Italian mystic, author, and religious writer.

1916 – William Pène du Bois, U.S. children’s author and illustrator who was a Newbery winner and a two-time Caldecott runner-up.

1916 – Ishwar Petlikar, Indian Gujarati-language writer, novelist, essayist, columnist, journalist, editor, autobiographer, short-story writer, social reformer, and teacher.

1917 – Fay Kanin (née Mitchell), U.S. screenwriter, playwright, and producer who served as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

1920 – Richard Adams, bestselling English novelist, autobiographer, children’s writer, short-story writer, historian, civil servant, and animal rights activist whose best known books were about animals, including his most famous work, the award-winning novel Watership Down, which is credited with reinvigorating anthropomorphic fiction with naturalism.

1921 – Mona Van Duyn, U.S. poet and editor who was U.S. Poet Laureate and won both a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize; one critic said of her work, “Using her characteristic half rhymes, sometimes in quatrains, sometimes in couplets, Van Duyn creates poems impressive for their intelligence and their determined attempts to find reason in an unreasonable world.”

1926 – John Middleton Murry Jr., English novelist who wrote under the pen names Colin Murry and Richard Cowper.

1927 – Ludmila Vaňková, Czech author of science fiction and historic fiction.

1928 – Didi Menosi, Israeli writer, journalist, poet, lyricist, dramatist, columnist, songwriter, and satirist.

1935 – Roger Hargreaves, English children’s book author and illustrator.

1935 – Ivan Lessa (full name Ivan Pinheiro Themudo Lessa), Brazilian journalist, writer, author, translator, and short-story writer.

1935 – Halina Poświatowska, (born Helena Myga), Polish poet and writer who was one of the most important figures in modern/contemporary Polish literature; she is famous for her lyrical poetry and for her intellectual, yet passionate poetry on themes of death; love; existence; famous historical personages, especially women.

1938 – Hwang Tong-gyu, Korean poet, academic, and critic who was known for stripping images to their bare, essential core and employing a terse and unalloyed prose style.

1938 – Charles Simic, Pulitzer Prize-winning Serbian-U.S. poet.

1939 – Rogelio Mangahas, award-winning Filipino poet, writer, editor, novelist, essayist, and artist who helped spearhead the second successful Modernist movement in Filipino poetry.

1944 – Lars Norén, Swedish playwright, novelist, and poet; his plays are realistic and often revolve around family relationships, among either those who are impoverished and disadvantaged, or those who live in material comfort but emotional insecurity.

1944 – Paulina Vinderman, award-winning Argentine writer, poet, literary reviewer, and translator.

1945 – Gamal El-Ghitani, Egyptian writer, editor, translator, journalist, and novelist; he was best known for his historical and political novels and his cultural and political commentaries.

1950 – Jorie Graham, Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. poet whom the Poetry Foundation has called “one of the most celebrated poets of the American post-war generation.”

1950 – Jesús Abraham “Tato” Laviera, Puerto Rican-born poet and playwright.

1951 – Christopher Dewdney, award-winning Canadian poet and essayist whose work reflects his interest in natural history.

1951- Joy Harjo, U.S. screenwriter, writer, teacher, poet, musician, and children’s writer who is an important figure in the second wave of the literary Native American Renaissance of the late 20th century; she was also the first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate.

1952 – Arturo Fontaine Talavera, Chilean novelist, poet, philosopher and essayist whose work is considered representative of the Chilean “New Narrative.”

1958 – Nada El-Hage, Lebanese poet, writer, translator, editor, and journalist.

1965 – Zhenis Kakenuly Nurlybayev, Kazakh author, editor, painter, art critic, caricaturist, and graphic artist.

1969 – Larisa Vitaliivna Matveyeva, Ukrainian poet, novelist, playwright, and translator.

1971 – Hiroki Azuma, award-winning Japanese novelist, essayist, philosopher, and cultural critic who writes in a Postmodernist style.

1975 – Tony Adam Mochama, award-winning Kenyan poet, short-story writer, author, young-adult novelist, and journalist.

1992 – Maya Christinah Xichavo Wegerif (known professionally as Sho Madjozi), South African poet, songwriter, singer, rapper, singer, and actress who incorporates the Tsonga culture in her work.

1492 – Andrea Alciato (commonly known as Alciati, or Andreas Alciatus), Italian writer, historian, jurist, and university teacher who is regarded as the founder of the French school of legal humanists. He is most famous for his Emblemata, published in dozens of editions; this collection of short Latin verse texts and accompanying woodcuts created a new genre, the emblem book, which attained enormous popularity throughout Europe.

1570 – Tamás Esterházy, Hungarian writer, translator, linguist, and composer.

1736 – Caterina Dolfin, Italian (Venetian) poet and salonnière who was best known both for her sonnets and for her scandalous divorce and love affairs.

1737 – Edward Gibbon, English historian and politician, known for his major work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

1753 – Phyllis Wheatley, U.S. poet who was the first African-American woman to be published, she wrote poetry while a slave, with her owners’ encouragement; George Washington was a fan of her work.

1765 – Marianne Kraus (real name Maria Anna Walburga Lämmerhirt, German diarist, travel writer, painter, drafter, and lady-in-waiting.

1835 – Augusta Jane Evans (also called Augusta Evans Wilson), U.S. novelist, writer, and screenwriter who is best known as an author of Southern literature.

1851 – Pyarimohan Acharya, Indian writer, historian, educationist, and newspaper editor who wrote his best-known book, Odisara Itihasa (History of Odisha) in response to an advertisement by the colonial government looking for a textbook for use in schools.

1858 – J. Meade Falkner, English novelist, poet, and arms manufacturer executive.

1867 – Margarete Böhme, bestselling German novelist, short-story writer, autobiographer, journalist, and screenwriter who was one of the most widely read German writers of the early 20th century.

1872 – Una Lucy Silberrad, British novelists whose books highlight conservative middle-class virtues, even as they focus on capable female protagonists.

1878 – Heruy Wolde Selassie, Ethiopian writer, historian, and politician whose “considerable and distinguished literary output” was written in Amharic.

1881 – Sibylle von Olfers, German art teacher and nun who worked as an author and illustrator of children’s books, including her most celebrated work, The Root Children (original title: Etwas von den Wurzelkindern, or Something About the Children From the Roots).

1884 – Emilia Bernal, Cuban poet, writer, essayist, translator, and autobiographical novelist.

1886 – Philippa Powys (full name Catharine Edith Philippa Powys), British writer, novelist, and poet, and a member of one of the most distinguished families in modern arts and literature; her brothers included novelists John Cowper Powys, Theodore Francis Powys, and Llewelyn Powys, and her sister Gertrude Powys was a painter of striking portraits and powerful landscapes.

1890 – Moyshe Altman, Moldovan-born Yiddish-language writer, author, and translator.

1912 – Joyce Lussu, Italian writer, poet, linguist, translator, and politician; she was especially noted for her translations of avant-garde literature from Asia and Africa.

1913 – Saima Harmaja, Finnish poet, writer, and diarist who is known for her four volumes of sensitive poetry and her tragic death from tuberculosis at the age of 23.

1915 – Milton Meltzer, U.S. author and historian, known for children’s nonfiction books.

1917 – Miguel Bernad, Filipino writer, journalist, editor, educator, linguist, historian, and Jesuit priest.

1918 – Mario Alicata, Italian writer, screenwriter, author, literary critic, and politician.

1918 – Alix Marrier d’Unienville, Mauritius-born French and British author and spy who was an agent in the Free French Section of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II.

1920 – Sloan Wilson, U.S. magazine writer and author, best known for his classic novel, Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.

1922 – Mary Q. Steele, Newbery Honor-winning U.S. author and naturalist.

1923 – Li Lienfung, Chinese-born Singaporean chemist, playwright, newspaper columnist, and short-story writer; she wrote in both English and Chinese.

1924 – Suppiramaniam Vithiananthan, Sri Lankan writer, professor, and the first vice-chancellor of the University of Jaffna; he specialized in Asian and African Studies.

1924 – Gerda Weissmann Klein, Polish-born writer, autobiographer, children’s author, and human-rights activist who was a Holocaust survivor; her autobiographical account of the Holocaust, All but My Life, was adapted for the 1995 short film, One Survivor Remembers, which received an Academy Award and an Emmy Award, and was selected for the U.S. National Film Registry.

1925 – Gururaja Shyamacharya Amur, Indian writer, critic, and professor who writes in the Kannada and English languages.

1928 – Ramesh Chandra Jha, Indian writer, poet, novelist, journalist, freedom fighter whose poems and stories evoke patriotism and human values.

1928 – Rose Zwi, Mexican-born South African and Australian writer best known for her work about the immigrants in South Africa.

1930 – Gary Snyder, Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. poet of the Beat Generation.

1932 – Julieta Campos, award-winning Cuban and Mexican novelist, writer, and translator.

1937 – Thomas Pynchon, National Book Award-winning U.S. author known for writing dense, complex novels, and for protecting his privacy.

1940 – Peter Benchley, U.S. author, editor, and screenwriter best known for his novel Jaws.

1942 – Park Taesun, award-winning South Korean novelist, short-story writer, and translator who was part of the “April 19 Generation,” the group of writers who came into prominence in the 1960s and whose writing reflects the values of the Korean April 19 Student Revolution; his primary themes revolve around his criticisms of the customs of modern urban life.

1943 – Pat Barker, English author of historical fiction.

1944 – Mongane Wally Serote, South African poet, political activist, and writer who became involved in political resistance to the apartheid government by joining the African National Congress (ANC) and was arrested and detained for several months without trial; he spent years in exile before returning to South Africa in 1990.

1947 – Dhruv Bhatt, Indian Gujarati-language novelist and poet.

1952 – Beth Henley, Pulitzer Prize-winning and Oscar-nominated U.S. playwright and screenwriter; her works often deal with Southern women.

1953 – Sachithanantham Sri Kantha (also known as Sachi Sri Kantha), Sri Lanka-born Japanese Tamil scientist, historian, and author.

1957 – Ahmed Parker Yerima, Nigerian playwright, professor, and theater director who was director-general of the Nigerian National Theatre.

1958 – Roddy Doyle, Irish novelist, playwright, and screenwriter; most of his work is set in working-class Dublin.

1963 – Robin Jarvis, British author of young-adult and children’s dark fantasy & supernatural thrillers.

1964 – Nira Konjit Wickramasinghe, Sri Lankan writer, professor, and historian who specializes in Modern South Asian Studies; she is currently based in the Netherlands, where she is working on a history of the reception of the sewing machine in colonial Sri Lanka.

1970 – Naomi Klein, Canadian activist and nonfiction author known for criticisms of corporate globalization.

1972 – Jigme Gyatso (aka Golog Jigme), Tibetan journalist, filmmaker, and human rights activist.

1426 – Giovanni Pontano (later known as Giovanni Gioviano or, in Latin, Ioannes Iovianus Pontanus), poet, writer, humanist, and politician from the Duchy of Spoleto, now in Umbria in central Italy.

1711 – David Hume, Scottish historian, economist, and essayist; a key figure in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment.

1748 – Olympe de Gouges, (born Marie Gouze), French playwright, politician, journalist, philosopher, abolitionist, author, and women’s rights activist whose political writings reached a large audience, especially her most famous work, The Declaration of the Rights of Woman; she was executed by guillotine during the Reign of Terror for challenging the regime of the Revolutionary government.

1751 – Isabelle de Montolieu, Swiss novelist and translator who wrote in and translated to French; she is best known for writing the first French translations of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion and for her translation of Johann David Wyss’s The Swiss Family Robinson.

1754 – Joseph Joubert, French moralist and essayist, unpublished until after his death.

1812 – Robert Browning, English poet and playwright, married to poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

1842 – Alaide Gualberta Beccari, Italian writer, journalist, editor, social reformer, and activist for feminism and pacifism; she published the feminist journal Woman.

1846 – Anna Radius Zuccari, Italian novelist, short-story writer, magazine writer, journal founder and editor, and author of a dictionary of family hygiene; she used the pen name Neera.

1861 – Rabindranath Tagore, Indian Bengali author; first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1867 – Władysław Reymont, Nobel Prize-winning Polish epic novelist known for symbolism, socialist concepts, romantic portrayal of the agrarian countryside, and criticism of capitalism.

1868 – Kaia Bruland Nilssen, Norwegian novelist, poet, editor, and translator; her book Aagot Vangen – et livsbillede is a biographical novel about the Norwegian sculptress Aagot Vangen.

1880 – Azim Aslan oglu Azimzade, Azerbaijani writer, artist, and caricaturist who was awarded the title People’s Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR.

1883 – Evaristo Carriego, Argentine writer, poet, and journalist who was an important influence on the writing of tango lyrics; he is best known today for the biography written about him by Jorge Luis Borges.

1892 – Archibald MacLeish, three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. poet who also served as Librarian of Congress.

1911 – Jean Iris Ross Cockburn, Egyptian-born British writer, journalist, political activist, war correspondent, and film critic; in her youth she lived in Germany, where she was a cabaret singer and model who inspired the fictional character Sally Bowles in Christopher Isherwood’s The Berlin Stories, later adapted into the long-running stage musical Cabaret.

1911 – Zabihollah Safa, Iranian writer, poet, historian, translator, professor, literary historian, encyclopedia writer, and leading Iranologist who has written extensively on the history of Persian literature.

1926 – Hữu Mai, award-winning Vietnamese novelist and biographer; many of his books were about war.

1927 – Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, two-time Academy Award-winning German-born British/U.S. novelist and screenwriter who is the only person to have won a Booker Prize and an Oscar.

1931 – Gene Wolfe, prolific, award-winning U.S. science-fiction and fantasy novelist and short-story writer noted for his dense, allusive prose and for the strong influence of his Catholic faith.

1932 – Nonny Hogrogrian, Armenian-U.S. children’s author who was a two-time Caldecott Medal winner.

1939 – Volker Braun, German poet, playwright, novelist, and short-story writer.

1939 – William Dempsey Valgardson, Canadian poet, novelist, and short story writer.

1940 – Angela Carter, pen name for Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, née Stalker), English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist who was known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works.

1943 – Peter Carey, two-time Booker Prize-winning Australian novelist.

1946 – Michael Rosen, prolific British author of children’s books and poems who was Children’s Poet Laureate of Britain and a columnist and TV presenter.

1950 – Moshtaque Ahmad Noori, Indian Urdu short-story writer and critic who is a respected figure in the world of Urdu literature.

1950 – Tim Russert, U.S. journalist, lawyer, broadcaster, and author who was best known for his 16 years of serving as moderator for NBC’s news magazine show, Meet the Press.

1954 – Amy Heckerling, award-winning U.S. screenwriter, film director, producer, and author whose work includes such popular films as Clueless, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and National Lampoon’s European Vacation.

1954 – Elisabeth Rynell, Swedish screenwriter, poet, and novelist.

1957 – Sarah Mkhonza, Swazi writer, human-rights activist, lecturer, journalist, and linguist. Because her writing was critical of the authorities in Swaziland, she was ordered to stop writing; threats and assaults led her to seek political asylum in the United States.

1955 – Nguyễn Nhật Ánh, Vietnamese novelist, short-story writer, poet, teacher, and correspondent who writes for teenagers and adults and is regarded as one of Vietnam’s most successful writers for teens.

1960 – Almudena Grandes, award-winning Spanish writer, screenwriter, and journalist whose fiction is known for realism and intense psychological introspection; her novel Las edades de Lulú (The Ages of Lulu) was considered “a breakthrough for eroticism in women’s writing.”

1960 – Hisashi Nozawa, award-winning Japanese screenwriter and mystery novelist.

1964 – Elliot Perlman, Australian novelist, short-story writer, children’s writer, and barrister.