One tradition I’d started years ago on the first version of the Petrini Page is posting lists of writer birthdays. I still don’t have a list put together for every day of the year, but I’m getting close. I don’t claim that these lists are inclusive, but I am trying to post a wide variety of writers, from various cultures and time periods. Here are the birthdays I’ve found for December 2.
1728 – Ferdinando Galiani, influential Italian economist & writer.
1868 – Francis Jammes, French poet.
1885 – Níkos Kazantazakís, Greek novelist.
1897 – Rewi Alley, writer, educator, and social reformer.
1909 – Joseph P. Lash, American political activist, Eleanor Roosevelt biographer, and author who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
1910 – Russell Lynes, art historian, critic, and author who was also managing editor of Harper’s Magazine.
1914 – Adolph Green, American lyricist and playwright.
1929 – Dan Jenkins, American author and sportswriter.
1929 – Leon Litwack, Pulitzer Prize winning author and historian.
1935 – David Hackett Fisher, Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian.
1937 – Brian Lumley, English author of horror fiction who first became known for writing in H.P. Lovecraft’s shared universe centered on the Cthulhu Mythos; winner of the Bram Stoker Award for lifetime achievement in horror writing.
1939 – Yaël Dayan, Israeli political activist, novelist, and journalist.
1944 – Botho Strauss, Germany playwright, novelist, and essayist.
1946 – David Macaulay, bestselling Caldecott Medal-winning British-born American author and illustrator of picture books for children and adults; his books, including Cathedral and The Way Things Work, combine text and highly detailed illustrations that explain architecture, design and engineering.
1948 – Elizabeth Berg, bestselling American novelist, playwright, registered nurse, and rock-band singer whose books have won many awards.
1948 – T.C. Boyle (Thomas Coraghessan Boyle), prolific American novelist and short-story writer who has been awarded the PEN/Faulkner prize for fiction.
1950 – Benedict Fitzgerald, controversial screenwriter who co-wrote the screenplay for the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ.
1958 – George Saunders, American writer of essays, short stories, and children’s books.
1963 – Ann Patchett, American novelist who won the Orange Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award.
1971 – Jüri Reinvere, Estonian poet and composer.
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