December 9 Writer Birthdays

1608 – John Milton, English epic poet who penned Paradise Lost.

1848 – Joel Chandler Harris, American journalist, fiction writer, and folklorist; collector and reteller of the African-American folktales that became known as the Uncle Remus stories.

1899 – Jean de Brunhoff, French author of children’s books, best known for creating Babar the Elephant.

1899 – Leonie Fuller, U.S. Poet Laureate. writer, editor, and professor with connections to many of the leading intellectuals of her day; anthropologist Margaret Mead was her college roommate; friends included writer Gertrude Stein, literary critic Edmund Wilson, and another Poet Laureate, Louise Bogan.

1905 – Dalton Trumbo, Oscar-winning screenwriter of Roman Holiday, Exodus, Spartacus, and many other films; blacklisted for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

1915 – Eloise Jarvis McGraw, three-time Newbery Honor-winning American author of novels for children and young adults.

1916 – Wolfgang Hildesheimer, artist, author, playwright, and Mozart biographer who worked as a translator and clerk at the Nuremberg Trials.

1928 – Joan Blos, American writer and children’s literacy advocate whose historical novel A Gathering of Days won a National Book Award and the Newbery Medal.

1930 – Buck Henry, humorous actor and screenwriter; he worked on The Graduate, Catch 22, Get Smart, Saturday Night Live, and more.

1930 – Edoardo Sanguineti, Italian poet, critic, and playwright.

1936 – A.B. Yehoshua, Israeli novelist, short-story writer, essayist, and playwright whom the New York Times has called, “Israeli Faulkner.”

1937 – Mary Downing Hahn, American author of young-adult mysteries.

1942 – Joe McGinniss, American author of nonfiction, novels, and true crime stories.

1943 – Joanna Trollope, British writer of romantic and historical fiction who also wrote under the pen name Caroline Harvey.