1822 – Moritz Grave von Strachwitz, German lyric poet.
1872 – Oswald Garrison Villard, American journalist, John Brown biographer & founder of the Anti-Imperialism League; his mother was suffragist Fanny Garrison Villard; his grandfather was abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison.
1884 – Oskar Loerke, German poet of the Expressionist and Magic Realist movements.
1884 – Emanuel Stickelberger, Swiss novelist, playwright, poet, and biographer.
1884 – Hugh Walpole, New Zealand-born English novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and lecturer, wildly popular in his lifetime but neglected recently.
1892 – Janet Flanner, American journalist and writer; under the pen name “Genêt,” she was the Paris correspondent for The New Yorker for 50 years.
1896 – Dorothy Aldis, children’s book author and poet.
1897 – Marcel Thiry, French-speaking Belgian poet.
1900 – Giorgos Seferis, Nobel Prize-winning Greek poet and diplomat whose poetry is characterized by “eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture.”
1901 – Margaret Craven, American novelist, short-story writer, and historian who often wrote on Native American themes; she is best known for her book I Heard the Owl Call My Name.
1907 – Mircea Eliade, Romanian writer, professor, philosopher, fiction writer, and historian of religion, best known for his Encyclopedia of Religion.
1911 – L. Ron Hubbard (Lafayette Ronald Hubbard), American founder of the Church of Scientology, author of pulp science-fiction and fantasy stories, and author of the debunked Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.
1911 – Marie Rudisill, author, biographer, and television personality whose book, Fruitcake: Memories of Truman Capote & Sook, led to her fame as The Fruitcake Lady on The Tonight Show; Capote was her nephew.
1914 – W.O. Mitchell, Canadian novelist and broadcaster, known for his 1947 book Who Has Seen the Wind.
1921 – Al Jaffee, cartoonist & comic strip writer for MAD magazine.
1928 – Ellen Raskin, Newbery Medal-winning American writer, illustrator, and fashion designer who also designed the cover for the first edition of Madeline L’Engle’s classic novel A Wrinkle In Time.
1933 – Diane Dillon, American illustrator of children’s books; she worked closely with her husband Leo.
1934 – Barry Hughart, World Fantasy Award-winning American author of fantasy novels, most of whose works take place in “an Asia that never was.”
1950 – Charles Krauthammer, Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, columnist, and physician.
1953 – Ridley Pearson, bestselling American author of thrillers for adults and adventure books for children.
