May 26 Writer Birthdays

1887 – Leonard Bacon, Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet, translator, and literary critic who sometimes used the pen name “Autholycus.”

1905 – Ruth M. Arthur, Scottish children’s and YA novelist.

1915 – Antonia Forest, pseudonym of British children’s book author Patricia Giulia Caulfield Kate Rubenstein.

1917 – Harivallabh Chunilal Bhayani, Indian linguist, researcher, critic, and translator.

1933 – Edward Whittemore, American novelist and CIA agent.

1934 – Ann Schlee, Booker Prize-winning British novelist, best known for her children’s books.

1934 – Sheila Greenwald, American children’s book author and illustrator whose real name is Sheila Ellen Green.

1947 – Carol O’Connell, American author of crime novels who was an art major but turned to writing when her painting career failed.

1951 – Sally Ride, physicist and astronaut who also wrote science books for children; the first American woman in space, she also remains the youngest American astronaut in space.

1954 – Alan Hollinghurst, Booker Prize-winning British novelist, poet, short story writer, and translator.

1964 – Caitlín Kiernan, Irish-born American paleontologist and author of dark fantasy and science-fiction novels, short stories, and comic books; winner of multiple World Fantasy and Bram Stoker awards.

1967 – Sara Mannheimer, award-winning Swedish novelist, designer, and glass blower.

1981 – Julia DeVillers and Jennifer Roy, identical twins who write fiction and nonfiction books for children and teens, including a co-written series of books about a pair of twins, in which each sister writes the part of one twin.