1860 – Jane Addams, Nobel Prize-winning American writer, essayist, suffragist, human rights activist, journalist, sociologist, philosopher, social worker, social critic, peace activist, public administrator, and autobiographer who was a co-founder of both Chicago’s Hull House, one of America’s most famous settlement houses, and the American Civil Liberties Union; she is also considered the creator of social work as a profession.
1869 – Felix Salten, Austrian author and literary critic best known for the novel Bambi: Ein Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde (a Life in the Woods.)
1878 – Henry Seidel Canby, American critic, editor, and professor who was one of the founders and editors of the Saturday Review of Literature.
1921 – Carmen Laforet, important Spanish author whose works contributed to the school of Existentialist Literature.
1926 – Shinichi Hoshi, Japanese mystery novelist, science-fiction author, and illustrator who is best known for writing more than 1,000 “short-short” science-fiction stories, often no more than three or four pages in length.
1928 – Robert M. Pirsig, American writer and philosopher, well known for his bestselling novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
1931 – Bud Shrake, American novelist, journalist, sports writer, screenwriter, and biographer whose books of advice for golfers were bestsellers.
1950 – Robyn Davidson, Australian author, cultural anthropologist, and travel writer whose book Tracks recounts her 1,700-mile trek across the deserts of Western Australia using camels.
1955 – Raymond Benson, American author of James Bond novels.
1963 – Alice Sebold, award-winning American novelist whose book The Lovely Bones is narrated by the ghost of a murdered teenage girl.
1964 – Douglas A. Blackmon, Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer whose Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II explores the history of peonage and convict lease labor in the South after the American Civil War.
1968 – Christopher Brookmyre, Scottish writer whose novels mix comedy and action with social commentary, politics, and a strong narrative
1969 – Tony DiTerlizzi, American children’s author, fantasy artist, and film producer.
1971 – Vendela Vida, American novelist, journalist, and editor.
1972 – China Miéville, award-winning English fantasy novelist and short-story writer often associated with the New Weird literary movement; he has also written children’s picture books, comic books, essays, and nonfiction books.
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