October 13 Writer Birthdays

1902 – Arnaud “Arna” Wendell Bontemps, African-American poet, novelist, and librarian who was a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance movement.

1903 – Takiji Kobayashi (小林 多喜二), Japanese author of proletarian literature, best known for his 1929 short novel Kanikōsen (Crab Cannery Ship) about the movement to unionize fishing workers; two years later, at the age of 29, he was arrested and allegedly tortured to death by police.

1913 – Igor Torkar, pen name of Boris Fakin, a Slovenian writer, playwright, and poet, best known for literary descriptions of Communist repression in Yugoslavia after World War II.

1916 – Galina Shatalova (Галина Сергеевна Шаталова), Turkmenistan-born Russian neurosurgeon and author of many popular books on health, nutrition, and healthy lifestyles, best known for her Natural Health Improvement System, which incorporates a very low calorie diet; she was chief of the Astronauts Training Sector of the Institute of Space & Aviation Biology. She lived to be 95 years old.

1929 – Richard Howard, Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, and translator.

1862 – Mary Kingsley, English ethnographer who wrote primarily about her travels in West Africa.

1867 – Guy Newell Boothby, prolific Australian novelist and writer who lived mainly in England and is noted for sensational fiction published in magazines; his best known creations are the Dr. Nikola series (about an occultist criminal mastermind who is a Victorian forerunner to Fu Manchu) and Pharos (a tale of Gothic Egypt, mummies’ curses, and supernatural revenge); Rudyard Kipling was his friend and mentor, and his books were remembered with affection by George Orwell.

1890 – Conrad Richter, Pulitzer Prize-winning American fiction writer, best known for his young-adult classic, The Light in the Forest.

1938 – Dalene Matthee, bestselling South African author, known for her four Forest Novels, written in and around the Knysna Forest.

1950 – Mollie Katzen, American chef and author of the popular Moosewood series of vegetarian cookbooks.

1957 – Chris Carter, American television and film producer, director, and writer, best known as creator of The X-Files.

1963 – Colin Channer, Jamaican author of novels, short stories, and poetry that focus on his home country; he is sometimes called “Bob Marley with a pen.”