March 4 Writer Birthdays

1493 – Anna Bijns, Flemish writer, poet, teacher, and school administrator; she was the first author in Dutch-language literature who owed her success in part to the recently invented printing press.

1743 – Johann David Wyss, Swiss folklorist and author who is best remembered for the book Swiss Family Robinson.

1819 – Narcyza Zmichowska (also known by her pen name, Gabryella), Polish novelist and poet who is considered a precursor of feminism in Poland.

1836 – Matilda Betham-Edwards, English novelist, travel writer, poet, and children’s writer.

1856 – Toru Dutt, Indian Bengali poet and translator who wrote in English and French.

1881 – T.S. Stribling, Pulitzer Prize-winning American lawyer, short-story writer, novelist, and journalist who wrote about the American South.

1906 – Meindert DeJong, Dutch-American author of children’s books who won multiple Newbery Medals.

1913 – Marie-Louise-Taos Amrouche, Tunisian-born Algerian writer, singer, and author who was the first Algerian woman to publish a novel.

1914 – Barbara Newhall Follett, American child prodigy novelist whose first two books were published when she was twelve and fourteen; she disappeared at age 25 and was never found.

1919 – Rosamund Stanhope, British poet and teacher known for her use of esoteric and unusual words.

1921 – Phanishwar Nath ‘Renu’, Indian author, screenwriter, and activist.

1924 – Alcira Soust Scaffo, Uruguayan writer, poet, and teacher who lived in Mexico for more than two decades; during the occupation of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) by the Mexican Army, she remained hidden for 15 days in a bathroom at the university.

1928 – Alan Sillitoe, English writer; one of the “Angry Young Men” of the 1950s; he is remembered for his brash and angry accounts of working-class life. which injected new vigor into post-World War II British fiction.

1940 – David Plante, American/British novelist, professor, diarist, and memoirist.

1946 – Patricia Kennealy-Morrison, American author, editor, journalist, memoirist, and music critic; her published works include rock criticism, a memoir, and two series of science fiction/fantasy and murder mystery novels; she was one of the first women rock critics and is a High Priestess in a Celtic Pagan tradition.

1948 – Julia Cameron, American teacher, author, artist, and poet whose best known books are The Artist’s Way and The Right to Write.

1948 – James Ellroy, American author of crime fiction and essays, much of whose work is characterized by a telegrammatic prose style that omits connecting words and uses only short, staccato sentences; he has called himself, “The Demon Dog of American Literature.

1951 – Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Korean novelist, producer, director, professor, and artist who was murdered a week after her novel was published.

1953 – Geoff Nicholson, British satirical novelist and nonfiction writer.

1953 – Peggy Rathman, Caldecott Medal-winning American author and illustrator of children’s books.

1953 – Daniel Woodrell, American novelist and short-story writer whose work is set in the Ozarks.

1954 – Irina Borisovna Ratushinskaya, Russian Soviet dissident, poet, screenwriter, and writer.

1965 – Khaled Hosseini, Afghan-born American writer and physician whose novel The Kite Runner was an international bestseller.

1966 – Dav Pilkey, American cartoonist, author, and illustrator of children’s books, most notably the “Captain Underpants” series.

1975 – Fiona Maazel, award-winning American novelist.