1766 – Albertine Necker de Saussure, Swiss writer and pedagogue.
1821 – Charles Baudelaire, French poet, essayist, and art critic; translator of Edgar Allan Poe; his name inspired Lemony Snicket’s choice of family name for the Baudelaire children in the “A Series of Unfortunate Events” books.
1824 – Louise Cathrine Elisabeth Bjørnsen (pen name Elisabeth Martens), Danish novelist and short-story writer.
1860 – Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler, English poet, novelist, and children’s writer, best known for her popular romances.
1865 – Adela Florence Nicolson, English poet who wrote under the pseudonym Laurence Hope.
1875 – Jacques Futrelle, American journalist and mystery writer who died in the sinking of the Titanic.
1880 – Maria Jotuni, Finnish feminist novelist, playwright, and short-story writer.
1891 – Lesbia Harford, Australian poet, novelist, and political activist.
1894 – Camila Henríquez Ureña, Domingan, writer, essayist, educator, and literary critic from the Dominican Republic who became a naturalized Cuban citizen.
1897 – Cuthbert Quinlan Dale Collins (pen name Dale Collins), Australian journalist and author of popular fiction; he is notable for a series of sea romances, some of which were adapted for motion pictures — including Rich and Strange, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
1899 – Jiang Biwei, Chinese memoirist and artist’s model who was influential in the lives of the painter Xu Beihong and politician Chang Tao-fan.
1902 – Olga Vasilievna Perovskaya, Russian Soviet author and children’s writer; her most notable work, Rebyata i Zveryata (Kids and Cubs), was a series of stories of about the pets she and her sisters kept during their childhood.
1908 – Joseph Krumgold, American author of screenplays and children’s books; first person to win two Newbery Medals.
1908 – Ivan Yefremov, Russian Soviet writer, paleontologist, science fiction author, philosopher, and social thinker who was the originator of the concept of taphonomy, the study of fossilization patterns.
1912 – Lev Kopelev, Soviet author and dissident.
1917 – Johannes Bobrowski, Soviet-born German author, poet, translator, literary editor, and soldier.
1923 – Leonard Levy, Pulitzer Prize-winning American history professor.
1929 – Paule Marshall, award-winning American poet and novelist; she was a colleague of Langston Hughes.
1929 – Zheng Wenguang, Vietnamese-born Chinese science-fiction writer.
1933 – Genevieve Duboscq, French author who wrote the best selling My Longest Night — a twelve-year-old heroine’s stirring account of D-Day and after.
1933 – Fern Michaels, bestselling American author of romance and thriller novels.
1936 – Valerie Solanas, American feminist writer best known for trying to assassinate artist Andy Warhol.
1946 – Nobuko Takagi (pen name for Nobuko Tsuruta), award-winning Japanese author.
1947 – Maria-Pia Boëthius, Swedish journalist, novelist, non-fiction writer, and activist.
1947 – Vera Nosková (Hroznetín), Czech writer, journalist, and promoter of science and critical thinking.
1948 – Eva Gerlach, award-winning Dutch poet who also writes under the name Margaret Dijkstra.
1952 – Robert Clark, Edgar Award-winning American novelist and nonfiction author.
1953 – Christine Van Broeckhoven, Belgian writer, politiian, molecular biologist, and professor.
1954 – Ken Kalfus, American author and journalist.
1955 – Joolz Denby, British poet, novelist, artist, and tattooist.
1955 – Kate Heyhoe, American food writer and cookbook author.
1959 – Jeon Yeo-ok, South Korean journalist and conservative politician.
1960 – Isabel Coixet, Spanish screenwriter, writer, and translator who is also one of the most prolific film directors in modern Spain.
1964 – Margaret P. Haddix, bestselling award-winning American author of novels for children and young adults.
1965 – Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson, German historian, writer, author, and university teacher.
1967 – Sam Harris, American author, philosopher, and neuroscientist.
1974 – Anna Troberg, Swedish author, blogger, translator, and former politician who was leader of the Swedish Pirate Party.
