Author Archives: petrini1

1869 – Hovhannes Tumanyan, Armenian poet, writer, translator, literary critic, journalist, and public activist who is considered the national poet of Armenia; his work was mostly realistic, focusing on everyday life. 1896 – André Robert Breton, French writer, poet, and anti-fascist who was one of the founders of the Surrealist movement. 1902 – Kay Boyle,Continue reading “February 19 Writer Birthdays”

1855 – Jean Jules Jusserand, Pulitzer Prize-winning French scholar of history and Medieval English literature, author, and Ambassador to the U.S. during World War I; Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., features a memorial to him. 1883 – Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer and philosopher, best known for his novel Zorba the Greek. 1909 – Wallace Stegner, Pulitzer Prize-winningContinue reading “February 18 Writer Birthdays”

1836 – Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (born Gustavo Adolfo Claudio Domínguez Bastida), Spanish Romanticist poet, short-story author, playwright, literary columnist, and artist; one of the most important figures in Spanish literature, he is considered the most-read Spanish writer after Cervantes. 1864 – Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson, Australian bush poet, journalist, and author who wrote many balladsContinue reading “February 17 Writer Birthdays”

1927 – Luísa Dacosta (born Marie Louise Pinto Saraiva dos Santos), Portuguese short story writer, poet, and anthologist. 1927 – David Bryon Davis, American historian and authority on slavery and abolition in the Western world. 1927 – Shahidullah Kaiser, Bangladeshi novelist and writer. 1944 – Richard Ford, Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, best known for hisContinue reading “February 16 Writer Birthdays”

1564 – Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, philosopher, mathematician, and writer who played a major role in the Renaissance’s scientific revolution; called the “father of observational astronomy,” the “father of modern physics,” and the “father of science,” he is known for confirming the phases of Venus, discovering the four largest satellites of Jupiter (theContinue reading “February 15 Writer Birthdays”

1404 – Leon Battista Alberti, Italian Renaissance humanist author, playwright, poet, artist, architect, priest, linguist, philosopher, mathematician, musicologist, and cryptographer. 1818 – Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey) American writer, orator, memoirist, social reformer, abolitionist, women’s suffragist, and statesman who escaped from slavery to became a leader of the abolitionist movement; hedescribed his experiencesContinue reading “February 14 Writer Birthdays”