Category Archives: Books / Reading / Writing

1737 – Thomas Paine, English-born American writer, essayist, opinion journalist, politician, philosopher, and political activist known for Enlightenment Era ideals; his pamphlet Common Sense and other writings helped inspire the American Revolution. 1783 – Vasily Zhukovsky, Russian poet, translator, linguist, and literary critic. 1863 – Anthony Hope, English author and playwright best known for hisContinue reading “February 9 Writer Birthdays”

1819 – John Ruskin, English art critic of the Victorian Era, best remembered for his five-volume work, Modern Painters. 1828 – Jules Verne, French novelist, poet, playwright, and pioneer in the science-fiction genre, known for such classics as Journey to the Center of the Earth and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. 1850 – KateContinue reading “February 8 Writer Birthdays”

1478 – Thomas More, English Renaissance writer and humanist who coined the term “utopia.” 1812 – Charles Dickens, English writer and social critic; one of the major novelists of the Victorian age, his works are still widely read today. 1837 – James Murray, Scottish lexicographer, philologist, and primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. 1867Continue reading “February 7 Writer Birthdays”

1564 – Christopher Marlowe, English playwright, poet, translator, and (probably) government spy of the Elizabethan era; he is sometimes credited with authorship of plays attributed to Shakespeare, but most scholars refute this. 1753 – Évariste Desiré de Forges, vicomte de Parny, French poet who was extremely popular during his lifetime; Pushkin once called him, “MyContinue reading “February 6 Writer Birthdays”

1813 – Jermain Wesley Loguen, American writer and abolitionist, known for The Rev. J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman, a Narrative of Real Life. 1871 – Jovan Dučić, Bosnian Serb modernist poet, political writer, and diplomat. 1893 – William Earl Johns, English pilot and writer of adventure stories, usually under theContinue reading “February 5 Writer Birthdays”

1820 – Božena Nemcová, Czech writer of the National Revival movement who wrote novels as well as books of fairy tales and legends; her image is featured on Czech banknotes. 1902 – Charles Lindbergh, American aviator, military officer, author, and environmental activist who wrote The Spirit of St. Louis about making the first solo transatlanticContinue reading “February 4 Writer Birthdays”