The Petrini Page

65BC – Horace, Roman satirist & lyric poet.

1832 – Björnstjerne Björnson, Nobel Prize-winning Norwegian novelist.

1862 – Georges Feydeau, Belle Epoque playwright and a forerunner of absurdist theater.

1881 – Padraic Colum, Irish poet, novelist and dramatist who was a leading figure of the Irish literary revival.

1894 – James Thurber, author, journalist and cartoonist; especially known for work published in the New Yorker magazine.

1903 – Katherine “Kitty” Muggeridge, British writer and translator.

1906 – Richard Llewellyn, Welsh novelist who wrote How Green Was My Valley.

1912 – Jura Soyfer, Austrian political journalist and satirist; died at Buchenwald in 1939.

1913 – Delmore Schwartz, poet and short-story writer.

1930 – John Morressy, U.S. science-fiction author.

1943 – Jim Morrison, poet, songwriter and musician; lead singer of the Doors; he attended George Washington High School in Alexandria, which is now my teenager’s former school, George Washington Middle School!

1949 – Mary Gordon, American writer of novels, memoirs, and literary criticism.

1872 – Johan Huizinga, Dutch historian and linguist who is considered one of the founders of modern cultural history.

1873 – Willa Cather, American author known for her novels of frontier life, like O Pioneers! and My Ántonia.

1878 – Akiko Yosano (与謝野 晶子), the pen-name of Hô Shô, a Japanese author, poet, pioneering feminist, pacifist, and social reformer who is one of the most famous, and most controversial, post-classical woman poets of Japan.

1888 – Joyce Cary, Anglo-Irish novelist and artist who chronicled his childhood in the fictionalized memoir A House of Children.

1909 – Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov, Bulgarian poet, communist, and revolutionary who is considered one of the most important Bulgarian poets ever, despite working most of his life as a machinist and publishing only one poetry book in his lifetime.

1928 – Noam Chomsky, American linguist, philosopher, author, and prominent cultural figure.

1943 – Susan Isaacs, bestselling American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter.

1478 – Baldassare Castiglione (Count of Casatico), a prominent Italian Renaissance author who was also a courtier, diplomat, and soldier.

1721 – James Elphinston, Scottish philologist, orthographer, and English-language grammarian.

1884 – Cornelia Meigs, American children’s author of fiction and biography, best known for her 1933 biography of Louisa May Alcott, Invincible Louisa; in addition to winning the Newbery Medal for that book, she also wrote three Newbery Honor books.

1886 – Joyce Kilmer, American writer and poet best known for his poem “Trees”; though a prolific poet whose works celebrated the beauty of nature, Kilmer was also a journalist, literary critic, lecturer, editor, and religious writer.

1904 – Eve Curie Labouisse, French-U.S. writer, journalist, biographer, activist, and pianist; as the daughter of Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie and the sister of Irène Joliot-Curie, she was the only person in her family who did not become a scientist and win a Nobel Prize. She did write a biography of her mother and a memoir about her experiences as a war correspondent. She was dubbed the “First Lady of UNICEF” for her commitment to working for UNICEF to help mothers and children in developing countries.

1905 – Elizabeth Yates, Newbery Medal-winning American author of children’s books who is best known for the biographical novel Amos Fortune, Free Man .

1910 – David M. Potter, Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian who wrote extensively about the American Civil War.

1949 – Linda Barnes, American mystery writer, known for the “Carlotta Carlyle” series.

1951 – Tomson Highway, Canadian indigenous (Cree) playwright, novelist, children’s author, and musician who was also the librettist of the first Cree language opera, Pimooteewin (The Journey).

1970 – Joumana Haddad, acclaimed Lebanese poet, translator, journalist, and women’s rights activist.

1830 – Christina Rossetti, English writer of romantic and children’s poems, best known for her long poem Goblin Market.

1872 – Vir Singh (Punjabi: ਭਾਈ ਵੀਰ ਸਿੰਘ ), Indian poet, scholar, and theologian who was a key figure in the movement for the revival of Punjabi literary tradition.

1886 – Rose Wilder Lane, American journalist, travel writer, novelist, and political theorist who was the daughter of American writer Laura Ingalls Wilder; Along with Ayn Rand and Isabel Paterson, Lane is considered one of the founders of the American libertarian movement.

1896 – Ann Nolan Clark, Newbery Medal-winning American children’s author.

1934 – Joan Didion, American author of novels, essays, and literary journalism, known for her lucid prose and incisive depictions of social unrest and psychological fragmentation.

1935 – Calvin Marshall Trillin, American journalist, humorist, food writer, poet, memoir writer, and novelist.

1936 – James Lee Burke, Edgar Award-winning American author of mysteries, best known for his Dave Robicheaux series.

1954 – Hanif Kureishi, English author and playwright; The Times named him one of Britain’s 50 greatest writers since 1945.

1968 – Lydia Millet, American novelist of literary fiction with a hint of dark humor.

1795 – Thomas Carlyle, Victorian-era Scottish satirical writer and historian.

1817 – Prince Nikoloz “Tato” Baratashvili (Georgian: ნიკოლოზ “ტატო” ბარათაშვილი), Georgian poet credited with combining modern nationalism with European Romanticism to introduce “Europeanism” into Georgian literature; often referred to as the “Georgian Byron.”

1822 – Frances Power Cobbe, Victorian-era Irish author, essayist, and activist who wrote about women’s suffrage, human rights, and animal rights.

1835 – Samuel Butler, English author and satirist, best known for Erewhon and The Way of All Flesh.

1875 – Rainer Maria Rilke (born René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke), Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist who is considered one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets.

1883 – Katharine Susannah Prichard, Fiji-born Australian author of novels, plays, and short stories, who was also a founding member of the Communist Party of Australia.

1903 – Cornell Woolrich, American novelist, many of whose works were adapted into noir films.

1905 – Munro Leaf (born Wilbur Monroe Leaf), American author and illustrator of children’s literature; he is best known for The Story of Ferdinand, a children’s classic that he wrote on a yellow legal pad in less than an hour.

1934 – Wen Shaoxian (溫紹賢) – Chinese translator, scholar, novelist

1949 – A. Scott Berg, Pulitzer Prize-winning American biographer.

1969 – Plum Sykes (born Victoria Sykes), British fashion writer, editor, and novelist.

1807 – Gamaliel Bailey, American journalist, editor, and publisher

1857 – Joseph Conrad, Polish author who wrote in English after moving to Britain and became one of the best-known authors in the English language; he is famous for such classic novels as Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim.

1897 – Kate O’Brien, Irish novelist and playwright.

1914 – Alaíde Foppa de Solórzano, Guatemalan and Argentinian poet and human-rights activist

1923  – Malcolm Franklin, Shanghai-born American author who was the stepson of writer William Faulkner and wrote about his life with him.

1924 – Francisco Sionil José, novelist and short-story writers who is one of the most widely read Filipino authors in the English language.

1929 – John Howie, American author and philosopher.

1937 – Morgan Llywelyn, American-born Irish author known for her historical fiction.

1942 – David K. Shipler, Pulitzer Prize-winning American nonfiction author.

1944 – Craig Anthony Raine, English poet who is one of the best-known exponents of Martian poetry.

1953 – Boris A. Novak, Slovenian poet and translator.

1955 – Michael Musto, American journalist, author, and Village Voice columnist.

1962 – Francesca Lia Block, American author of young-adult novels, short stories, screenplays, and poetry, best known for her “Weetzie Bat” series.

1980 – Zlata Filipović, Bosnian writer, author of the bestselling journal Zlata’s Diary which she wrote when she was between the ages of 11 and 13, during the war in Sarajevo.

One tradition I’d started years ago on the first version of the Petrini Page is posting lists of writer birthdays. I still don’t have a list put together for every day of the year, but I’m getting close. I don’t claim that these lists are inclusive, but I am trying to post a wide variety of writers, from various cultures and time periods. Here are the birthdays I’ve found for December 2.

1728 – Ferdinando Galiani, influential Italian economist & writer.

1868 – Francis Jammes, French poet.

1885 – Níkos Kazantazakís, Greek novelist.

1897 – Rewi Alley, writer, educator, and social reformer.

1909 – Joseph P. Lash, American political activist, Eleanor Roosevelt biographer, and author who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

1910 – Russell Lynes, art historian, critic, and author who was also managing editor of Harper’s Magazine.

1914 – Adolph Green, American lyricist and playwright.

1929 – Dan Jenkins, American author and sportswriter.

1929 – Leon Litwack, Pulitzer Prize winning author and historian.

1935 – David Hackett Fisher, Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian.

1937 – Brian Lumley, English author of horror fiction who first became known for writing in H.P. Lovecraft’s shared universe centered on the Cthulhu Mythos; winner of the Bram Stoker Award for lifetime achievement in horror writing.

1939 – Yaël Dayan, Israeli political activist, novelist, and journalist.

1944 – Botho Strauss, Germany playwright, novelist, and essayist.

1946 – David Macaulay, bestselling Caldecott Medal-winning British-born American author and illustrator of picture books for children and adults; his books, including Cathedral and The Way Things Work, combine text and highly detailed illustrations that explain architecture, design and engineering.

1948 – Elizabeth Berg, bestselling American novelist, playwright, registered nurse, and rock-band singer whose books have won many awards.

1948 – T.C. Boyle (Thomas Coraghessan Boyle), prolific American novelist and short-story writer who has been awarded the PEN/Faulkner prize for fiction.

1950 – Benedict Fitzgerald, controversial screenwriter who co-wrote the screenplay for the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ.

1958 – George Saunders, American writer of essays, short stories, and children’s books.

1963 – Ann Patchett, American novelist who won the Orange Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award.

1971 – Jüri Reinvere, Estonian poet and composer.