At Boston Common, the Make Way for Ducklings statues of a mother duck and her babies commemorate Robert McCloskey's classic picture book in the location where the book is set. (That's my son in the photo. At 17, he was a bit larger than the toddlers who wanted their pictures taken with the ducks, but he was a good sport when I asked him to pose.)
1613 - François de La Rochefoucauld, French author of maxims and memoirs who was was one of the leading exponents of the "maxime," a French literary form of epigram that expresses a harsh or paradoxical truth with brevity.
1789 - James Fenimore Cooper, U.S. writer of romantic historical fiction dealing with frontier and Indian life, as well as sea tales; author of The Last of the Mohicans and The Deerslayer; he also wrote nonfiction.
1890 - Agatha Christie, prolific British mystery writer and playwright, most well known for her Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot series; she is considered the bestselling novelist of all time.
1890 - Claude McKay, Jamaican-born poet and novelist who was a major writer of the Harlem Renaissance.
1894 - Jean Renoir, French screenwriter, film director, author, and biographer who wrote Renoir, My Father, the definitive biography of his father, the celebrated impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
1897 - Merle Curti, Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. historian and professor who was a leader in developing the fields of social history and intellectual history and who helped develop quantitative methods based on census samples as a tool in historical research.
1901 - Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich (born Elizabeth Charlotte Henrich), German novelist, history professor, and philosopher.
1905 - Ramkumar Verma, Indian Hindi poet, writer, and politician who published one act-plays and several anthologies of his work.
1909 - Betty Neels, prolific English romance novelist who was a retired nurse when she heard a woman in her local library bemoaning the lack of good romance novels and decided to write one herself.
1914 - Orhan Kemal (pen name of Turkish novelist Mehmet Rasit Ögütçü), Turkish novelist, screenwriter, and poet known for realistic novels that describe the life of the poor in Turkey.
1914 - Robert McCloskey, U.S. children's book author and illustrator; many of his books were set in Maine, but his classic picture book, Make Way for Ducklings, was set in Boston. (The photo shows my own teenager at the Make Way for Ducklings statues at Boston Common, where the book takes place.)
1915 - Fawn Brodie, U.S. biographer and professor who sparked a dramatic rethinking of Thomas Jefferson's legacy with the biography, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History, the first modern examination of evidence that Jefferson had taken his slave Sally Hemings as a concubine and fathered children by her; she also wrote biographies of Mormon leader Joseph Smith, Richard Nixon, and others.
1916 - Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu, Romanian writer, novelist, and diplomat.
1918 - Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. professor of business and economic history who wrote about industrialization and the history of management structures.
1919 - Heda Margolius Kovály, Czech writer, novelist, crime writer, autobiographer, and translator who survived the Lódz ghetto and Auschwitz, where her parents died, and escaped while being marched to Bergen-Belsen.
1921 - Richard Gordon (also known as also known Gordon Stanley Ostlere), English surgeon who also was a novelist, screenwriter, and history author; most of his work centered around the the practice of medicine and health-related topics.
1926 - Takamaro Shigaraki, influential Japanese Buddhist writer, philosopher, and professor.
1927 - Carlos Germán Belli de La Torre, award-winning Peruvian poet, writer, journalist, and translator of Italian descent.
1927 - Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena, Indian Hindi writer, poet, columnist, and playwright.
1929 - Moawad GadElrab, Egyptian physician, author, short-story writer, columnist, artist, and professor; many of his works of literature have been adapted for television.
1934 - Tomie DePaola, beloved U.S. author and illustrator of more than 200 children's books, including Caldecott Honor book Strega Nona and Newbery Honor book 26 Fairmount Avenue.
1935 - Allan Savory, Zimbabwean writer, scientist, biologist, ecologist, and politician whose writing advocates a systems-thinking approach to managing resources.
1938 - Lya Fett Luft, Brazilian writer, poet, novelist, and journalist who is also a prolific translator.
1939 - Elizabeth Odio Benito, Costa Rican writer, lawyer, judge, politician, and university teacher.
1940 - Anne Moody, U.S. author who wrote about her experiences growing up poor and Black in rural Mississippi, and about her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.
1940 - Norman Spinrad, multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated U.S. science-fiction novelist, short-story writer, nonfiction author, critic, and essayist.
1941 - Elizabeth Edwina Smither, award-winning New Zealand poet, novelist, short-story writer, and librarian.
1945 - Mouna Bassili Sehnaoui, Egyptian-born Lebanese author, illustrator, and artist.
1949 - Marie Arana, Peruvian-born author, memoirist, screenwriter, editor, journalist, and critic who is Literary Director of the U.S. Library of Congress.
1954 - Hrant Dink, Turkish newspaper editor, journalist, editor, columnist, opinion journalist, human-rights activist, and football player.
1954 - Nava Semel, Israeli author, screenwriter, playwright, poet, translator, journalist, and children's writer; her short-story collection Kova Zekhukhit (Hat of Glass) was the first work of fiction published in Israel to address the topic of the "Second Generation" - the children of Holocaust survivors.
1955 - Adélaïde H. Edith Bignon Fassinou (also known by her married name, Allagbada), Beninese novelist who writes in French; she is also Benin's General Secretary for UNESCO.
1962 - François Bloemhof, award-winning South African author, playwright, composer, copywriter, and film reviewer.
1964 - Sirpa Kähkönen, award-winning Finnish novelist, young-adult writer, editor, and translator.
1965 - Marcela María Delorenzi (better known by her stage name, Daisy May Queen), Argentine radio host, television presenter, and writer, currently based in India.
1968 - Simona Škrabec, Slovenian author, literary critic, essayist, linguist, and translator who is fluent in eight languages.
1969 - Dan Lungu, Romanian novelist, short-story writer, sociologist, and essayist.
1972 - Toh EnJoe, award-winning Japanese author, novelist, and science-fiction writer.
1972 - Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, Spanish writer, journalist, and news anchor who is Queen Consort of Spain, as the wife of King Felipe VI.
1977 - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, award-winning Nigerian writer of novels, short stories, and nonfiction; her most famous works are the novels Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun, and Americanah.
1982 - Jesse Andrews, U.S. novelist and screenwriter who adapted his first novel, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, for film.
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