DECEMBER LITERARY BIRTHDAYS
(Complete list of December authors here.)Featured Authors
Hector Hugh Munro (Saki), Scottish/Burmese journalist, short story writer, 18 Dec. 1870 - 14 Dec. 1916
Short-story writer Saki took his pen-name from Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat. He was born in Burma to Scottish parents and lived afterwards in Switzerland, London, Warsaw, and other countries, writing columns for many British newspapers. He was killed by a sniper's bullet in France during WWI. The Guardian offers brief biographical data on Saki; more biographical info is available through Petri Liukkonen's Books and Writers Page; Bibliomania provides full-text for a number of Saki short stories.
Edwin Arlington Robinson, native Maine poet, 22 Dec. 1869 - 6 April 1935
Born in Alna and raised in Gardiner, Maine, Robinson became popular after Teddy Roosevelt wrote a favorable review of his second book of poems (The Children of the Night 1897) in 1905. Although Robinson lived in New York City and in Peterboro NH most of his adult life, many of his poems draw on his experiences and the people he knew in Gardiner.
Other works include The Torrent and the Night Before (1896), Captain Craig and Other Poems (1902), The Town Down the River (1910), The Man Against the Sky, Collected Poems (1921; won Pulitzer Prize), Tristram (1927; won Pulitzer Prize), and The Man Who Died Twice (1927; won Pulitzer Prize). His poems 'Miniver Cheevy,' 'Richard Cory,' and 'Tilbury Town' are all said to be inspired by people of Gardiner.
The Modern American Poetry Web site for Robinson has info on Robinson's life and career and his poetry, and essays on specific poems (including 'The House on the Hill,' 'Richard Cory,' and 'Miniver Cheevy.')
Other December Birthdays
- Dec 1
- Rex Stout, mystery writer from Indiana, creator of Nero Wolfe (1886; d.1975)
- Charles Finney, U.S. journalist and fantasy novelist (1905; d.1984)
- Brooklyn native, director and screenwriter Woody Allen, aka Allen Stewart Konigsberg (1935)
- Dec 2
- New Zealand-born Rewi Alley, who lived and wrote in China for over 60 years (1897; d.1987)
- English sci-fi author Brian Lumley (1937)
- Minnesotan Elizabeth Berg (1948), novelist and author of The Pull of the Moon (1996) and What We Keep (1998)
- NY-born humourous novelist and short story writer T[homas] C[oraghessan] Boyle (1948)
- California native, novelist Ann Patchett (1963), who published Bel Canto in 2001
- Dec 3
- Polish-born English writer Joseph Conrad (1857; birthdate also given as Dec. 6; d.1924), born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, famous for short stories Heart of Darkness (1902) and The Secret Sharer (1912) and the novel Lord Jim, among others
- novelist and memoirist Mark Salzman (1959), born Greenwich, Connecticut
- Dec 4
- Scottish essayist and historian Thomas Carlyle (1795; d.1881)
- English writer Samuel Butler (1835; d.1902), who wrote Erewhon and The Way of All Flesh
- German poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875; d.1926), also famous for his Letters to a Young Poet
- 'Father of Film Noir,' author of 'Rear Window' Cornell Woolrich (1903; 1968)
- Dec 5
- Christina Rossetti, British writer (1830; d.1894)
- prolific Mississippi-born (Syracuse, NY-raised) African American novelist, journalist, and biographer John A[lfred] Williams (1925)
- U.S. writer Joan Didion (1934)
- New York author, columnist, and satirist Calvin Trillin (1935)
- NY-born editor of Esquire and author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1994), John Berendt (1939)
- Dec 6
- Boston-born editor, poet, and critic William Stanley Braithwaite (1878; d.1962)
- 'Trees' poet [Alfred] Joyce Kilmer (1886; d.1918)
- London poet and writer Osbert Sitwell (1892; d.1969)
- Broadway lyricist Ira Gershwin (1896; d.1983)
- German (Austrian-born) avant-garde novelist and playwright Peter Handke (1942), who wrote the screenplay for Wings of Desire
- Dec 7
- 1923 Pulitzer Prize winner Willa [Sibert] Cather (1873, claimed 1876; d.1947), born near Winchester, Virginia, and raised in Nebraska, author of O Pioneers! (1913) and My Antonia (1918), among others
- Japanese poet Yosano Akiko (1878; d.1942)
- Anglo-Irish writer Joyce Cary (1888; d.1957)
- M.I.T. linguist and leftist Noam Chomsky (1928)
- prolific African-American playwright, poet, and newspaper columnist Pearl [Michelle] Cleage (1948) aka Pearl Cleage Lomax
- Dec 8
- Roman poet Horace (65 BC; d.8 BC), born Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace in Latin)
- 1903 Nobel Prize winner, Norwegian dramatist, poet, novelist, and politician Bjornstjerne [Martinius] Bjornson (1832; d.1910)
- British writer of travel books, zoological treatises, novels, and an autobiography, [George] Norman Douglas (1868; d.1952)
- Irish novelist and poet Padraic Colum, born Patrick Collumb (1881; d.1972)
- Pittsburgh native and novelist Hervey Allen (1889; d.1949), author of Anthony Adverse
- Ohio humorist James Thurber (1894; d.1961)
- Welsh/British novelist Richard Llewellyn aka Richard David Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd (1906; d.1983)
- NYC-born poet, short story writer, and critic Delmore Schwartz (1913; d.1966)
- NY-born novelist Mary Gordon (1949), who wrote Final Payments (1978) and The Company of Women (1981)
- Dec 9
- Poet John Milton (1608; d.1674)
- creator of the Uncle Remus stories, Joel Chandler Harris (1848; d.1908), born in Georgia
- Babar creator Jean de Brunhoff (1899; d.1937)
- Colorado-born screenwriter and novelist Dalton Trumbo (1905; d.1976), whose novel Johnny Got His Gun (1939) won the National Book Award
- Ohio native, African American poet and critic Samuel W[ashington] Allen aka Paul Vesey (1917), who considers the black church a major influence on his poetry
- Maryland-born African American poet, novelist, non-fiction writer, and co-founder of the Philadelphia Writers' Workshop, Sarah E. Wright (1928)
- Dec 10
- Scottish fantasy author George MacDonald (1824; d.1905), who wrote The Light Princess
- 'the Belle of Amherst' (Massachusetts), poet Emily [Elizabeth] Dickinson (1830; d.1886)
- German/Jewish poet and 1966 Nobelist Nelly Sachs (1891; d.1970)
- William Plomer, writer on South Africa (1903; d.1973)
- British children's writer Mary Norton (1903; d.1992), who penned the Borrowers stories
- English author Rumer Godden (1907)
- Washington state native, poet Carolyn Kizer (1925)
- California-born mystery writer and creator of a mystery series featuring J.W. Jackson and set in Martha's Vineyard, Philip R. Craig (1933)
- Dec 11
- Parisian writer Alfred de Musset (1810; see Musset's grave!)
- Turkish poet and author Kemal Bey (1840)
- Egyptian novelist, playwright, and short-story writer Naguib Mahfouz (1911, d.2006), who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature
- Russian writer and 1970 Nobelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918; d.2008)
- writer Grace Paley (1922)
- NYC-born poet and translator Jerome Rothenberg (1931)
- Michigan poet and novelist Jim Harrison (1937), who wrote the three-volume Legends of the Fall
- another Michigan native, novelist Thomas McGuane (1939)
- Dec 12
- French novelist Gustave Flaubert (1821; d.1880), whose first novel, Madame Bovary (1857), is considered his greatest
- French playwright Maurice Donnay (1859)
- English playwright John Osborne (1929; d.1994), whose most famous play is Look Back in Anger (1956)
- Dec 13
- German poet, essayist, and travel writer Heinrich Heine (1797; d.1856), best known for his ironical lyrics and ballads, many of which are set to music
- Pennsylvania playwright Marc Connelly (1890)
- U.S. poet and novelist Kenneth Patchen (1911)
- California-born detective novelist Ross MacDonald, aka Kenneth Millar (1915); his series features PI Lew Archer
- Ohio-born poet James Wright (1927)
- Dec 14
- U.S. short story writer Shirley Jackson (1919), who wrote the famous short story 'The Lottery'
- Chicago native and poet Carolyn M[arie] Rodgers (1945), once a member of the black arts movement
- California-born African-American essayist Stanley Crouch (1945)
- Chicagoan short story writer Amy Hempel (1951)
- Dec 15
- Novelist Betty Smith (1906; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn)
- U.S. poet Muriel Rukeyser (1913)
- controversial Irish writer Edna O'Brien (1932)
- Detroit native, African American novelist Donald Goines (1937?; d.1974) aka Al C. Clark, known for grim novels about drug users and prostitutes
- Dec 16
- English novelist Jane Austen (1775; d.1817)
- Spanish poet and philosopher George Santayana (1863)
- playwright and 1942 Academy Award winner Sir Noel Coward (1899)
- Sir V[ictor] S[awdon] Pritchett, author and literary critic (1900)
- futurist Arthur C. Clarke (1917)
- Chicago-born writer Philip K. Dick (1928)
- Dec 17
- U.S. poet John Greenleaf Whittier (1807)
- French novelist Jules de Goncourt (1830)
- very prolific English novelist, critic, biographer, and editor Ford Madox Ford (1873; d.1939), born Ford Hermann Hueffer, whose harrowing experiences in World War I influenced many of his novels
- South African novelist, autobiographer, and literary critic Ezekiel Mphahlele (1919) aka Es'kia Mphahlele and Bruno Eseki, whose novels include The Wanderers (1971) and Chirundu (1981)
- Baltimore-born sci-fi/fantasy writer Jack Chalker (1944)
- Dec 18
-
Besides Saki, above,
- English playwright Christopher Fry (1907)
- U.S. sci-fi writer Alfred Bester (1913)
- Georgia native, African-American actor, dramatist, screenwriter, and novelist Ossie Davis (1917), who wrote the play Purlie Victorious (1961) and its musical adaptation Purlie (1970), about a Southern black preacher who hopes to establish a racially integrated church
- U.S. fantasy writer Sterling Lanier (1927)
- English fantasy author Michael Moorcock (1939)
- Dec 19
- strong>Su Tung Po, Chinese poet and essayist (1036)
- Italo Svevo, Trieste novelist (1861); 1930 Pulitzer Prize winner Oliver Lafarge (1901)
- French novelist and playwright Jean Genet (1910)
- Irish-born, Californian children's author Eve Bunting (1928)
- Dec 20
- Welsh writer T[heodore] F[rancis] Powys (1875)
- novelist Hortense Calisher (1911; d.2009)
- Dec 21
- British Tory statesman and pioneer of the political novel Sir Benjamin 'Dizzy' Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (1804; d.1881)
- French poet Gustave Kahn (1859; Kahn's poems in French)
- U.S. writer of dog novels Albert P[ayson] Terhune (1872)
- novelist Dame Rebecca West (1892)
- English novelist Anthony Powell (1905)
- German writer and 1972 Nobel Prize winner Heinrich Boll (1917)
- Dec 22
-
Besides E.A. Robinson, above,
- English poet and parodist Charles Stuart Calverley (1831; d.1884), considered one of the most brilliant men of his time
- U.S. poet and translator Kenneth Rexroth (1905)
- Dec 23
- Martin Opitz, German poet (1597)
- French writer Charles-Augustin de Sainte-Beuve (1804)
- Scottish author Samuel Smiles (1812; authored Jasmin)
- Chicago poet and first editor of the journal Poetry, Harriet Monroe (1860)
- Sicilian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896)
- U.S. poet, translator, and 'Iron John' Robert Bly (1926)
- children's author Avi (1937)
- Dec 24
- English poet and curate George Crabbe (1754; d.1832; 2 Crabbe poems), remembered for his portrayal of rural life
- English poet and critic Matthew Arnold (1822; d.1888)
- Spanish poet and journalist (born Andalusia) and 1956 Nobel Prize winner Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881; d.1958), who left Spain at the start of the Spanish Civil War to live in the U.S., Cuba, and Puerto Rico
- U.S. fantasy writer Fritz Leiber (1910)
- NY mystery writer Mary Higgins Clark (1929)
- Dec 25
- English poet William Collins (1721; d.1759; selected Collins' poems)
- Pittsburgh native (West Virginia-raised) African-American novelist and scriptwriter William Demby (1922)
- U.S. mystic and writer Carlos Castaneda (1931)
- Dec 26
- English poet and scholar of history and languages, Thomas Gray (1716; d.1771), friend of Horace Walpole
- writer Henry Miller (1891)
- Washington D.C.-born poet, short story writer, dramatist, and essayist Jean Toomer (1894; d.1967) born Nathan Eugene Toomer, a child of mixed-race parents who considered himself simply 'American,' probably best known for his 1923 book Cane
- Dec 27
- Ohio writer and winner of 1926 Pulitzer for fiction Louis Bromfield (1896)
- English writer Wilfrid Sheed (1930)
- Dec 28
- Spanish writer Pio Baroja y Nessi (1872; d.1956)
- NYC-born author and philosopher Mortimer J. Adler (1902; d.2001)
- NY writer and 'Twilight Zone' creator Rod Serling (1927)
- Argentinian writer, author of Kiss of the Spider Woman, Manuel Puig (1932)
- Dec 29
- Robert Ruark, U.S. writer of hunting and outdoors stories (1915)
- Dec 30
- English author (born Bombay, India) and 1907 Nobelist [Joseph] Rudyard Kipling (1865; d.1936), author of The Jungle Book (1894), Kim, and Just-So Stories (1902), among others
- Paul Bowles, New York-born novelist, short story writer, and travel writer who spent many years in Morocco (1910; d.1999)
- children's author Mercer Mayer (1943)
- Dec 31
- Kansas native, African-American poet and journalist Frank Marshall Davis (1905; d. 1987), whose poetry protested the racial inequality of the 1930s and 40s
- Georgia-born (Chicago-raised) experimental fiction writer and poet Clarence Major (1936)
- British non-fiction writer Roy Sydney Porter (1946; d.2002)