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 Authors' Calendar website; 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 Peterborough, NH most of his adult life, many of his poems -- including 'Miniver Cheevy,' 'Richard Cory,' and 'Tilbury Town' -- draw on his experiences and the people he knew in Gardiner (which he renames Tilbury Town).

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). 

Both the Poetry Foundation and the Academy of American Poets websites have info on Robinson's life, career, and poetry. A Virtual Tour of Robinson's Gardiner, Maine website includes a Gardiner map as well as an essay about Robinson in the context of Gardiner, background on Robinson, selected works, and a bibliography


Other December Birthdays