Library Booklists and Bibliographies: Literary Births: May

MAY LITERARY BIRTHDAYS

Featured Authors

Walt Whitman, May 31, 1819 - March 26, 1892

Extensive Walt Whitman Archive, with manuscripts, published works, biography, criticism, images, audio recordings, teaching materials, bibliography, etc.; The Academy of American Poets' Whitman's page, with biographical sketch and text of some poems; full text of Song of Myself from the Modern American Poetry website; full text of Leaves of Grass

Elizabeth Coatsworth, May 31, 1893 - 1986

Coatsworth, born in Buffalo, NY, and a graduate of Vassar (BA 1915) and Columbia (MA 1916), was the wife of Henry Beston (married 1929) and lived with him in Hingham, Mass., and then on a farm in Nobleboro for decades; she's buried in the cemetery on Chimney Farm. Coatsworth travelled widely, spending time in England, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Morocco, Japan, China, Mexico, the Philippines, and the Yucatan. She incorporates her travel memories into her writing.

Coatsworth wrote over 90 books, most of them children's books, including Five Bushel Farm (1939), a Maine pioneer story; The Enchanted: An Incredible Tale (1951); and Giant Book of Cat Stories (1953). She won the 1931 Newbery Award for her children's book, The Cat Who Went To Heaven (1930), which is set in Japan.

Her first novel, Here I Stay: A Maine Novel, was published in 1938. She also wrote a number of autobiographical books and poetry.

The de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi has a short autobiography, photos, letters, and some material pertaining to Coatsworth's writing, as well a good and concise biographical sketch of her life and work.

[Eleanor] May Sarton, May 3, 1912 - July 15, 1995

Sarton was born Eleanor Marie Sarton in Wondelgem, Belgium, on 3 May 1912 and emigrated to the U.S. with her family in 1916, settling in Massachusetts. Sarton lived in New Hampshire as an adult, moving to York, Maine, in 1973, where she lived until the end of her life, on 16 July 1995. A comprehensive Sarton bibliography is found on the Celebration of Women Writers page, as is a biographical sketch. Poetry magazine produced a lengthy article on Sarton in March 2000, and Sojourner's magazine provides a short death notice.

Other May Birthdays

May 1
- English essayist and politician Joseph Addison (1672; d.1719)
- African-American poet, folklorist, and critic Sterling A. Brown (1901; d. 1989), born Washington D.C.
- Swiss autobiographical fiction writer Niccolo Tucci (1908; d.1999)
- novelist and Brooklyn native Joseph Heller (1923; d.1999), famous for his novel Catch-22
- Texan Terry Southern, novelist and scriptwriter (1924; d.1995), who collaborated on screenplays for Dr. Strangelove and Easy Rider, among others
- Kentucky-born Bobbie Ann Mason (1940), author of In Country and Midnight Magic
May 2
May 3
- Niccolo Machiavelli (1469; d.1527), Italian writer and statesman, author of The Prince
- Danish journalist and reformer Jacob Riis (1849; d.1914), author of How The Other Half Lives
- playwright and Kansan William Inge (1913; d.1973 suicide), who wrote Picnic and Bus Stop
May 4
- English biologist and essayist Thomas Henry Huxley (1825; d.1895), chief advocate in his day of evolutionary theory and grandfather of biologist Julian Huxley (b. 1887) and novelist Aldous Huxley (b.7/26/1894)
- Irish poet, translator, and anthologist Thomas Kinsella (1928)
- Israeli writer, novelist, journalist and literature professor Amos Oz, born Amos Klausner (1939)
- London-born Booker Prize winning novelist Graham Swift (1949)
- Seattle-born novelist David Guterson (1956), author of Snow Falling on Cedars
May 5
- German Karl Marx (1818; d.1883), founder of modern Communism and co-author of Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto
- intrepid American stunt journalist and social reformer Nellie Bly (1864; d.1922), aka Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, known for her quick trip around the world
- illustrator and author of children's books Leo Lionni (1910; d.1999)
May 6
- Minneapolis native and Burma Shave jingle-writer Allan G. Odell (1903; d.1994)
- Nashville-born poet, translator, and critic Randall Jarrell (1914; d.1965)
- Chilean poet, novelist, and playwright Ariel Dorfman (1942)
May 7
- British poet Robert Browning (1812; d.1889), husband of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Indian poet and writer, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913
- Illinois-born poet, playwright, lawyer, farmer, Librarian of Congress from 1939-1944, and winner of three Pulitzer prizes Archibald MacLeish (1892; d.1982)
- novelist, short story writer and screenwriter (frequently for Ivory-Merchant films) Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1927), born in Cologne, Germany, naturalised U.S. citizen
- American editor, critic, anthologist, and poet Darwin T[heodore Troy] Turner (1931; d.1991), an authority on African American literature
May 8
- for Edward Gibbon (1737), see 27 April
- literary critic, journalist, New Jersey native, and polyglot Edmund Wilson (1895; d.1972)
- children and YA author Irene Hunt (1907; d.2001)
- Harlem-raised writer of juvenile biographies of black figures Louise Meriwether (1923); she also wrote the acclaimed semi-autobiographical Daddy Was A Numbers Runner (1970)
- San-Francisco-born Pulitzer-prize winning poet Gary Snyder (1930)
- NY-born novelist Thomas (Ruggles) Pynchon (1937)
- NYC-born novelist, author of Jaws and grandson of humourist Robert Benchley, Peter Benchley (1940; d.2006)
- Mississippi-born playwright Beth Henley aka Elizabeth Becker (1952), who authored 'Crimes of the Heart'
May 9
- Peter Pan creator Sir J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie (1860; d.1937), Scottish novelist and playwright
- Washington, D.C. native, African-American novelist, short story writer, and physician Rudolph [John Chauncey] Fisher (1897; d.1934), who wrote the first black American detective novel, The Conjure-Man Dies: A Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem (1932)
- New Jersey-born William Pène du Bois (1916; d.1993), author of Newbery Award winner The Twenty-One Balloons (1947)
- British novelist and Watership Down author Richard Adams (1920)
- Iowa poet Mona Van Duyn (1921; d.2004), winner of the National Book Award and the first woman Poet Laureate of the U.S. (1992-93)
- British actor and playwright Alan Bennett (1934), author of The Madness of King George
- Yugoslavian-born, Pulitzer-prize-winning poet Charles Simic (1938)
May 10
- Arizona-born African-American jazz and performance poet Jayne Cortez (1936), whose poetry is concerned with racial injustice and political oppression
May 11
- Russian-born songwriter Irving Berlin (1888), author of 'God Bless America' and 'White Christmas,' among many others
- Nebraskan writer Mari Sandoz (1901), who wrote the six-volume Great Plains series
- Canadian Incredible Journey author Sheila Burnford (1918)
- Brazilian novelist, short story writer journalist, and scriptwriter Rubem Fonseca (1925; page in Portuguese)
- NYC-born novelist and short-story writer Stanley Elkin (1930; d.1995)
- Barbadian poet, historian, and essayist Edward Kamau Brathwaite (1930)
May 12
- Nonsense poet Edward Lear (1812; d.1888)
- Pre-Raphaelite poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti nee Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (1828; 1882)
- Singapore-born mystery writer, creator of Simon Templar (The Saint), Leslie Charteris nee Leslie Charles Bowyer Yin (1907)
- Alabama native, African American novelist and essayist Albert L. Murray (1916), who incorporated a blues aesthetic into his novels
- writer of animal stories Farley Mowat (1921)
- Philadelphia-born novelist and poet Rosellen Brown (1939)
May 13
- British diarist and journalist Henry Crabb Robinson (1775)
- British novelist Daphne Du Maurier (1907), author of Rebecca (1939)
- children's author Norma Klein (1938)
- children's author, Sweet Valley High creator, Francine Pascal (1938)
- British travel writer and novelist (Charles) Bruce Chatwin (1940), author of In Patagonia
- Boston native and short-story writer and novelist Rachel Ingalls (1940)
- San-Francisco Chronicle columnist and novelist (born NC) Armistead Maupin nee Armistead Jones (1944)
May 14
- Nebraskan journalist and novelist Hal (Harold Glen) Borland (1900)
May 15
- Oz creator L. Frank Baum (1856; d.1919)
- Virginian historian, biographer, and Pulitzer Prize winner Douglas Southall Freeman (1886), who wrote the four-volume R.E. Lee (1934) as well as a seven-volume biography of George Washington
- Texas-born storywriter and novelist Katherine Anne Porter nee Callie Russell Porter (1890)
- Russian (Ukrainian) novelist/satirist Mikhail Bulgakov (1891), author of The Master and Margarita (1967)
- English novelist H[erbert] E[rnest] Bates (1905), best known for The Darling Buds of May (1958)
- twin Liverpudlian playwrights Peter Shaffer (Equus, Amadeus) and Anthony Shaffer (Sleuth) (1926)
- children's writer Norma Fox Mazer (1931)
- young adult writer Paul Zindel (1936)
May 16
- Massachusetts-born teacher and publisher Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (1804), who introduced the concept of childhood education to America
- oral historian and Bronx-native (Louis) 'Studs' Terkel (1912)
- Baltimore-born feminist poet Adrienne Rich (1929), author of Diving into the Wreck, among many
- kids' author Bruce Coville (1950)
May 17
- British novelist and stream-of-consciousness pioneer Dorothy M[iller] Richardson (1873)
- Wisconsin-born novelist and forger Frederic Prokosch (1908), best known for The Asiatics (1935)
- North Carolina-born African American children's author Eloise Greenfield (1929)
- Swedish playwright, novelist, and poet Lars Gustafsson (1936)
- writer of books for children and young adults, Gary Paulsen (1939), author of Dogsong (1985) and Hatchet (1987), among others
- Colorado native and author of children's and young adult books Dian Curtis Regan (1950)
May 18
- British philosopher, mathematician, pacifist, and author Bertrand Russell (1872), who won the 1950 Literature Nobel Prize, partly for A History of Western Philosophy (1945)
- Illinois-native Patrick Dennis (1921), who wrote the novel Auntie Mame
- Manhattan-born (lives Ireland) adult and young adult fantasy/sci-fi writer Diane Duane (1952)
May 19
- Kansas-born journalist and novelist Jim Lehrer (1934), host of the PBS show 'The News Hour'
- Chicago-born African-American playwright Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (1930), famous for Raisin in the Sun (1959)
- Canadian banker, convict, and Edgar Award winning mystery writer Paul Erdman (1932)
- New Yorker director and screenwriter Nora Ephron (1941), sister of Delia Ephron, and writer or director of When Harry Met Sally (1989), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), and You've Got Mail (1998)
May 20
- French novelist Honoré de Balzac (1799; d.1850), who wrote The Human Comedy in 80 volumes
- Norwegian novelist Sigurd Undset (1882), famous for her Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy
- Maine author Elisabeth Ogilvie (1917; d.2006)
May 21
- Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265), author of The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Parasdiso
- British poet, critic, translator, and satirist Alexander Pope (1688)
- NYC-born popular novelist Harold Robbins aka Francis Kane (1916)
- Massachusetts poet Robert Creeley (1926; d.30March2005)
May 22
- Sherlock Holmes' alter ego, Scottish-born physician, novelist, and historian Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859; d.1930)
- NYC-born writer Peter Matthiessen (1927), whose memoir The Snow Leopard (1978) won the National Book Award
May 23
- American actor, playwright and diplomat John Howard Payne (1791)
- English poet and humourist Thomas Hood (1799; d.1845)
- Massachusetts-born journalist, social reformer, critic, and foreign correspondent for the New York Tribune, Margaret Fuller (1810; d.1850 in a boat fire)
- Los Angeles-born Newbery Medal winner Scott O'Dell (1898), author of The Island Of The Blue Dolphin
- British/Irish poet and memoirist Sheila Wingfield (1906)
- prolific children's author Margaret Wise Brown (1910; d.1952)
May 24
- English playwright Sir Arthur Wing Pinero (1855), a popular and prolific English dramatist during his time
- Nobel Prize winning Russian novelist and Communist supporter Mikhail A. Sholokhov (1905)
- Irish writer and sculptor William Trevor nee William Trevor Cox (1928)
- Nobel Prize winning Russian poet Joseph Brodsky (1940)
May 25
- English writer and politican Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803; d.1873), best known for his historical novels, such as The Last Days of Pompeii (1834)
- American (Boston born) transcendentalist, essayist, philosopher, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803; d.1882), liberal in politics and philosophy, yet skeptical of doctrinaire positions
- Michigan-born poet and 1954 Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry Theodore Roethke (1908; d.1963)
- NYC-born spy thriller novelist Robert Ludlum (1927; d.2001)
- Oregonian short-story writer and poet Raymond [Clevie] Carver (1938; d.1988)
- American novelist (born Antigua), essayist, and short story writer Jamaica Kincaid nee Elaine Potter Richardson (1949)
May 26
- Mississippi-born New York poet Maxwell Bodenheim nee Maxwell Bodenheimer (1893), known as the Bard of Greenwich Village in the 1920s
- NYC-born poet Michael Benedikt (1935)
May 27
- English novelist [Enoch] Arnold Bennett (1867; d.1931), who wrote over 30 novels and short story collections portraying lower middle-class life in the Midlands
- French novelist and physician Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894; d.1961), aka Louis-Ferdinand Destouches, whose hallucinatory and crude novels prefigured the literature of the absurd
- NYC-born novelist Herman Wouk (1915), who won a Pulitzer for his novel The Caine Mutiny
- Oklahoman mystery writer and journalist Tony Hillerman (1925;d.2008)
- cerebral novelist, Maryland-born John Barth (1930)
- children's author M.E. Kerr (1932; aka Marijane Meaker Kerr)
- NYC-born poet Linda Pastan (1932)
- environmentalist writer Rachel Carson (1907; d.1964)
May 28
- James Bond creator and Brit Ian Fleming (1908)
- Southern novelist (born Alabama) Walker Percy (1916; d.1990)
- Utah native and poet May Swenson (1919; d.1989)
- Connecticut-born writer of books about rich people Stephen Birmingham (1932)
May 29
- Prolific British essayist, literary critic, novelist, and poet, and short-story writer, and creator of detective Father Brown, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton (1874; d.1936)
- British (born India) novelist T[erence] H[anbury] White (1906), best known for novels about the Arthurian legend
- New Jersey native Andrew Clements (1949), children's book writer
May 30
- Kentucky-born (NYC raised) Harlem Renaissance poet and children's writer Countee Cullen (1903; d.1946)
- British ghost-story writer R. Chetwynd-Hayes (1919)
May 31
- Mississippi-born novelist and poet Al Young (1939)

NOTES

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