APRIL LITERARY BIRTHDAYS
(Complete list of April authors here.)Featured Authors
William Shakespeare, 23 April 1564 - 23 April, 1616
A complete full-text listing of Shakespeare's plays is available through The Complete Works of Shakespeare on the Web, maintained by Jeremy Hylton, with indexes and search features. Highly recommended. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC has Hamnet, their publicly available online catalog and lots of other online resources for studying Shakespeare, as well as teaching modules for some of the plays and sonnets. The Shakespeare Resource Center offers a brief overview of Shakespeare's works and an annotated list of web resources.
Gertrude Chandler Warner, creator of the Boxcar Children, 16 April 1890 - 30 Aug. 1979
Biographical information about Warner is available through the University of Southern Mississippi de Grummund Collection website.
Most children know Warner through her Boxcar Children stories, the adventures of orphaned children living in a railroad boxcar. Her first Boxcar Children book was published in 1924 and revised in 1942 to make it easier for children with limited reading vocabularies to read it. Besides writing 19 Boxcar Children books and 15 others for adults and children, Warner was also a school teacher for over 30 years and was active in the Red Cross and the American Cancer Society. She was born and died in Putnam, Connecticut.
Other April Birthdays
- Apr 1
- author of Cyrano de Bergerac, the French dramatist and poet Edmond Rostand (1868; d.1918)
- Baltimore (MD)-born librarian, storyteller, and writer Augusta Baker (1911; d.1998), who worked for 35 years at the New York Public Library and developed comprehensive bibliographies of African American-based children's literature
- fantasy/sci-fi writer Anne McCaffrey (1926; d.Nov. 2011)
- Harlem native, sci-fi novelist and short story writer Samuel Ray Delany (1942), winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and Pilgrim Awards
- Apr 2
- Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805; d.1875), who penned over 160 fairy tales
- French writer and insurgent Emile Zola (1840; d.1902)
- British historical novelist George MacDonald Fraser (1925; d.2008), creator of the rogue and bully Flashman
- Nicholas Rinaldi, American novelist and longtime Fordham University professor (1934; d.2020)
- Susan Lillian 'Sue' Townsend (1946; d.2014), English novelist, playwright, journalist, creator of Adrian Mole
- Apr 3
- English metaphysical poet (born Wales) George Herbert (1593; d.1633)
- American writer Washington Irving (1783; d.1859), author of Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
- London-born animal behaviorist (chimps) and writer Jane Goodall (1934)
- Apr 4
- French novelist and critic Rémy de Gourmont (1858; d.1915), best known as an apologist for the symbolists, in Le Livre des masques (1896; The Book of Masks)
- Finnish Swedish-language poet Edith Södergran (1892; d.1923)
- U.S. playwright and historian Robert Emmett Sherwood (1896; d.1955), who was a member of the Algonquin round table and Franklin Roosevelt's speechwriter in the 1940s
- Vietnamese novelist and screenplay writer Marguerite Duras (1914; d.1996), who wrote the screenplay for the film Hiroshima Mon Amor (1959)
- Missouri-born (Arkansas-raised) novelist poet, dramatist, and performer Maya Angelou (1928; d.2014), born Marguerite Annie Johnson
- Apr 5
- British poet Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837; d.1909), author of Poems and Ballads, and member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood that included William Morris
- Virginia-born essayist, autobiographer, biographer, educator, and social thinker Booker T. Washington (1856; d.1915), born into slavery as Booker Taliaferro, well-known for the bestselling Up From Slavery (1901)
- American poet Richard Eberhart (1904; d.2005), won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Selected Poems, 1930–1965 and the 1977 National Book Award for Poetry for Collected Poems, 1930–1976.
- American crime/suspense writer, penned Psycho, Robert Bloch (1917; d.1994), aka Collier Young
- Apr 6
- California-born country songwriter and singer Merle Haggard (1937; d.2016)
- Apr 7
- English romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770; d.1850; selected poetry of Wordsworth)
- Rhode Island author and clergyman William Ellery Channing (1780; d.1842), instrumental in founding the Unitarian church
- premier New Yorker gossip columnist Walter Winchell (1897; d.1972) [Trivia: His name is invoked in the I Love Lucy song 'We're Having A Baby:' 'You read it in Winchell, that we're adding a limb to our family tree.']
- U.S. postmodernist writer Donald Barthelme (1931; d.1989)
- Apr 8
- Lyricist E.Y. 'Yip' Harburg (1896; d.1981), who penned the words to 'Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?' (1932) and 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' (1939), among others
- Denver native (lived L.A.) and depression-era novelist John Fante (1909; d.1983)
- Chicago-born journalist Seymour Hersh (1937), who broke the My Lai massacre story
- Annapolis (MD)-born novelist Barbara Kingsolver (1955), who wrote The Bean Trees (1988), Animal Dreams (1990), and The Poisonwood Bible (1998), among others
- Apr 9
- Charles-Pierre Baudelaire (1821; d.1867), French poet, essayist, and art critic
- Jacques Futrelle (1875; d.1912, went down with the Titanic), writer of crime fiction, best known for the oft-anthologized story "The Problem of Cell 13"
- Brooklyn-born novelist and short story writer Paule Marshall (1929), born Paule Burke, one of the first writers to explore the psychological concerns of African American women
- Apr 10
- English critic and essayist William Hazlitt (1778; 1830), whose style is appreciated for its plainness and vigor
- Hungarian-born publisher and journalist Joseph Pulitzer (1847)
- Irish poet, editor, and painter George William Russell (1867; d.1935) aka AE
- American poet Horace Gregory (1898; d.1982), poet, critic, essayist, translator, biographer, winner of the Bollingen Prize in 1965
- New Yorker, playwright, wartime journalist and politician Clare Booth Luce (1903; d.1987), staff writer for Vanity Fair magazine and author of the play The Women, on which the movie is based
- NYC-born historian David Halberstam (1934; d.2007)
- Massachusetts native, travel writer, and novelist Paul Theroux (1941)
- Vermont native Norman Dubie, poet (1945)
- Apr 11
- English poet Christopher Smart (1722; d.1771), aka Kit Smart, Kitty Smart, Jack Smart
- Wisconsin novelist and essayist Glenway Wescott (1901; d.1987)
- Canadian-born American poet Mark Strand (1934; d.2014), 4th poet laureate of the U.S., won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for his book Blizzard of One
- Leo Rosten (1908; d.1997), born in Poland, grew up in the U.S., and best known for The Joys of Yiddish (1968)
- Apr 12
- American children's book writer Beverly Cleary (1916; d. 2021 at age 104)
- Chicago-born playwright Jack Gelber (1932; d.2003)
- British prolific playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn (1939)
- American adventure and espionage novelist Tom Clancy (1947; d.2013)
- Chicago native, writer of legal thrillers Scott Turow (1949)
- Apr 13
- America's Renaissance man, Thomas Jefferson (1743; d.1826), Virginia-born 3rd U.S. president, inventor, lawyer, architect, gardener, and writer, whose pamphlet A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774) pushed forward the American patriot cause
- Chicago native and novelist Nella Larsen (1891; d.1964), regarded as an important writer of the Harlem Renaissance
- Marguerite Henry, author of Misty of Chincoteague and other kids' horse books (1902; d.1997)
- Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Barclay Beckett (1906; d.1989), who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969 and is best-known for his play Waiting for Godot
- American writer Eudora Welty (1909; d.2001), winner of the 1972 Pulitzer Prize
- Irish poet and 1995 Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney (1939; d.2013)
- Apr 14
- Richmond, Virginia native and novelist James Branch Cabell (1879; d.1958)
- British historian Arnold Toynbee (1889; d.1975), known for his twelve-volume collection, A Study of History (1934-1961), and known as nephew of great economic historian Arnold Toynbee (1852-1883)
- Apr 15
- American novelist (born New York) Henry James (1843; d.1916), whose novels include The American (1877), The Europeans (1878), Daisy Miller (1879), and The Portrait of a Lady (1881), and whose older brother was pragmatist and philosopher William James (1842-1910)
- food writer Waverly Root (1903; d.1982), born in Providence, RI, author of The Food of France (1958)
- Apr 16
- Besides Gertrude Chandler Warner (above),
- French novelist, poet, political satirist, and 1921 Nobel Prize winner Anatole France (1844; d.1924), born Jacques Anatole Francois Thibault
- Irish playwright John Millington Synge (1871; d.1909), who wrote Playboy of the Western World
- classic children's book illustrator Garth Williams (1912; d.1996)
- British novelist, poet, and short story writer Sir Kingsley Amis (1922; d.1995), well-known for Lucky Jim and for his many works on drinking
- Sebastian Smart Barker (1945; d.2014), British poet
- Apr 17
- Modern Greek poet (born and died in Egypt) C[onstantine] P[eter] Cavafy (1863; d.1933; poems), aka Konstantinos Patrou Kabaphes
- Danish writer and traveller Karen Blixen (1885; d.1962), aka Isak Dinesen, author of Out of Africa (1937) and Shadows on the Grass (1961)
- Wisconsin-born playwright and novelist Thornton Niven Wilder (1897; d.1975), author of every amateur stage company's favourite play, Our Town
- NYC-born novelist and essayist Cynthia Ozick (1928)
- Apr 18
- British writer George Henry Lewes (1817; d.1878), known for nurturing and encouraging the writing talent of lover Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot)
- War-time journalist and fiction writer Richard Harding Davis (1864; d.1916)
- Apr 19
- New England diarist Sarah Kemble Knight (1666; d.1727)
- Mississippi-born (Indianapolis-raised) poet Etheridge Knight (1931; d.1991)
- Apr 20
- French surrealist writer, anthropologist, and autobiographer [Julian] Michael Leiris (1901; d.1990)
- Apr 21
- Massachusetts native, humorist, auctioneer, and realtor Josh Billings (1818; birthdate also reported as April 20 and 12; 1885), born Henry Wheeler Shaw
- English novelist Charlotte Bronte (1816; d.1855), author of Jane Eyre, sister to Anne and Emily, sometimes writing under the name Currer Ellis, best known for novel Jane Eyre (1847)
- Philadelphia-born comedienne, writer, and director Elaine May (1932, also reported as 1931), nee Elaine Berlin, comedic partner of Mike Nichols; she wrote Heaven Can Wait and adapted the script for The Birdcage, among others
- Ohio native and scientific novelist Thomas McMahon (1943; d.1999)
- Nigerian playwright and novelist Kole Omotoso (1943), born Bankole Ajibabi Omotoso
- Junie B. Jones creator Barbara Park (1947; d.2013)
- Apr 22
- English novelist and playwright Henry Fielding (1707; d.1754), author of Joseph Andrews (1742) and The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749), and cousin to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
- Richmond, Virginia-born novelist Ellen [Anderson Gholson] Glasgow (1874; d.1945), whose novels, including In This Our Life (1941; won 1942 Putlizer Prize), present an unsentimental social history of Virginia
- Iowa-born (ended up in Tahiti) novelist and essayist James Norman Hall (1887; d.1951), who with war buddy Charles Nordhoff wrote Mutiny on the Bounty (1932) and others
- American author of novels for adults and children, memoirist Paula Fox (1923; d.2017)
- American poet and YA novelist Ron Koertge (1940)
- NYC-born poet Louise Glück (1942; 2000 interview with Glück), author of Wild Iris (1992), which won the Pulitzer Prize
- Apr 23
- Besides William Shakespeare (above),
- Oregon-born poet Edwin Markham (1852; d.1940)
- New Zealand mystery writer, creator of Police Inspector Roderick Alleyn, Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh (1899; d.1982)
- Russian novelist, poet, scholar, translator, and butterfly collector Vladimir Nabokov (1899; d.1977)
- Icelandic novelist and 1955 Nobel Prize winner Halldor Laxness (1902; d.1998)
- Brooklyn native (became Irish citizen 1967) and novelist J[ames] P[atrick] Donleavy (1926; d.2017)
- Yorkshire native Victoria Glendinning (1937), critic and novelist, most famous for her biographies of Edith Sitwell and Vita Sackville-West, among others
- African American novelist, short story writer, cartoonist, and reporter Charles [Richard] Johnson (1948), whose 1990 book Middle Passage won the National Book Award
- Apr 24
- English journalist, essayist, political tract writer, and novelist Daniel Defoe (died this date 1731; birthdate unknown, in Sept. 1660? or in 1661? 1659?), born Daniel Foe, who wrote Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders (1722), among others
- English novelist Anthony Trollope (1815; d.1882)
- English novelist and playwright Elizabeth Goudge (1900; d.1984)
- three-time Pulitzer Prize winning poet and novelist, and the first U.S. poet laureate, Robert Penn Warren (1905; d.1989)
- American objectivist poet and political activist George Oppen (1908; d.1984)
- Gabriel Imomotimi Okara (1921), Nigerian poet and novelist
- mystery writer, creator of sleuth Kinsey Millhone and the 'A is for Alibi' series, Sue Grafton (1940; d.2017)
- Apr 25
- English poet, essayist, novelist, and accountant Walter De La Mare (1873; d.1956), aka Walter Ramal
- NYC-born writer, journalist, and Pulitzer Prize winner J(ay) Anthony Lukas (1933; d.1997), best known for reporting on controversial issues
- Midwestern poet Ted Kooser (1939), 13th poet laureate of the U.S.
- James Fenton, English poet, journalist, literary and art critic, and a former Oxford Professor of Poetry, known for 'erudite, politically engaged, technically masterful poems'
- Southern novelist Padgett Powell (1952)
- Apr 26
- Roman philosopher, humane emperor, and author of The Meditations, Marcus Aurelius [Antoninus] (121 AD; d.180 AD)
- Scottish philosopher and historian David Hume (1711; d.1776), who wrote A Treatise on Human Nature (1739-40), Essays Moral and Political (1741-42), Political Discourses (1752), and an exhaustive History of England (1754-62), among others
- Maud Hart Lovelace (1892; d.1980), creator of the Betsy-Tacy series of children's books
- Canadian and long-time New York Times writer A[braham] H[enry] Raskin (1911; d.1993), considered an authority on labor and industrial relations
- NYC-born novelist and short-story writer Bernard Malamud (1914; d.1986)
- Marilyn Nelson (1946), poet and author of the children's book A Wreath for Emmettt Till (2005)
- two-time Poet Laureate of the U.S. Natasha Threthwey (1966)
- Apr 27
- British historian Edward Gibbon (1737 O.S., 8 May N.S.; d.1794), author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788), written entirely from first sources
- New Jersey native, female African-American editor and novelist Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882; d.1961), who discovered and encouraged many writers during the Harlem Renaissance
- Madeline creator Ludwig Bemelmans (1898; d.1962)
- Irish-born poet, critic, detective-story writer, British poet laureate in the 1960s C[ecil] Day Lewis (1904; d.1972) aka Nicholas Blake
- American poet Jean Purcell Valentine (1934; d.2020), former New York State Poet and National Book Award winner
- two-time Pulitzer Prize winning American playwright August Wilson, born in Pittsburgh, PA (1945; d.2005)
- Apr 28
- NY playwright, screenwriter, and novelist Robert Anderson (1917; d.2009)
- Alabama-born [Nelle] Harper Lee (1926; d.2016), who wrote To Kill A Mockingbird
- Indianapolis-born editor and author of books on cartoons and comic strips, Bill Blackbeard (1926; d.2011)
- writer of teen novels Lois Duncan (1934; d.2016)
- Terry [David John] Pratchett (1948; d.2015), British sci-fi and fantasy writer, creator of Discworld
- American poet (born Detroit) Carolyn Forche (1950)
- Apr 29
- San Francisco-born publisher and yellow-journalism practitioner William Randolph Hearst (1863; d.1951)
- French-Canadian author and editor Gilbert La Rocque (1943; d.1984)
- Louisiana-born Pulitzer Prize winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa (1947)
- Apr 30
- Gertrude Stein companion and cookbook write Alice B. Toklas (1877; d.1967)
- American poet John Crowe Ransom (1888; d.1974), born in Tennessee
- children's book writer Harriet Sobol (1936)
- L.A.-born science-fiction writer Laurence (Larry) Van Cott Niven (1938)
- American author (born Pittsburgh) Annie Dillard (1945), who won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Pilgrim at Tinker Creek