Waterboro Public Library, P.O. Box 308, East Waterboro, Maine /
Phone: 207.247.3363 / contact webmaster
Last modified: 7/March/2007/
© M. Williams, 1996-2007. All rights reserved. /
Every effort is made to verify birthdates, years, name spellings,
pseudonyms, and other information included on this page. If you
find an error, PLEASE drop me a quick e-mail
so I can investigate and correct it.
calendars w/literary births
JANUARY LITERARY BIRTHDAYS
Carl Sandburg, Illinois poet & Lincoln biographer, 6 Jan. 1878 - 22 July 1967
Sandburg is probably best known for his poem about fog (which "comes on little cat feet"),
or for his characterisations of Chicago ("Hog butcher for the world"), but
it's for his biography of Abraham Lincoln that he won the 1939 Pulitzer Prize. An overview
of Sandburg's life and work is available online, as well as a chronology
of his life, his Chicago poems (through
Bartleby), info about Sandburg's home
through the National Park Service website, and Modern American Poetry's Sandburg page,
with a biography, essays, and poems.
[John] Robinson Jeffers, U.S. poet & playwright, 10 Jan. 1887 - 20 Jan. 1962
Jeffers was born in Pittsburgh, studied
forestry, medicine, and other subjects in California, Washington,
and Zurich colleges, and settled in 1919 in California, where he and
his family built a house in Carmel. The constant theme of his poetry is
mankind's worthlessness and nature's beauty and strength.
Works include Tamar and Other Poems (1924),
Roan Stallion (1925), Cawdor and Other Poems (1928),
Dear Judas and Other Poems (1929), Descent to the Dead (1931),
Thurso's Landing and Other Poems (1932),
Give Your Heart to the Hawks (1933),
Solstice and Other Poems (1935),
The Double Axe and Other Poems (1948), and
Hungerfield and Other Poems, which won the 1954 Pulitzer Prize.
Some of his poetry is still being put to music and played at annual festivals.
He also adapted two of Euripides' tragedies for the modern stage.
The Jeffers Studies website offers
biographical background on Jeffers,
tips on teaching Jeffers, a chronology, book reviews, bibliography, and more.
Finland's Kuusankoski Public Library also has a
page of bio on Jeffers; the Academy of American Poets has a
biographical sketch and some bibliography for
Jeffers as well; and Modern American Poets provides
information on Jeffers' life and career, a chronology, and criticism of poems.
Zora Neale Hurston, African-American novelist, 7 Jan. 1903 - 28 Jan. 1960
Born in Eatonville, FL, Hurston became part of the Harlem Renaissance, the
black literati in New York City. Besides being a writer of novels (Their Eyes Were
Watching God, Dust Tracks on a Road, Mules and Men, etc.) and
short stories, she was also a folklorist who travelled to Latin American and
the Caribbean to learn more about her roots, and she received degrees from
Howard University and Barnard, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship. Yet, she
spent most of her life in Florida and died there in a welfare home in 1960.
The writer Alice Walker resurrected her works and interest in her in the 1970s.
Voices from the Gap has a good overview
of Hurston's life and career. Zora offers an introductory essay
on Hurston and some stories, photos, essays. Carla Kaplan, editor of Zora Neale Hurston: A
Life in Letters, provides lots of biographical
material about Hurston online. If you're researching Hurston, you might try the St. Paul's School's
Hurston Research Tip Sheet for a list of resources and some ideas on how to get started.
Other January Birthdays:
- Jan 1:
Lithuanian poet Kristijonas Donelaitis (1714);
Anglo-Irish novelist (born Oxfordshire) Maria Edgeworth (1767; d.1849),
whose work, including Castle Rackrent (1800) and Ormond (1817)
presented lively tales of Irish life;
English poet Arthur Hugh Clough (1819; d.1861), whose first and best-known poem
was "The Bothie of Toberna-Vuolich;"
Scottish classicist and anthropologist Sir James [George] Frazer (1854; d.1941), who wrote
The Golden Bough, 2 vols. 1890/12 vols. 1911-15);
Mexican novelist Mariano Azuela (1873; d.1952);
English novelist and Ivory-Merchant film muse E[dward] M[organ] Forster (1879; d.1970),
whose novels, including A Room with a View (1908), Howard's End (1910), and
A Passage to India (1924), pit honest emotion against the acceptable conventions of society;
NYC-born recluse J[erome] D[avid] Salinger (1919);
British children's book author Jean
Ure (1943)
- Jan 2:
Philip Morin Freneau (1752; d.1832), American poet and political gazette editor (born NYC of French Huguenot family),
the first poet to use themes from American nature, anticipating the English romantics;
Wisconsin-born novelist and poet William Scott (1914);
Oklahoma native, African American historian, biographer, and essayist John Hope Franklin (1915),
whose 1947 From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans is still considered the standard
text on African American history;
NYC poet and novelist Robert Nathan (1894), wrote Portrait of Jennie (1940);
Russian-born scientist and sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov (1920; d.1992);
NYC-born writer of young adult novels Jan[ice] Slepian (1921);
another NYC-born novelist, and short story writer, Leonard Michaels (1933);
German-born novelist Leonard B. Scott (1948)
- Jan 3:
Roman author, essayist, and poet [Marcus Tullius] Cicero (106 B.C.);
London author and playwright Douglas William Jerrold (1803; d.1857);
Scottish dramatist James Bridie (1888; d.1951);
South African fantasy writer J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien (1892; d.1973);
French novelist and essayist Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (1893);
short-lived Danish poet and resistance fighter Morten Nielsen (1922; page in Danish)
- Jan 4:
German librarian and philologist, and, with his brother Wilhelm, collector of
Grimm's fairy tales (1812-1815), Jakob Ludwig Carl Grimm (1785; d.1863);
Maine native, painter and writer
Marsden Hartley (1877; d.1943);
A[lfred] E[dgar] Coppard (1878), English poet and short story writer
- Jan 5:
Count Miklos Zrinyi (1620), Hungarian poet;
Khristo Botev (1848; d.1876), short-lived Bulgarian poet and revolutionary;
Friedrich Durrenmatt (1921), Swiss playwright and novelist;
Pennsylvania-born poet W[illiam] D[e Witt] Snodgrass (1926), who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1959;
Italian novelist and critic Umberto Eco (1932);
Kenyan novelist, dramatist, and critic Ngugi wa Thiong'o (1938) aka James T. Ngugi, a significant East African writer
- Jan 6:
Besides Carl Sandburg, above:
Khalil Gibran (1883; d.1931), Lebanese mystic poet (birthdates also listed as Dec. 6 and April 10),
famous for The Prophet;
Icelandic poet Tomas Gudmundsson (1901);
South African Zulu poet, novelist, and educator Benedict Wallet Vilakazi (1906);
Nebraska-born novelist, short story writer, and photographer Wright Morris (1910; d.1998),
who wrote Love Among Cannibals;
English writer and interpreter of Zen Buddhism Alan Watts (1915; d.1973);
E[dgar] L[awrence] Doctorow (1931), NYC novelist, authored Ragtime
- Jan 7:
Besides Zora Neale Hurston, above:
English political author James Harrington (1611; author of The Commonwealth of Oceana);
French Roman Catholic socialist writer and poet Charles Péguy (1873; d.1914;
authored essay "Sinners and Saints");
British zoologist and writer Gerald Malcolm Durrell (1925; d.1995; brother of Lawrence Durrell);
NYC-born Exorcist author William Peter Blatty (1928)
- Jan 8:
English novelist [William] Wilkie Collins (1824; d.1889),
whose most popular works are a mystery, The Woman in White (1860),
and The Moonstone (1868), forerunner of the modern detective novel;
another English novelist [Margaret] Storm Jameson (1891);
Senegalese novelist and screenwriter Sembene Ousmane (1923), renowned for
his films and novels addressing social wrongs in post-colonial Africa;
English physicist and author Stephen [William] Hawking (1942), whose 1988 A Brief History of Time: From Big Bang to Black Holes was a bestseller
- Jan 9:
English poet and author of the first history of English poetry, Thomas Warton (1728; selected poems of Wharton);
English comedic playwright Thomas William Robertson (1829);
Chicago realistic novelist Henry B[lake] Fuller (1857);
Karel Capek (1890), Czech novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and essayist, authored the play R.U.R.;
French writer Simone de Beauvoir (1908)
- Jan 10:
Besides Robinson Jeffers, above:
Irish poet, critic, and essayist Aubrey Thomas Hunt de Vere (1814);
Detroit-born poet Philip Levine (1928);
Indiana-born poet Jared Carter (1939)
- Jan 11:
NYC native, philosopher, psychologist, and older brother of novelist Henry James,
William James (1842), who penned The Principles of Psychology (1890)
Kentucky-born novelist Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice (1870), who wrote the bestselling Mrs.
Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1901);
Utah-born novelist, historian, critic Bernard Augustine De Voto (1897), known for
works on Mark Twain and histories of the U.S. west;
Alan Paton (1903), South African writer, authored Cry, the Beloved Country;
Manfred B. Lee (1905), co-creator, with his cousin Frederic Dunnay, of Ellery Queen;
American performer and novelist Helen Howe (1905), born Boston
- Jan 12:
Andreas Alicati (1492), Italian author;
Charles Perrault (1628), French lawyer and writer of Mother Goose tales, such as "Puss in Boots" and "Little Red Riding Hood";
Edmund Burke (1729), Irish politician, orator, philosopher, author of many political
pamphlets and essays;
Jack London (1876), San Francisco writer and socialist;
Kentucky-born African-American poet Margaret Danner (1915), many of whose poems
focus on Africa, which she visited in 1966;
Japanese novelist (born Kyoto) Haruki Murakami (1949), who wrote Hear the Wind Sing and
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, among others;
Los Angeles-born detective writer Walter Mosley (1952)
- Jan 13:
Eduard von Bauernfeld (1802), Viennese comedic playwright;
Massachusetts-born rags-to-riches author Horatio Alger Jr (1834);
New Jersey native Carolyn Heilbrun (1926), aka Amanda Cross, non-fiction author and mystery writer;
British children's writer and Paddington Bear creator [Thomas]
Michael Bond (1926);
Nigerian novelist and short story writer Flora Nwapa (1931; d.1993), one of the
first African women to publish in English;
California-born mystery and sci-fi writer Ron[ald Joseph] Goulart (1933);
Bright Lights, Big City author Jay McInerney (1955)
- Jan 14:
Zacharias Topelius (1818), Finnish historic novelist (site is mostly in Finnish);
French writer Pierre Loti (1850; d.1923);
Dr. Dolittle-creator Hugh Lofting (1886), born Berkshire, England;
Thornton Waldo Burgess (1874), children's writer;
Chicago-born novelist John dos Passos (1896; d.1970), whose first novel was
One Man's Initiation -- 1917 but who is best
known for his U.S.A. trilogy (1930-1936);
St. Louis native, author and New Yorker essayist Emily Hahn (1905);
Nebraska-born novelist and non-fiction writer Tillie Olsen (1913);
African American publisher, editor, and poet, and the first Poet Laureate of Detroit, Dudley [Felker] Randall (1914), whose Broadside Press
provided a forum for unknown black writers;
Georgia native, novelist, essayist, playwright, and co-founder of the Harlem Writers Guild John Oliver Killens (1916; d.1987);
Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima (1925);
American sci-fi/horror novelist and actor Thomas Tryon (1926; d.1991);
Washington, D.C.-born novelist and short story writer Mary Robison (1949)
- Jan 15:
Jean Baptiste Poquelin Moliere (baptised on this date, 1622), French satirical dramatist;
gloomy Austrian dramatist Franz Grillparzer (1791; d.1872),
who perpetuated the German classic and romantic traditions and influenced
later playwrights Hauptmann and Maeterlinck;
Russian novelist and satirist Mikhail Evgrafovich Yevgrafovich] Saltykov-Shchedrin (1826; birthdate is 27 Jan. in new calendar);
Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu (1850);
Warsaw-born poet Osip Mandelstam
(1891; poem "Ill Day");
Scottish poet, playwright, song- and story-writer, cartoonist, and story-teller Ivor
Cutler (1923; d.2006);
Louisiana-born novelist Ernest J. Gaines (1933), who wrote
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, among other novels
NYC native, writer Frank Conroy (1936; d.2005)
- Jan 16:
Canadian poet Robert W. Service (1874);
Ukranian novelist and playwright Valentin Katayev (1897; birthdate is 28 Jan. in new calendar);
Anthony Ivan Hecht, NYC-born poet (1923; d.2004);
author and editor Norman Podhoretz (1930);
NYC author and film director Susan
Sontag (1933; d.2004)
- Jan 17:
Spanish poet and dramatist Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600; d.1681;), known for plays including the fantasy, La Vida es sueño
(Life is a dream) and El Mágico prodigioso (The Wonderful Magician), based on the life of St. Cyrian;
Boston-born Benjamin Franklin (1706; d.1790),
American statesman, philosopher, scientist, printer, writer, whose (Autobiography, published 1867)
reveals him to be imbued with genius and with the American spirit of idealism, practicality, and optimism;
American novelist and editor (born and died in Philadelphia), Charles Brockden Brown (1771; d.1810),
"Father of the American novel" (Gothic novel Wieland; or the Transformation, 1798);
English novelist Anne Bronte (1820; d.1849), aka Acton Bell;
Anton Chekhov (1860; birthdate is 29 Jan. in new calendar; d.1904), Russian playwright and short-story writer,
one of the great exponents of Russian realism;
London novelist Ronald Firbank (1886; d.1926);
British-born Australian novelist Nevil Shute [Norway] (1899; d.1960);
Kansas-born poet and conscientious objector William Stafford (1914; d.1993)
- Jan 18:
British thesaurus developer and physician Peter Mark Roget (1779);
English poet, critic, and biographer [Henry] Austin Dobson (1840; poem "In After Days");
Rubén Dario (1867), born Félix Rubén Garcia-Sarmiento, Nicaraguan poet and short-story writer (page in Spanish);
Winnie-the-Pooh creator and mathematician A[lan] A[lexander] Milne (1882);
Spanish poet and critic Jorge Guillén (1893);
William Sansom (1912), British writer of novels, short stories, and travel books
- Jan 19:
French writer Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737; Studies of Nature);
Boston-born horror story writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe (1809; "The Raven");
Alexander Woolcott (1887), NJ short-story writer and critic, and member of the famed Algonquin Round Table;
Texas-born mystery writer Patricia Highsmith nee Mary Patricia Plangman (1921);
Scottish/British poet George Mann MacBeth (1932; d.1992);
English writer Julian Barnes (1946)
- Jan 20:
Maine native Nathaniel P. Willis (1806; d.1867), writer and editor of American Monthly Magazine;
English writer Richard Le Gallienne (1866; d.1947);
Johannes V. Jensen (1873; d.1950), Danish novelist, poet, essayist, and 1944 Nobel Prize winner;
Abram Hill (1910), American playwright, wrote "On Striver's Row;"
Joy Adamson (1910; d.1980), naturalist, friend of lions, and writer of the "Born Free" books;
Japanese writer Sawako Ariyoshi (1931; wrote The Doctor's Wife).
- Jan 21:
Icelandic poet, novelist, playwright, and librarian David Stefansson (1895);
Richard P. Blackmur (1904; d.1965), Massachusetts poet and critic;
- Jan 22:
Sir Francis Bacon (1561; d.1626), English essayist, philosopher, historian, and statesman;
German critic and dramatist Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729; d.1781);
Rene Charles Guilbert de Pixerecourt (1773), prolific French dramatist;
George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron of Rochdale (1788; d.1824), aka Lord Byron, English romantic poet;
August Strindberg (1849; d.1912), Swedish dramatist and novelist;
poet, playwright, and long-time New Yorker poetry editor Howard Moss (1922; d.1987), who wrote the satirical and epigrammic Instant Lives (1974);
Pittsburgh-born crime writer Joseph Wambaugh (1937)
- Jan 23:
French writer [Marie-Henri Beyle] Stendhal (1783; d.1842);
NYC-born experimental poet Louis Zukofsky (1904; d.1978);
West Indies-born (St. Lucia) poet and playwright Derek [Alton] Walcott (1930), who won the 1992 Nobel Prize for Literature
- Jan 24:
British comedic playwright and poet of the Restoration Age William Congreve (1670; d. 1729),
who wrote The Way of the World (1700);
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732; d.1799), French dramatist who authored "The Marriage of Figaro," "The Barber of Seville");
NYC-born novelist Edith Wharton (1862; d.1937), who won the 1920 Pulitzer Prize;
British zoologist, author, and artist Desmond [John] Morris (1928), who wrote The Naked Ape (1967) and The Human Zoo (1969), among over 50 books
- Jan 25:
Scottish's national poet Robert Burns (1759; d.1796);
W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, English novelist and poet (1874; d.1965;
wrote Of Human Bondage);
English modernist novelist and Bloomsbury member Virginia Woolf (1882; d.1941);
NYC-born novelist Gloria Naylor (1950),
whose novel The Women of Brewster Place (1982) won the American Book Award for best first fiction
- Jan 26:
Marie Joseph Sue (1804; d.1857), aka Eugène Sue, French novelist;
Mary Mapes Dodge (1831), NYC writer of Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates;
NYC cartoonist and author Jules Feiffer (1929);
Alabama-born political activist, essayist, and autobiographer Angela Yvonne Davis (1944);
playwright Christopher Hampton (1946), born
on Fayal Island in the Azores, whose adaptation of the French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses won him an Oscar in 1988
- Jan 27:
Russian novelist and satirist Mikhail Evgrafovich [Yevgrafovich] Saltykov-Shchedrin (1826; d.1889; birthdate is 15 Jan. in old calendar);
Lewis Carroll (1832; d.1898),
born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, English poet and author of children's books, including Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865);
NYC native, songwriter and composer Jerome Kern (1885; d.1945);
Ukranian writer Ilya Ehrenburg (1891; d.1967);
Montreal-born novelist, journalist, and scriptwriter Mordecai Richler (1931; d.2001);
English novelist D[onald] M[ichael] Thomas (1935);
Missouri-born musician, political activist, folklorist, educator, novelist, and children's author Julius [Bernard] Lester (1939)
- Jan 28:
Japanese novelist, essayist, and haiku poet Ozaki Koyo (1869);
French novelist [Sidonie-Gabrielle Claudine] Colette (1873; d.1954),
France's foremost female writer in her time;
Ukranian novelist and playwright Valentin Katayev (1897; d.1986; birthdate is 16 Jan. in old calendar);
English novelist David Lodge (1935)
- Jan 29:
Political essayist Thomas Paine (1737; d.1809);
Anton Chekhov (1860; birthdate is 17 Jan. in old calendar), Russian playwright;
French writer and 1915 Nobel winner Romain Rolland (1866; d.1945);
Spanish (Valencian) novelist Vicente Blasco Ibáñez (1867; d.1928; site in Spanish);
Edward Abbey (1927), environmentalist U.S. writer
- Jan 30:
English politician and writer of restoration comedies, George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (1628; d.1687);
English critic and writer Walter S[avage] Landor (1775; d.1864),
known for his hot temper and his reverence for classical writers;
Boston-born nonsense poet Gelett Burgess (1866);
Saul David Alinsky (1909; d.1972), Chicago writer,
who wrote Reveille for Radicals;
NYC-born historian and popular history writer Barbara [Wertheim] Tuchman (1912; d.1989), winner of two Pulitzer prizes;
Shirley Hazzard (1931), Australian/American novelist and short story writer;
Richard Brautigan (1935; d.1984), Washington-born Beat poet and novelist, who wrote Trout Fishing in America (1967);
Kentucky-born novelist Michael Dorris (1945; d.1997), who wrote A Yellow Raft in Blue Water (1987), among other books
- Jan 31:
French-American essayist J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur (1735; d.1813), born Michel Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur,
famous for Letters from an American Farmer (1782), drawing on his experience as a farmer in Orange County, N.Y.;
Ohio-born American western writer Zane Grey (1872; 1939);
Pennsylvania novelist and short-story writer John O'Hara (1905);
French-born American Trappist monk, essayist, and poet Thomas Merton (1915),
who wrote -- among many other works of autobiography and non-ficton -- the memoir The Seven Storey Mountain (1948);
New Jersey-born novelist Norman Mailer (1923);
Japanese novelist and 1994 Nobelist Oe Kenzaburo (1935)
