February 18 Writer Birthdays
February 18 Writer Birthdays
1404 - Leon Battista Alberti, Italian author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, cryptographer, and general Renaissance humanist polymath.- 1855 - Jean Jules Jusserand, Pulitzer Prize-winning French scholar of history and Medieval English literature, author, and Ambassador to the U.S. during World War I; Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., features a memorial to him.
- 1883 - Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer and philosopher, best known for his novel Zorba the Greek.
- 1909 - Wallace Stegner, Pulitzer Prize-winning and National Book Award-winning American novelist and short-story writer; also known as a historian and environmentalist.
- 1922 - Helen Gurley Brown, American author, publisher, and businesswoman who was editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine for 32 years.
- 1925 - Jack Gilbert, award-winning American poet whose work is known for its simple lyricism and straightforward clarity of tone, as well as a resonating control over his emotions; many of his poems are about his relationships with women.
- 1925 - Krishna Sobti (Hindi: कृष्णा सोबती), Hindi fiction writer and essayist, best known for her 1966 novel Mitro Marajani, an unapologetic portrayal of a married woman's sexuality.
- 1926 - A.R. Ammons, National Book Award-winning American poet; much of his work was inspired by his childhood on a North Carolina cotton and tobacco farm during the Great Depression.
- 1929 - Len Deighton, British novelist, military historian, graphic artist, and food writer who is best known for his spy novels.
- 1931 - Toni Morrison, Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning American novelist, essayist, editor, and educator who is one of the most acclaimed writers of her time; her novels are known for epic themes, exquisite language, and richly detailed African-American characters.
- 1934 - Audre Lorde, Caribbean-American writer, poet, librarian, and activist.
- 1935 - Janette Oke, Canadian author of inspirational and Christian historical fiction, usually set in the pioneer era.
- 1936 - Jeanne Auel, bestselling Finnish-American author known for her Earth's Children series of books, a series of novels set in prehistoric Europe that explores early humans, especially interactions of Cro-Magnon people with Neanderthals.
- 1950 - Bebe Moore Campbell, American journalist, teacher, and bestselling author of fiction, nonfiction, and children's literature.
- 1950 - John Wilden Hughes, Jr., American film director, producer, and screenwriter who wrote or directed some of the most successful films of the 1980s and 1990s, including National Lampoon's Vacation, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Breakfast Club, and Sixteen Candles.
- 1955 - Lisa See, bestselling American writer and novelist whose work is often inspired by her Chinese-American background.
- 1957 - George Pelecanos, American author of detective fiction, mostly set in Washington, D.C.; he is also a television writer and producer.
- 1961 - Douglas Rushkoff, American media theorist, writer, and graphic novelist, known for his connection with early cyberpunk culture.