May 7 Writer Birthdays
May 7 Writer Birthdays
- 1711 - David Hume, Scottish historian, economist, and essayist; a key figure in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment
- 1754 - Joseph Joubert, French moralist and essayist, unpublished until after his death.
- 1812 - Robert Browning, English poet and playwright, married to poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
- 1861 - Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali author; first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
- 1867 - Władysław Reymont, Nobel Prize-winning Polish epic novelist.
- 1892 - Archibald MacLeish, American poet and Librarian of Congress; winner of three Pulitzer Prizes.
- 1927 - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, German-born British/American novelist and screenwriter.
- 1931 - Gene Wolfe, American science fiction and fantasy writer.
- 1932 - Nonny Hogrogrian, Armenian-American children's author, two-time Caldecott Medal winner.
- 1939 - Volker Braun, German poet and playwright.
- 1939 - William Dempsey Valgardson, Canadian poet, novelist, and short story writer.
- 1940 - Angela Carter, English novelist.
- 1943 - Peter Carey, Australian novelist; two-time Booker Prize winner.
- 1946 - Michael Rosen, prolific author of children's books and poems; Children's Poet Laureate of Britain; columnist and TV presenter.
- 1950 - Tim Russert, American journalist, lawyer, broadcaster, and author.
- 1964 - Elliot Perlman, Australian novelist and short story writer.
Incidentally, today is also the birthday of not one but two important composers, Russian master Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840) and German composer and pianist Johannes Brahms (1833). The two first met in 1888, and were surprised to find that they actually liked each other, since they already knew that they hated each other's music.