July 12 Writer Birthdays
July 12 Writer Birthdays
- 1817 - Henry David Thoreau, American author, essayist, poet, and philosopher, best known for his works Walden and Civil Disobedience.
- 1876 - Max Jacob, French poet, painter, writer, and critic whose work is seen as an important link between the symbolism and surrealism; despite the fact that the Jewish-born Jacob had converted to Catholicism decades earlier, he was arrested by the Gestapo and died while awaiting deportation to a concentration camp.
- 1892 - Bruno Schulz, Polish writer, artist, literary critic, and art teacher who is considered one of the great Polish-language prose stylists of the 20th century.
- 1904 - Pablo Neruda, pen name and, later, legal name of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet, diplomat, and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto; Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez called him "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language."
- 1909 - Herbert Zim, naturalist, author, and educator best known as founder and editor of the Golden Guides nature books for children.
- 1918 - Betty Sue Cummings, author of books of history and of fiction for both adults and children.
- 1920 - Pierre Berton, Canadian nonfiction author, journalist, and television personality.
- 1928 - Tayeb Salih, Sudanese novelist, broadcaster, and teacher.
- 1933 - Donald Westlake, American writer of mostly crime fiction; he also wrote under many pseudonyms, including Richard Stark and Alan Marshall.
- 1937 - Bill Cosby, controversial actor, comedian, educator, and activist who has written many books, including books of comedy; nonfiction about children, parenting, education, and family relationships; and fiction for children; his reputation as the quintessential family man has been shattered in recent years by accusations of multiple incidents of sexual assault and rape.
- 1939 - Phillip Andrew Hedley Adams, Australian columnist, broadcaster, and farmer; In 1997 the International Astronomical Union named a minor planet orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter after him.
- 1944 - Delia Ephron, bestselling American author, screenwriter, and playwright; sister of writer Nora Ephron.
- 1946 - Robert Fisk, Beirut-based English journalist.
- 1951 - Joan Bauer, Newbery Honor-winning American author of young adult literature.
- 1955 - Timothy Garton Ash, British historian, professor, author and commentator who specializes in modern history of Central and Eastern Europe.
- 1967 - Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and short-story writer.
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