Contributed by: Mark Woodard
Do you share a birthday with your favorite author? Here, we take a look at novelists, poets, journalists, and other writers born during the month of October. Click here to find titles from these authors in our collection.
1
Jimmy Carter (1924) An Hour Before Daylight, Christmas in Plains
Tim O’Brien (1946) The Things They Carried, In the Lake of the Woods
2
Wallace Stevens (1879) Poet, The Snow Man, The Emperor of Ice-Cream
Graham Greene (1904) The End of the Affair, Brighton Rock, Travels with My Aunt
3
Thomas Wolfe (1900) Look Homeward, Angel, You Can’t Go Home Again
James Herriot (1916) All Things Great and Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful
Gore Vidal (1925) Myra Breckinridge, The City and the Pillar, Lincoln, Empire
Alvin Toffler (1928) Future Shock, The Third Wave
4
Damon Runyon (1880) Guys and Dolls, Bloodhounds of Broadway
Jackie Collins (1937) Hollywood Wives, Lucky, The Santangelos
Roy Blount, Jr. (1941) Humorist, Be Sweet, Alphabetter Juice
Anne Rice (1941) Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles)
Russell Simmons (1957) Success Through Stillness, Do You!
5
Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958) Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, The Pluto Files
David Shannon (1959) A Bad Case of Stripes, The Rain Came Down
6
Jonathan Alter (1957) Political Essayist, The Center Holds, The Defining Moment
Joseph Finder (1958) The Switch, The Fixer, Killer Instinct
Jeffrey Zaslow (1958) The Girls From Ames, The Magic Room
7
Amiri Baraka (1934) Poet, Dutchman, Blues People
Thomas Keneally (1935) Schindler’s List, The Daughters of Mars
Diane Ackerman (1948) The Zookeeper’s Wife, One Hundred Names for Love
Dan Savage (1964) It Gets Better, American Savage, The Kid
Sherman Alexie (1966) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, War Dances
8
Frank Herbert (1920) Dune Chronicles, The Eyes of Heisenberg
Faith Ringgold (1930) Harlem Renaissance Party, Tar Beach, We Came to America
Harvey Pekar (1939) Underground comic book writer, American Splendor series
R.L. Stine (1943) Goosebumps series, Fear Street series
9
Belva Plain (1915) Heartwood, Her Father’s House, The Sight of the Stars
Michael Palmer (1942) Resistant, Trauma, Mercy
10
Harold Pinter (1930) Nobel Prize playwright, The Homecoming, Betrayal
Nora Roberts (1950) Stars of Mithra series, Come Sundown, The Obsession
11
Elmore Leonard (1925) Get Shorty, Be Cool, Hombre
James M. McPherson (1936) Battle Cry of Freedom, The War That Forged a Nation
Richard Paul Evans (1962) Michael Vey series, The Christmas Box, The Gift
12
Ann Petry (1908) The Street, The Narrows
Alice Childress (1912) A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But a Sandwich, Like One of the Family
James Crumley (1939) The Last Good Kiss, The Wrong Case, Dancing Bear
Richard Price (1949) Lush Life, Clockers, The Wanderers
13
Arna Bontemps (1902) Black Thunder, God Sends Sunday, Drums at Dusk
Frank D. Gilroy (1925) Playwright, The Subject Was Roses, The Only Game in Town
Emily Gould (1981) And the Heart Says Whatever, Friendship
14
e.e. cummings (1894) Poet, Etcetera, I Carry Your Heart With Me
Katherine Mansfield (1888) The Garden Party, Miss Briss
Hannah Arendt (1906) Philosopher, Eichmann in Jerusalem: The Report on the Banality of Evil
15
P.G. Wodehouse (1881) Jeeves and Wooster series (Right Ho, Jeeves!, My Man Jeeves)
Mario Puzo (1920) The Godfather, Omerta, The Sicilian
Ed McBain a/k/a Evan Hunter (1926) 87th Precinct suspense series, The Blackboard Jungle
Michael Lewis (1960) Moneyball, The Blind Side, The Big Short
16
Noah Webster (1758) An American Dictionary of the English Language
Oscar Wilde (1854) The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Eugene O’Neill (1888) Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Iceman Cometh
Günter Grass (1927) Nobel Prize Literature, The Tin Drum, Dog Years
Elinor Lipman (1950) The Inn at Lake Devine, The Family Man
17
Nathanael West (1903) The Day of the Locust, Miss Lonelyhearts
Jimmy Breslin (1930) Journalist,The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight
Robert Jordan (1948) Wheel of Time series, original Conan the Barbarian series
Wally Lamb (1950) She’s Come Undone, I Know This Much is True
18
Arthur Miller (1917) The Crucible, Death of a Salesman, A View from the Bridge, All My Sons
Ntozake Shange (1948) For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, Some Sing, Some Cry
Terry McMillan (1951) Waiting to Exhale, How Stella Got Her Groove Back
19
Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1741) Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons)
John LeCarre (1931) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, George Smiley series
Dan Gutman (1955) Weird School series
Tracy Chevalier (1962) Girl With a Pearl Earring, Fallen Angels
20
Arthur Rimbaud (1854) Poet, Illuminations, Season in Hell
Fannie Hurst (1885) Imitation of Life, Backstreet, Humoresque
Robert Pinsky (1940) U.S. Poet Laureate, Gulf Music, At the Foundling Hospital
21
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772) Poet, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929) Earthsea Cycle series, The Left Hand of Darkness
22
Doris Lessing (1919) Nobel Prize Literature, The Golden Notebook
Ann Rule (1931) True Crime author, The Stranger Beside Me, Small Sacrifices
Debbie Macomber (1948) Blossom Street series, Rose Harbor series
23
Michael Crichton (1942) Jurassic Park, The Lost World, The Andromeda Strain
Michael Eric Dyson (1958) Tears We Cannot Stop, The Black Presidency
Randy Pausch (1960) The Last Lecture
Laurie Halse Anderson (1961) Wintergirls, Chains. Speak, Twisted
Augusten Burroughs (1965) Running With Scissors, Possible Side Effects, A Wolf at the Table
24
Moss Hart (1904) Playwright, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Act One
Emma Donoghue (1969) Room, Frog Music, The Wonder
Gabrielle Zevin (1977) The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, The Hole We’re In
25
Geoffrey Chaucer (1342) The Canterbury Tales
Anne Tyler (1941) The Accidental Tourist, Breathing Lessons, A Spool of Blue Thread, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Bruce Feiler (1964) Walking the Bible, Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths
26
Beryl Markham (1902) West with the Night
Pat Conroy (1945) The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides
Stephen L. Carter (1954) Jericho’s Fall, Palace Council
Stacy Schiff (1961) The Witches: Salem 1692, Cleopatra: A Life
Jim Butcher (1971) Codex Alera series, Dresden Files series
27
Emily Post (1872) Etiquette in Society
Dylan Thomas (1914) A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night
Sylvia Plath (1932) Ariel, The Bell Jar
Maxine Hong Kingston (1940) The Woman Warrior, Tripmaster Monkey
28
Evelyn Waugh (1908) Brideshead Revisited, A Handful of Dust, Decline and Fall
Anne Perry (1938) William Monk mystery series, Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mystery series
29
Dominick Dunne (1925) The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, An Inconvenient Woman
David Remnick (1958) Journalist, Editor-in-Chief The New Yorker
30
Ezra Pound (1885) Poet, The Cantos, The Spirit of Romance
Robert Caro (1935) The Power Broker, The Passage of Power
Andrew Solomon (1963) The Noonday Demon, Far from the Tree
31
John Keats (1795) Poet, Ode on a Grecian Urn, A Song About Myself, Ode to a Nightingale
Dick Francis (1920) Even Money, High Stakes, Wild Horses
Susan Orlean (1955) The Orchid Thief, Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend
Neal Stephenson (1959) Reamde, The Cobweb