Bookish birthdays for the week of August 11, 2019

Here are the literary birthdays to celebrate over the week of August 11, 2019.

Danielle Steel (August 14, 1947): Every single one of Steel’s 170-plus books has been a bestseller, including the recent Lost and Found and His Father’s Footsteps.

Walter Scott (August 15, 1771): Scott is considered the creator of the historical novel; his most famous such works are Rob Roy and Ivanhoe.

Charles Bukowski (August 16, 1920): Bukowski’s work — including the poetry collection Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame and the novel Ham on Rye — is noted for how brutally realistic and yet comical it is.

Charlotte Grimke (August 17, 1837): Grimke’s poetry and essays brought her some acclaim during her lifetime, but she’s better known now for the diaries she kept from 1854-1864 and 1885-1892.

Ted Hughes (August 17, 1930): Hughes’s fame as a poet began with his award-winning collection The Hawk in the Rain (which he submitted at the encouragement of his wife Sylvia Plath) and continued throughout his life, including a stint as Britain’s poet laureate.

V.S. Naipaul (August 17, 1932): Naipaul received the Booker Prize for In a Free State and the Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of his post-colonial novels, such as A House for Mr. Biswas.

Birthdays sourced from Calendar of Literary Facts; biographical information sourced from Encyclopedia Britannica, Poetry Foundation, and author websites. Did we miss someone? Email and let us know!