Bookish birthdays for the week of August 9, 2026

Here are the literary birthdays to celebrate over the week of August 9, 2026.

Izaak Walton (August 9, 1593): Walton’s The Compleat Angler is one of the most frequently reprinted books in English literature.

Daniel Keyes (August 9, 1927): Keyes is best known for his classic science-fiction work Flowers for Algernon; the first version of it was a novella that won the Hugo Award, and its expansion into a full-length novel then won a Nebula Award.

P. L. Travers (August 9, 1899): Travers is best known for her Mary Poppins series of novels; she also worked as a journalist and critic and wrote books about myths from various cultures.

Jonathan Kellerman (August 9, 1949): Kellerman’s first novel, When The Bough Breaks, won Edgar Allan Poe and Anthony Boucher awards, became a bestseller, and was adapted into a movie; since its publication, Kellerman has released a bestselling crime novel every year.

Dorothy B. Hughes (August 10, 1904): Hughes’s hardboiled novels The Fallen Sparrow, Ride the Pink Horse, and In a Lonely Place all became films, and she later went on to become an Edgar Award-winning literary critic.

Alex Haley (August 11, 1921): Haley became famous for The Autobiography of Malcolm X and built upon his reputation with Roots: The Saga of an American Family, which won a Pulitzer Prize.

Joanna Cole (August 11, 1944): Cole began writing the Magic School Bus series for children in the 1980s and continued nearly until her 2020 death; the books have sold tens of millions of copies in that time.

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.

Stieg Larsson (August 15, 1954): Larsson’s Millennium trilogy — comprising The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest — has been translated into thirty languages and sold tens of million copies; other writers have continued the series, which he imagined as ten volumes, over the objection of his longtime romantic partner.