Bookish birthdays for the week of April 21, 2019

Here are the literary birthdays to celebrate over the week of April 21, 2019.

Charlotte Brontë (April 21, 1816). Brontë’s classic novel, Jane Eyre, was quickly accepted by a publisher and actually an immediate success.

Immanuel Kant (April 22, 1724). Kant spent ten years reflecting on what would become his most famous work, Critique of Pure Reason, and still was nervous about publishing it.

William Shakespeare (April 23, 1564). Though we know Shakespeare as one of the most — if not the most — influential English writers, the first reference to him from the literary world is sarcastically scathing.

Anthony Trollope (April 24, 1815). Trollope’s popularity, beginning with the Chronicles of Barsetshire novels, led many to underestimate the quality of his writing.

Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905). Warren, most widely known for the novel All The King’s Men, also became the first poet laureate of the United States in 1986.

Daniel Defoe (April 26, 1660). Defoe wrote his most famous work, Robinson Crusoe, at age fifty-nine, not only making a late-career switch from nonfiction but also earning him the title of father of the English novel.

David Hume (April 26, 1711). Book I of Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature is his most-read writing among philosophers — yet in later years, he rejected the work.

Mary Wollstonecraft (April 27, 1759). Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is one of the trailblazing works of feminism, but she may be slightly more recognizable to a general audience as the mother of Mary Shelley.

Birthdays sourced from Calendar of Literary Facts; biographical information sourced from Encyclopedia Britannica. Did we miss someone? Email and let us know.