Bookish birthdays for the week of April 10, 2022

Here are the literary birthdays to celebrate over the week of April 10, 2022.

Paul Theroux (April 10, 1941). Theroux is beloved for his travel books, such as The Great Railway Bazaar (his breakthrough work), and his novels, including The Happy Isles of Oceania.

Beverly Cleary (April 12, 1916): Cleary is among the most beloved children’s author of all-time, with her works — starring such characters as Ramona and Beezus Quimby, Henry Huggins, Ralph S. Mouse, Otis Spofford, and Ellen Tebbits — racking up awards including the National Medal of Art and the John Newbery Medal. 

Samuel Beckett (April 13, 1906): Beckett, best known for his play Waiting for Godot, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969 for “for his writing, which — in new forms for the novel and drama — in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation.”

Eudora Welty (April 13, 1909): Welty’s short stories and novels, including The Robber Bridegroom and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Optimist’s Daughter, have immortalized small-town Mississippi life.

Seamus Heaney (April 13, 1939): Though he’s perhaps better known for his poetry, Heaney’s translation of Beowulf became an international bestseller; he also won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Henry James (April 15, 1843): James wrote for over five decades — producing twenty novels (Daisy Miller and The Portrait of A Lady), over a hundred tales, twelve plays, several volumes of travel and criticism, and a great deal of literary journalism — making him one of the most prolific and influential American writers.

Anatole France (April 16, 1844): France’s output crossed a variety of literary genres, from historical fiction to romance, comedy, short stories, and biographies; his most famous works include Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard, At the Sign of the Reine Pédauque, and a biography of Joan of Arc.

Kingsley Amis (April 16, 1922): Amis achieved fame with his first novel, Lucky Jim, continued to produce popular books, and continues to live on, in a way, through his son, novelist Martin Amis.