Bookish birthdays for the week of May 21, 2023

Here are the literary birthdays to celebrate over the week of May 21, 2023.

Alexander Pope (May 21, 1688): Pope is best known for his poems An Essay on Criticism, The Rape of the Lock, and An Essay on Man, and was the first English poet to enjoy contemporary fame across Europe.

Arthur Conan Doyle (May 22, 1859): Doyle’s best-known character — Sherlock Holmes — took inspiration from the observation skills of one of his professors in medical school.

Margaret Fuller (May 23, 1810): The first edition of Fuller’s Woman in the Nineteenth Century, which urges young women to seek greater independence through education, sold out within a week.

Mitch Albom (May 23, 1958): Among Albom’s bestselling books that have also been made into hit movies are Tuesdays With Morrie and Five People You Meet in Heaven.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803): Most famous for his essay “Self-Reliance,” Emerson’s personal manifestos (Nature and Address) rallied the literary movement known as Transcendentalism.

Raymond Carver (May 25, 1938). Carver gained literary acclaim with the short-story collection Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? and is credited with reviving the English-language short story.

Alexander Pushkin (May 26, 1799). Pushkin’s play Boris Godunov and novel Eugene Onegin are among the cornerstones of modern Russian literature.

Dashiell Hammett (May 27, 1894): Hammett is credited with launching the hard-boiled detective school of writing, with his third novel, The Maltese Falcon, introducing both Hammett and the character Sam Spade to the world.

Rachel Carson (May 27, 1907). Carson’s Silent Spring wasn’t even her first bestseller — that honor goes to 1951’s The Sea Around Us, which also won a National Book Award.