Bookish birthdays for the week of September 3, 2023

Here are the literary birthdays to celebrate over the week of September 3, 2023.

Alison Lurie (September 3, 1926): Among Lurie’s best-known works, which also became movies, are The War Between the Tates and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Foreign Affairs.

Malcolm Gladwell (September 3, 1963): Gladwell has written five New York Times bestsellers: The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and David and Goliath.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (September 4, 1792): Shelley is considered one of the greatest English-language poets, and critics consider Prometheus Unbound: A Lyrical Drama to be the pinnacle of his achievement.

Richard Wright (September 4, 1908): Wright’s work, including the novel Native Son and autobiography Black Boy, paved the way for many other Black writers to protest their treatment by whites.

Jennifer Egan (September 7, 1962): Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; she’s also known and celebrated for Look at Me and The Invisible Circus.

Grace Metalious (September 8, 1924): Metalious’s book Peyton Place is both one of the bestselling novels of all time and one of the most criticized, for its depiction of the darker side of humanity.

Phyllis A. Whitney (September 9, 1903): In addition to her award-winning mysteries for adults (such as The Mystery of the Haunted Pool and The Mystery of the Hidden Hand), Whitney wrote books for younger readers.