Bookish birthdays for the week of July 14, 2024

Here are the literary birthdays to celebrate over the week of July 14, 2024.

Irving Stone (July 14, 1903): The subjects of Stone’s “bio-histories” — fictionalized biographies — include Vincent Van Gogh (Lust for Life), Jessie and John Fremont (Immortal Wife), Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln (Love Is Eternal), and Michelangelo (The Agony and the Ecstasy).

David Mitchell (July 14, 1974): Mitchell is the bestselling author of The Bone Clocks and the Booker Prize shortlisted Number9Dream and Cloud Atlas (which was also adapted into a movie). 

Clement Clarke Moore (July 15, 1779): Moore, a professor of Oriental and Greek literature, took credit for “A Visit from St. Nicholas” almost two decades after the poem was anonymously published in a newspaper, though the relatives of another writer argued that he had in fact written it.

Iris Murdoch (July 15, 1919): Murdoch came to prominence with her third novel, The Bell; went on to win the 1978 Booker Prize for The Sea, the Sea; and became a dame of the British Empire for her work.

Clive Cussler (July 15, 1931): Cussler’s five adventure series — the Fargo Adventures, the Isaac Bell novels, The Oregon Files, the Dirk Pitt series, and The NUMA Files — have made him a New York Times bestseller many times over.

Richard Russo (July 15, 1949): Russo won a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for Empire Falls; his other popular works include Straight Man, Nobody’s Fool (adapted into a movie), and The Risk Pool.

Anita Brookner (July 16, 1928): For half of her fiction-writing career, Brookner published a novel per year, including her breakthrough (and Booker Prize winner) Hotel du Lac and The Next Big Thing.

William Makepeace Thackeray (July 18, 1811): Thackeray’s Vanity Fair was highly celebrated by its contemporaries, who saw him as the only possible literary rival to Charles Dickens, and remains one of the English language’s classic historical novels.

Hunter S. Thompson (July 18, 1937): Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas established both the genre of gonzo journalism and his writing fame; it and another well-known work of his, The Rum Diary, were both adapted into hit movies.

Elizabeth Gilbert (July 18, 1969): Gilbert began her career as an acclaimed journalist, nonfiction writer, but it was her memoir Eat Pray Love (and the movie adaptation) that made her a household name; her subsequent novels, The Signature of All Things and City of Girls, have been popular and critical successes. 

Petrarch (July 20, 1304): Petrarch was considered among the greatest scholar of his age and is easily remembered for his poetry addressed to his beloved Laura, which itself heavily influenced great minds — from all disciplines — during the Renaissance.

Cormac McCarthy (July 20, 1933): McCarthy’s Blood Meridian is considered his masterpiece, though All the Pretty Horses won the National Book Award and The Road received a Pulitzer Prize; the latter two, along with No Country for Old Men, have become acclaimed movies as well.