Bookish birthdays for the week of September 1, 2024

Here are the literary birthdays to celebrate over the week of September 1, 2024.

Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875): Burroughs is best known for the Hollywood adaptations of his twenty-five Tarzan books, though his first hit story, “Under the Moons of Mars,” has also hit the screen in the form of the movie John Carter.

Eleanor Hibbert (September 1, 1906): Hibbert published more than two hundred romance novels under several pseudonyms, most prolifically Jean Plaidy (over ninety historical tales) and Victoria Holt (over thirty books).

Cleveland Amory (September 2, 1917): In addition to being a bestselling author (thanks to his trilogy about his cat Polar Bear, beginning with The Cat Who Came For Christmas), Amory was an animal-rights activist who founded an animal-protection agency in New York state and helped establish an animal sanctuary in Texas.

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.