It’s 5 pm… somewhere, and because it is, why not raise a glass in celebration of literary greats with October birthdays, including:
1st
Sergey Aksakov, novelist (1791); Louis Untermeyer, poet (1885); Faith Baldwin, novelist (1893); and Daniel Boorstin, historian (1914);
2nd
Wallace Stevens, poet (1879); and Graham Green, novelist (1904);
3rd
Sir Fulke Greville, poet (1554); Mikhail Lermontov, poet and novelist (1814); Henri Alain-Fournier, novelist (1886); Thomas Wolf, novelist (1900); James Herriot, writer (1916); and Gore Vidal, playwright and writer (1925);
4th
Edward Stratemeyer, creator of the Stratemeyer Syndicate (1862); Damon Runyon, short-story writer and humorist (1884); Jackie Collins, author (1941); Anne Rice, author (1941); and Luis Sepúlveda, writer (1949);
5th
Jonathan Edwards, sermon writer (1703); Denis Diderot, encyclopedist, literary critic, and man of letters (1713); John Addington Symonds, historian and writer (1840); Frederic Morton, aka Fritz Mandelbaum, writer (1924); Vaclav Havel, playwright (1936); and Marie-Claire Blais, novelist (1939);
“’Tis a pity wine should be so deleterious, for tea and coffee leave us much more serious.” -Lord Byron
6th
Caroline Gordon, writer (1895); and Thor Heyerdahl, adventure writer (1914);
7th
James Whitcomb Riley, poet (1849); Everett LeRoy Jones -aka- Leroi Jones -aka- Amiri Baraka, poet and playwright (1934); Thomas M. Keneally, novelist (1935); Vivian Leopold James -aka- Clive James, literary critic, poet, lyricist, novelist and memoirist (1939); and Anita Shreve, novelist (1946);
8th
John Hay, poet (1838); John Cowper, novelist, essayist, poet, and orator (1872); Frank Herbert, sci-fi writer (1920); Faith Ringgold, children’s author (1930); and R[ichard] L[awrence] Stine, YA author (1943);
9th
Tadeusz Różewicz, poet, dramatist, and writer (1921); Jill Ker Conway, writer (1934); and Ciaran Carson, poet (1948);
10th
Aleksis Kivi, playwright, novelist, and poet (1834); Ivo Andric, novelist (1892); and Harold Pinter, playwright (1930);
“The man that isn’t jolly after drinking is just a driveling idiot, to my thinking.” -Euripides
11th
Steen Steensen Blicher, poet and short-story writer (1782); François Mauriac, novelist, poet, and playwright (1885); and Elmore Leonard, crime fiction writer (1925);
12th
George Washington Cable, novelist and short story writer (1844); Maurice Donnay, playwright (1859); Eugenio Montale, poet and translator (1896); Ann Lane Petry, novelist, short story writer, children’s author (1908); Alice Childress, playwright and novelist (1920); Charles Gordon, playwright (1925); Robert Coles, author (1929); and William J[ames] Raspberry, syndicated newspaper columnist (1935);
13th
Conrad Richter, novelist (1890); Arna Bontemps, poet, novelist, children’s author, and librarian (1902); and Frank Gilroy, playwright and screenwriter (1925);
14th
Masaoka Shiki, haiku and tanka poet and diarist (1867); Katherine Mansfield, short story writer (1888); and e(dward) e(stlin) cummings, poet and playwright (1894); and
15th – Virgil, poet (79 B.C.); Helen Hunt Jackson, novelist (1830); Sir P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, novelist (1881); C[harles] P[ercy] Snow, novelist (1905); John Kenneth Galbraith, political writer (1908); Arthur Schlesinger Jr., historian and biographer (1917); Mario Puzo, author (1921); Italo Calvino, novelist (1923); and Evan Hunter -aka- Ed McBain, crime writer (1926).
“There is an ancient Celtic axiom that says, ‘Good People Drink Good Beer.’ Which is true, then as it is now”. - Hunter S. Thompson
Saúde!
Thanks for reading,



I'd have to have something a bit stronger 🍸 to read '1984' in these times
My 2 favorite poets-- Amiri Baraka/Le Roi Jones and e.e. Cummings are here.
Both made my heart stop to consider...
Thanks for the list.