This Day in Literature
Chronology of Events in Literature
Jul 12 1389: Geoffrey Chaucer is appointed Chief Clerk of the King's Works by Richard II.
Oct 25 1400: Commonly accepted date for the death of Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales.
Feb 03 1468: Death of Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of movable type and the modern printing press, in Mainz, Germany, at the age of about 70.
Mar 14 1471: Death of Sir Thomas Malory, author of Le Morte d'Arthur.
Sep 29 1547: Birth of Miguel de Cervantes, best known as the author of Don Quixote, in Alcala de Henares, Spain.
Apr 23 1564: Day traditionally celebrated as the birthday of William Shakespeare, although his date of birth is not known for certain. Coincidentally, it is also St George's Day, St George being the patron saint of England.
Apr 26 1564: Date recorded for the christening of William Shakespeare, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. His date of birth is not known for certain, but presumably was only a few days earlier.
Jan 06 1567: Birth of Richard Burbage, an actor who was the first to play many of the leading male characters in William Shakespeare's plays.
Feb 25 1578: Birth of Maugan Killigrew, the narrator and central character in Winston Graham's historical novel about the second Spanish Armada, The Grove of Eagles.
Nov 27 1582: Special licence issued and recorded in the Bishop of Worcester's register for the marriage of William Shakespeare and Anne Whately (aka Hathaway).
Nov 28 1582: Bond issued exempting the Bishop of Worcester from responsibility if the marriage of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway proved invalid.
May 25 1583: Register of Stratford parish church records the christening of Susanna, the first child of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway.
Feb 22 1585: Candlemas Day, the register of Stratford parish church records the christening of Hamnet and Judith, children, probably twins, of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway.
Jan 06 1586: William Shakespeare's father, John, is deprived of his alderman's gown for non-attendance at Stratford-upon-Avon's council meetings.
Mar 03 1592: Possible performance of William Shakespeare's play Henry VI, Part 1 in London, England.
Sep 03 1594: Registration of some anonymous verses to Willobie his Avisa in which Shakespeare's name is mentioned, possibly an indication of his growing fame and popularity.
Dec 26 1594: Payment records for the Lord Chamberlain's company show that William Shakespeare was one of the actors paid for a performance at Greenwich.
Dec 27 1594: Payment records for the Lord Chamberlain's company show that William Shakespeare was one of the actors paid for a performance at Greenwich.
Aug 11 1594: Register of Stratford parish church records the burial of Hamnet Shakespeare, William Shakespeare's son. The child would have been only nine years old.
Dec 28 1596: Performance of William Shakespeare's play The Comedy of Errors at Gray's Inn in London, England.
Oct 20 1596: William Shakespeare's father John is granted a coat-of-arms, another indication of the family's increased prosperity.
May 04 1597: William Shakespeare purchased New Place, the second largest house in Stratford, from William Underhill.
Feb 21 1599: William Shakespeare is one of the original shareholders, with a one tenth share, in the newly opened Globe Theatre in London.
Aug 23 1600: The Stationers Register records William Shakespeare's play Much Ado About Nothing.
Jan 06 1601: William Shakespeare's aptly-named play Twelfth Night is recorded by the Stationers Register.
Sep 08 1601: William Shakespeare's father John is buried in Stratford.
May 01 1602: William Shakespeare bought 127 acres of land in Old Stratford from William and John Combe.
Sep 28 1602: William Shakespeare becomes copyholder, or tenant landholder, of a cottage in Chapel Lane, opposite his house, New Place, in Stratford.
Jan 16 1605: Publication of the first part of Miguel de Cervantes' picaresque novel Don Quixote in Madrid, Spain. This first part was entitled El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha.
Jul 24 1605: William Shakespeare becomes one of the major tithe-owners in Stratford by purchasing the interest in a large block of tithes from Ralph Husband. This provided him with an additional source of income, because the tithes, which can be considered equivalent to rents, were paid to him.
Aug 01 1605: William Shakespeare is recorded as a tenant of Chapel Lane Cottage in Rowington, Warwickshire.
Dec 26 1606: First known performance of William Shakespeare's King Lear. The performance took place at Whitehall, London, at the court of King James 1.
Jun 15 1607: Susanna Shakespeare, William Shakespeare's older daughter, is married to John Hall, a physician, in Stratford.
Feb 21 1608: William Shakespeare's first grandchild, Elizabeth, is baptized in Stratford. She is the child of Susanna Shakespeare and John Hall.
Aug 09 1608: William Shakespeare acquires a sharehold in Blackfriars Theatre.
Sep 09 1608: William Shakespeare's mother Mary is buried in Stratford.
Dec 09 1608: Poet John Milton born in Cheapside, London, England.
Nov 01 1611: Performance of William Shakespeare's play The Tempest at Whitehall in London, England.
May 11 1612: Deposition given by William Shakespeare in a law-suit in London. This is the first of the six known signatures by him.
Mar 10 1613: William Shakespeare bought a gate-house close to Blackfriars Theatre from Henry Walker for 140 pounds. This is the second of the six known signatures by him.
Mar 11 1613: William Shakespeare mortgaged the gate-house he'd just bought from Henry Walker to Walker for 60 pounds, perhaps to help with repayment. This is the third of the six known signatures by him.
Mar 24 1613: Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland, wore a heraldic device designed by William Shakespeare in a tilt, a jousting competition, held on King James I's Accession Day.
Mar 31 1613: William Shakespeare is paid 44 shillings for his part in designing a heraldic device for Francis Manners, the 6th Earl of Rutland.
Jan 25 1613: John Donne, poet and clergyman, was ordained by the Bishop of London.
Feb 10 1616: William Shakespeare's younger daughter, Judith, marries Thomas Quiney, in Stratford.
Mar 25 1616: William Shakespeare signs his will. This is the sixth and final known signature by him.
Apr 23 1616: Death of Miguel de Cervantes, best known as the author of Don Quixote, in Madrid, Spain, at the age of 68.
Apr 23 1616: Death of William Shakespeare, poet and playwright in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, at the age of 52.
Mar 12 1619: Death of Richard Burbage, an actor who was the first to play many of the leading male characters in William Shakespeare's plays, at the age of 52.
Aug 06 1623: Death of Anne Shakespeare, otherwise known as Anne Hathaway, widow of William Shakespeare, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, at the age of 67.
Nov 28 1628: Birth of John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim's Progress, near Bedford, England.
Mar 31 1631: Death of poet and clergyman John Donne in London, England, at the age of 59. His date of birth is unknown for certain but is likely 1571 or 1572.
Feb 23 1633: Samuel Pepys, diarist, born in London, England.
Jul 11 1649: Susanna Hall, the elder daughter of William Shakespeare, died in Stratford at the age of 66.
Jan 01 1660: First entry in Samuel Pepys' Diary.
Feb 09 1662: Judith Quiney, the younger daughter of William Shakespeare, is buried in Stratford at the age of 77.
Nov 07 1665: First day of publication of The Oxford Gazette, later The London Gazette, a record of official government notices. It claims to be the oldest continuously published English newspaper, although it doesn't meet the usual definition of a newspaper.
Feb 05 1666: First day of publication of The London Gazette, as Issue 24, a record of official government notices.
Apr 27 1667: In great need of money, John Milton, poet, sold the copyright of his long epic poem Paradise Lost to publisher Samuel Simmons for £5.
May 31 1669: Last entry in Samuel Pepys' Diary.
Sep 27 1674: Death of Thomas Traherne, metaphysical poet, of smallpox in Teddington, London, England, at the age of about 36.
Oct 10 1674: Thomas Traherne, metaphysical poet, buried under the church's reading desk in St Mary's Church, Teddington, London, England.
Nov 08 1674: Poet John Milton died in Bunhill, London, England, at the age of 65.
Aug 31 1688: Death of John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim's Progress, at Snow Hill, near London, England, at the age of 59.
Apr 23 1695: Death of Henry Vaughan, metaphysical poet, at Scethrog, Brecknockshire, Wales, at the age of about 74.
May 26 1703: Samuel Pepys, diarist, died in Clapham, near London, England, at the age of 70.
Jan 28 1706: John Baskerville, printer and typographer, born in Luton, England.
Sep 18 1709: Samuel Johnson, essayist and lexicographer, born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England.
Apr 05 1710: The Statue of Anne receives Royal Assent. This was the first Act of Parliament to define and regulate copyright by the government and the courts rather than by private groups or companies.
Apr 10 1710: The Statue of Anne comes into force. This was the first Act of Parliament to define and regulate copyright by the government and the courts rather than by private groups or companies.
Oct 12 1713: Enoch Root visits Dr Daniel Waterhouse in Boston Common in the opening scenes of Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson.
Nov 24 1713: Laurence Sterne, novelist best known for The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, born in Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland.
Jul 18 1720: Gilbert White, parson, naturalist and writer of The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, born in Selborne, Hampshire, England.
Aug 28 1749: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writer and poet, born in Frankurt, Germany.
Apr 15 1755: Publication of Samuel Johnson's magisterial A Dictionary of the English Language.
Nov 28 1757: William Blake, artist and poet, born in Soho, London, England.
Oct 16 1758: Noah webster Jr., lexicographer, born in Hartford, Connecticut, USA.
Jan 25 1759: Birth of Robert Burns, poet, in Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland. His birthday is celebrated by Scots throughout the world with Burns Night suppers and readings of his poetry.
Mar 09 1763: William Cobbett, journalist and polemicist, best known as the writer of Rural Rides, born in Farnham, Surrey, England.
Aug 04 1767: Date of first dated letter (Letter X) in Gilbert White's The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne.
Mar 18 1768: Laurence Sterne, novelist best known for The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, died in London, England, at the age of 54.
Aug 15 1771: Birth of Sir Walter Scott, historical novelist and poet, in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Sep 29 1775: Publication of Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (The Sorrows of Young Werther) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Jan 08 1775: John Baskerville, printer and typographer, died in Birmingham, England, at the age of 68.
Dec 16 1775: Jane Austen, novelist, born in Steventon, Hampshire, England.
Mar 10 1780: Frances Trollope, prolific novelist and mother of the author Anthony Trollope, born in Bristol, England.
Dec 13 1784: Samuel Johnson, essayist and lexicographer, died in London, England.
Jun 25 1787: Date of last letter (Letter LXVI) in Gilbert White's The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne.
Nov 01 1788: Publication of The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, by Gilbert White.
Jul 10 1792: Birth of Captain Frederick Marryat in London, England. Marryat is remembered as the first writer of sea stories and the author of the children's book, The Children of the New Forest.
Jun 26 1793: Gilbert White, parson, naturalist and writer of The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, died in Selborne, Hampshire, England, at the age of 72.
Aug 10 1793: In Paris, the Louvre opens to the public for the first time, with an exhibition of 537 paintings.
Jul 21 1796: Death of Robert Burns, poet, in Dumfries, Scotland. His birthday (January 25) is celebrated by Scots throughout the world with Burns Night suppers and readings of his poetry.
Aug 30 1797: Mary Shelley, best known as the author of Frankenstein, born in London, England.
Jul 13 1798: The day commemorated in William Wordsworth's poem Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey.
Jul 24 1802: Alexandre Dumas, historical novelist, born near Paris, France.
Jul 05 1803: George Borrow, novelist and travel writer, born in East Dereham, Norfolk, England.
Aug 12 1803: William Blake, poet and artist, became involved in an altercation with a soldier, John Scofield, in Felpham, Sussex. As a result of words he allegedly spoke during that altercation, Blake was later tried for sedition.
Oct 14 1803: Captain Denny is found dead in the woods on the estate in the opening section of P. D. James's crime novel Death Comes to Pemberley, a sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
Jan 11 1804: William Blake, poet and artist, was acquitted of sedition and assault after a trial at Chichester, England.
Mar 31 1809: Edward Fitzgerald, best known for his translation and free adaptation of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, born near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England.
Jul 18 1811: William Makepeace Thackeray, author of Vanity Fair, born in Calcutta, India.
Oct 30 1811: Sense and Sensibility, a novel by Jane Austen, advertised for sale.
Feb 07 1812: Charles Dickens, novelist, born in Portsea, Portsmouth, England.
Jan 27 1813: Jane Austen receives a copy of her novel, Pride and Prejudice.
Jan 28 1813: Publication of Jane Austen's novel, Pride and Prejudice.
May 09 1814: Mansfield Park, a novel by Jane Austen, was advertised for sale; this date is its presumed publication date.
Feb 24 1815: While acting captain of the merchant ship Pharaon, Edmond Dantès arrives in the port of Marseilles in the opening scene of Alexandre Dumas' swashbuckling novel The Count of Monte Cristo.
Apr 24 1815: Anthony Trollope, prolific novelist, born in London, England.
Jul 12 1815: Hablot Knight Browne, best known as 'Phiz' and illustrator of many of Dickens' novels, born in Lambeth, London, England.
Apr 21 1816: Charlotte Brontë, author of Jane Eyre, born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England.
May 04 1816: Publication of The Antiquary by Sir Walter Scott.
Jun 26 1817: Birth of Branwell Brontë in Thornton, Yorkshire, England.
Jul 12 1817: Henry David Thoreau, essayist and naturalist, born in Concord, Massachusetts, USA.
Mar 18 1817: Last day that Jane Austen worked on the manuscript of Sanditon. The novel was unfinished at the time of her death four months later.
Jul 18 1817: Jane Austen, novelist, died in Winchester, at the age of 41.
Jan 11 1818: Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "Ozymandias" was published in The Examiner, a weekly paper in London.
Jul 30 1818: Birth of Emily Brontë, author of Wuthering Heights, in Thornton, Yorkshire, England.
Sep 01 1819: Herman Melville, novelist, born in New York, USA.
Nov 22 1819: Mary Ann Evans, aka George Eliot, novelist, born in Warwickshire, England.
Jan 17 1820: Birth of Anne Brontë, author and youngest of the Brontë sisters, in Thornton, Yorkshire, England.
Feb 28 1820: Sir John Tenniel born in London, England. He was an illustrator, best known for his woodcuts for Alice in Wonderland.
Mar 30 1820: Anna Sewell, writer best known for the novel Black Beauty, born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England.
Nov 11 1821: Birth of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, novelist, in Moscow, Russia.
Dec 12 1821: Birth of Gustave Flaubert, novelist best known for Madame Bovary, in Rouen, France.
May 26 1822: Edmond de Goncourt, elder of the Goncourt brothers, diarists and men-about-town, born in Nancy, France.
Dec 24 1822: Matthew Arnold, poet, born in Laleham, Middlesex, England.
Jan 08 1824: Wilkie Collins, novelist, born in London, England.
Apr 24 1825: Robert Ballantyne, novelist best known for Coral Island, born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Jun 07 1825: R. D. Blackmore, writer best known for the historical novel Lorna Doone, born in Longworth, Oxfordshire, England.
Aug 12 1827: William Blake, artist and poet, died in London, England, at the age of 69.
Feb 08 1828: Jules Verne, novelist, born in Nantes, France.
Sep 09 1828: Leo Tolstoy, writer and philosopher, probably best known as the author of War and Peace, born on the family estate at Yasnaya Polyana, Russia.
Jul 23 1829: William Austin Burt registered a patent at the US Patent Office for a "typographer", the ancestor of the modern typewriter.
Dec 10 1830: Emily Dickinson, poet, born in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA.
Dec 17 1830: Jules de Goncourt, younger of the Goncourt brothers, diarists and men-about-town, born in Paris.
Oct 15 1831: Date of Mary Shelley's Preface to the third edition of her novella Frankenstein.
Jan 27 1832: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who published under the pen name Lewis Carroll, born in Daresbury, Cheshire, England.
Mar 22 1832: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writer and poet, died in Weimar, Germany, at the age of 82.
Sep 21 1832: Death of Sir Walter Scott, historical novelist and poet, in Melrose, Scotland, at the age of 61.
Nov 29 1832: Louisa May Alcott, writer of children's fiction, best known for Little Women, born in Germantown in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
May 21 1838: The Count of Monte Cristo, newly arrived in Paris, goes to breakfast at the home of Albert de Morcerf, and sets in motion his long-planned revenge in Alexandre Dumas' swashbuckling novel The Count of Monte Cristo.
Oct 05 1838: His vengeance completed, the Count of Monte Cristo sails away from the island, leaving Maximilian Morrel and his soon-to-be wife Valentine de Villefort in possession of his fortune and secret in the closing scene of Alexandre Dumas' swashbuckling novel The Count of Monte Cristo.
Mar 03 1839: Birth of Ellen Ternan, an actress who became Charles Dickens' mistress, born in Rochester, Kent, England.
Jun 02 1840: Thomas Hardy, novelist and poet, born at Higher Brockhampton, near Dorchester, Dorset, England.
Jan 03 1841: Herman Melville ships out as a crewman on the whaler Acushnet.
Jun 23 1842: Herman Melville deserts from the whaler Acushnet on Nuku Hiva, one of the Marquesas Islands in Polynesia.
Apr 15 1843: Henry James, probably best known as the author of The Portrait of a Lady, born in New York, USA.
May 28 1843: Noah Webster Jr., lexicographer, died in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, at the age of 84.
Dec 19 1843: Publication of A Christmas Carol, a novella by Charles Dickens, and arguably his most famous work. The story was published by Chapman and Hall.
Mar 31 1844: Andrew Lang, collector of folk tales, born in Selkirk, Scotland.
Jul 28 1844: Gerard Manley Hopkins, poet, born in Stratford, Essex, England.
Jun 18 1845: William Cobbett, journalist and polemicist, best known as the writer of Rural Rides, died in Normandy, Surrey, England, at the age of 72.
Jul 04 1845: Henry David Thoreau took up residence in his cabin by Walden Pond.
Jan 02 1846: Emily Brontë writes a powerful poem called No Coward Soul is Mine. Her sister, Charlotte, later said that it was the last work Emily wrote.
Jul 23 1846: Either this night or the next (July 24), Henry David Thoreau spent the night in jail Concord, Massachusetts, for refusing to pay his poll tax because he disagreed with the Government's policy on war with Mexico. He was released the next day when, much to his annoyance, his Aunt Maria paid the tax on his behalf. This confinement was a formative experience in the development of his ideas articulated in his essay Civil Disobedience.
Sep 06 1847: Henry David Thoreau stopped living in his cabin by Walden Pond, and resumed living in the town of Concord, Massachusetts.
Oct 16 1847: Publication of Jane Eyre, a novel by Charlotte Brontë.
Jan 26 1848: Henry David Thoreau delivered a public lecture at the Concord Lyceum explaining his views on the citizen's duty of resistance to civil government. After some reworking and expansion, this essay was published in 1849. The best-known version was published in 1866 with the title Civil Disobedience.
Aug 09 1848: Death of Captain Frederick Marryat in Norfolk, England, at the age of 56. Marryat is remembered as the first writer of sea stories and the author of the children's book, The Children of the New Forest.
Sep 24 1848: Death of Branwell Brontë in Haworth, Yorkshire, England, at the age of 31.
Nov 06 1848: Richard Jefferies, nature writer, born in Coate, Wiltshire, England.
Dec 19 1848: Death of Emily Brontë, author of Wuthering Heights, in Haworth, Yorkshire, England, at the age of 30.
May 28 1849: Death of Anne Brontë, author and youngest of the Brontë sisters, in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, at the age of 29.
May 30 1849: Publication of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers by Henry David Thoreau. The book was published by James Munroe and Company of Boston, Massachusetts. A thousand copies were printed and Thoreau paid the costs of publication.
Sep 21 1849: Edmund Gosse, writer probably best known for Father and Son, a memoir of his troubled relationship with his father, born in London, England.
Oct 26 1849: Publication of Shirley, a novel by Charlotte Brontë.
Nov 24 1849: Birth of Frances Hodgson Burnett, novelist best known for the children's book The Secret Garden, in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, England.
Nov 13 1850: Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist and travel writer, born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Dec 10 1850: Publication of Wuthering Heights, a novel by Emily Brontë, and Agnes Grey, a novel by Anne Brontë. These were new editions of these works, trading on the success of Jane Eyre. These were posthumous editions and both had an introduction by Charlotte Brontë, in memory of her sisters.
Feb 01 1851: Mary Shelley, best known as the author of Frankenstein, died in London, England, at the age of 53.
Mar 13 1851: George Newnes, publisher, born in Matlock Bath, Debryshire, England. He is best known as the founder and publisher of The Strand Magazine.
Oct 06 1851: Mary Ann Evans, aka George Eliot, novelist, meets George Henry Lewes, with whom she lives for twenty-four years.
Oct 18 1851: Publication of Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, in London, England. This edition was published under the title The Whale.
Nov 14 1851: Publication of American edition of Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville.
Dec 02 1851: First entry in the Goncourt Journal, by Jules and Edmond de Goncourt. It records the publication of their first novel, an event which was eclipsed by the coup d'état staged by Louis Napoleon.
Dec 27 1852: Charles Dickens' first public reading of his own work. He read A Christmas Carol to an audience at Birmingham Town Hall, England. The event was a great success.
Jan 28 1853: Publication of Villette, a novel by Charlotte Brontë.
Aug 09 1854: Publication of Walden, an extended nature essay and philosophical treatise by Henry David Thoreau. The book was published by Ticknor and Fields of Boston, Massachusetts. They printed 2000 copies and the book cost one dollar
Mar 31 1855: Charlotte Brontë, author of Jane Eyre, died in Haworth, Yorkshire, England, at the age of 38.
Oct 08 1855: The Gloria Scott sets sail from Falmouth with James Armitage aboard, as Sherlock Holmes tells Dr Watson in his account of his first case, an investigation into the death of a university friend's father in The Adventure of the 'Gloria Scott' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Jun 06 1857: Publication of The Professor, a novel by Charlotte Brontë. Although written early in her career, it was not published until after her death.
Dec 03 1857: Birth of Joseph Conrad, novelist, in Poland.
Aug 15 1858: Edith Nesbitt, children's writer, born in Kennington, Surrey, England.
Mar 08 1859: Kenneth Graham, author of The Wind in the Willows, born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Apr 09 1859: Publication of first edition (250 copies printed) of Edward Fitzgerald's translation and adaptation of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.
May 02 1859: Jerome K. Jerome, author of Three Men in a Boat, born in Walsall, Staffordshire, England.
May 22 1859: Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Oct 04 1860: Sidney Paget, illustrator best known for his illustrations for the Sherlock Holmes stories in The Strand Magazine, born in Clerkenwell, London, England.
Dec 19 1861: Birth of Constance Garnett, translator best known for her work on 19th century Russian novels, in Brighton, Sussex, England.
Jan 24 1862: Birth of Edith Wharton, novelist, in New York City, USA.
May 06 1862: Henry David Thoreau, essayist and naturalist, died in Concord, Massachusetts, USA, at the age of 44.
Apr 29 1863: Constantine P. Cavafy, poet, born in Alexandria, Egypt.
Oct 06 1863: Frances Trollope, prolific novelist and mother of the author Anthony Trollope, died in Florence, Italy, at the age of 83.
Dec 24 1863: William Makepeace Thackeray, author of Vanity Fair, died at the age of 52.
Jun 09 1865: Charles Dickens is involved in a train accident at Staplehurst. Although he was not badly hurt, ten people died in the accident.
Jun 13 1865: W. B. Yeats, poet, born in Sandymount, County Dublin, Ireland.
Dec 30 1865: Birth of Rudyard Kipling, novelist and poet, in Bombay, India.
Sep 21 1866: H. G. Wells, novelist and writer, born in Bromley, Kent, England. A prolific writer in several genres, he is best known for his science fiction novels, especially The War of the Worlds.
May 27 1867: Arnold Bennett, writer best known for the Clayhanger novels, born in Hanley, Staffordshire, England.
Jul 16 1867: Sydney Cockerell, director of the Fitzwilliam Museum (1908-1937) and executor of Thomas Hardy's will, born in Brighton, England.
Jul 24 1867: E. F. Benson, prolific writer probably best known for the Mapp and Lucia series of humorously satirical novels, born in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England.
Aug 14 1867: John Galsworthy, author of the Forsyte Saga series of novels, born in Kingston Hill, Surrey, England.
Sep 19 1867: Birth of Arthur Rackham, artist and book illustrator, in Lambeth, London, England.
Mar 21 1868: Captain Nemo and the crew of the submarine Nautilus reach the South Pole in Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
Jul 16 1868: Wilkie Collins' novel The Moonstone, published in London, England.
Jun 09 1870: Charles Dickens, novelist, died at Gad's Hill, England, following a stroke the day before, at the age of 58.
Jun 20 1870: Jules de Goncourt, younger of the Goncourt brothers, diarists and men-about-town, died in Paris at the age of 39.
Dec 05 1870: Alexandre Dumas, historical novelist, died in France, at the age of 68.
Dec 18 1870: Birth of H. H. Munro, short story writer, in Akyab, Burma. Munro published under the pen-name Saki.
Jul 10 1871: Marcel Proust, novelist best known for Remembrance of Things Past, born in Auteuil, on the southern edge of Paris, France.
Oct 08 1872: Birth of John Cowper Powys, novelist, in Shirley, Derbyshire, England.
Jan 28 1873: Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, writer better known under the pen name Colette, born in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, Burgundy, France.
Dec 07 1873: Willa Cather, novelist, born in Gore, Virgina, USA.
Jan 25 1874: W. Somerset Maugham born in Paris, France. Maugham was a travel writer and novelist but is best known for his short stories about British expatriates living in the Far East.
Feb 12 1874: Edmond de Goncourt describes a visit to Degas's studio where he saw paintings of ballet dancers and washerwomen.
Mar 26 1874: Robert Frost, poet, born in San Francisco, California, USA.
Jun 06 1875: Thomas Mann, novelist perhaps best known for Death in Venice, born in Lübeck, Germany.
Dec 07 1875: The date of the shipwreck that initiated Gerard Manley Hopkins's commemorative poem The Wreck of the Deutschland.
Jul 02 1877: Hermann Hesse, novelist, born in Calw, Württemberg, Germany.
Sep 02 1877: D. K. Broster, historical novelist, born near Liverpool, England.
Nov 24 1877: Publication date of Anna Sewell's novel Black Beauty. The novel became an instant success.
Feb 10 1878: Jeffery Farnol, writer of Regency romance novels and swashbucklers, born in Aston, Birmingham, England.
Mar 03 1878: Edward Thomas, poet, born in London.
Mar 24 1878: A shipwreck off the south coast of England near the Isle of Wight in which 317 crew and trainees died. This event stimulated Gerard Manley Hopkin's poem The Loss of the Eurydice.
Apr 25 1878: Anna Sewell, writer best known for the novel Black Beauty, died in Old Catton, Norfolk, England, at the age of 58.
Jan 01 1879: E. M. Forster, novelist, born in London, England.
Dec 10 1879: Birth of E. H. Shepard in St. John's Wood, London. Shepard was an artist and illustrator, who created drawings for the Winnie the Pooh books and The Wind in the Willows.
Apr 28 1880: Gerard Manley Hopkins writes one of his best known poems, Felix Randall.
May 06 1880: At the age of 61, Mary Ann Evans, aka George Eliot, marries John Cross, a long-time friend who is twenty years her junior.
May 08 1880: Gustave Flaubert, novelist best known for Madame Bovary, died at Croisset, near Rouen, France, at the age of 58.
Dec 22 1880: Mary Ann Evans, aka George Eliot, novelist, died in London, England, at the age of 61.
Feb 09 1881: Death of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, novelist, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, at the age of 59.
Feb 13 1881: Eleanor Farjeon, children's author, born in London, England.
Mar 25 1881: Birth of Mary Webb, Shropshire novelist, in the village of Leighton, Shropshire, England.
Jul 26 1881: George Borrow, novelist and travel writer, died in Oulton, Suffolk, England, at the age of 78.
Oct 15 1881: P. G. Wodehouse, prolific writer of comic novels and creator of Jeeves, born in Guilford, England.
Jan 18 1882: A. A. Milne, writer and creator of Winnie the Pooh, born in Scotland.
Feb 22 1882: Birth of Eric Gill, typeface designer, in Brighton, Sussex, England.
May 20 1882: Sigrid Undset, author of historical novels, born in Kalundborg, Denmark.
Jul 08 1882: Hablot Knight Browne, best known as 'Phiz' and illustrator of many of Dickens' novels, died in Brighton, England, at the age of 66.
Dec 06 1882: Anthony Trollope, prolific novelist, died in London, England, at the age of 67.
Feb 18 1883: Nikos Kazantzakis, writer best known for the novel Zorba the Greek, born in Heraklion, Crete.
Mar 10 1883: Colonel Elias Openshaw receives the letter and sign that presages his death in The Five Orange Pips, the fifth of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories published in The Strand Magazine.
Jun 14 1883: Edward Fitzgerald, best known for his translation and free adaptation of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, died in Merton, England, at the age of 74.
Jul 03 1883: Franz Kafka, writer of surreal fiction, born in Prague.
Jan 18 1884: Birth of Arthur Ransome, author, best known for children's fiction, especially the Swallows and Amazons series, in Headingley, Leeds, England.
Feb 01 1884: Birth of Yevgeny Zamyatin, novelist, in Lebedyan, Russia.
Mar 13 1884: Birth of Hugh Walpole, author of the Herries chronicles, in Auckland, New Zealand.
Jun 29 1884: Birth of Francis Brett Young, novelist, in Halesowen, near Birmingham, England.
Sep 20 1884: Birth of Maxwell Perkins, book editor, in New York City, USA. Perkins is especially associated with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe.
Nov 05 1884: Birth of James Elroy Flecker, poet, in Lewisham, London, England.
Jan 04 1885: Joseph Openshaw receives the letter and sign that presages his death in The Five Orange Pips, the fifth of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories published in The Strand Magazine.
Apr 17 1885: Karen Blixen, aka Isak Dinesen, best known as the author of the memoir Out of Africa, born in Rungsted, Denmark.
Sep 01 1885: Poet Gerard Manley Hopkins writes an anguished letter to his friend, Robert Bridges, in which he expresses his despair and desolation at the dreariness of his life and what he feels is his creative failure as a poet.
Sep 11 1885: Birth of D. H. Lawrence, novelist, in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, England.
Jan 14 1886: Hugh Lofting, writer and creator of Doctor Doolittle, born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England.
Apr 17 1886: Edmond de Goncourt visits Rodin's studio in Paris and provides a vivid word portrait of the workplace and the sculptor. He saw 'The Burghers of Calais' and 'The Gates of Hell' in unfinished form.
May 15 1886: Emily Dickinson, poet, died in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA, at the age of 55.
Mar 03 1887: Publication of the first volume of the Goncourt Journal, edited by Edmond de Goncourt.
Aug 14 1887: Richard Jefferies, nature writer, died in Goring-by-Sea, Sussex, England, at the age of 38.
Mar 01 1888: Fryn Tennyson Jesse, novelist, born in Chislehurst, Kent, England.
Mar 06 1888: Louisa May Alcott, writer of children's fiction, best known for Little Women, died in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, at the age of 55.
Mar 20 1888: The first events in A Scandal in Bohemia, the first of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories published in The Strand Magazine, occur on this night, as Watson pays a visit to Holmes at his Baker Street rooms.
Apr 15 1888: Matthew Arnold, poet, died in Liverpool, England, at the age of 65.
Sep 26 1888: T. S. Eliot, literary critic and poet, born in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
Dec 21 1888: Publication of Rudyard Kipling's short story Baa, Baa, Black Sheep in the The Week's News, a supplement to the The Pioneer, a newspaper Kipling worked for in Allahabad, India. The story is a searing fictionalized account of his early childhood.
Feb 10 1889: Birth of Howard Spring, novelist probably best known for Fame is the Spur, in Cardiff, Wales.
Mar 23 1889: Birth of Robert Gibbings in Cork, Ireland. He was a sculptor and artist especially known for his wood engraving illustrations of books and was the sometime owner of the Golden Cockerel Press.
Jun 08 1889: Gerard Manley Hopkins, poet, died in Dublin, Ireland, at the age of 44.
Jul 02 1889: Edmond de Goncourt describes dining on the platform of the Eiffel Tower, a newly opened attraction for the Universal Exhibition marking the centenary of the French Revolution.
Sep 23 1889: Wilkie Collins, novelist, died in London, England, at the age of 89.
Sep 25 1889: C. K. Scott Moncrieff born in Stirlingshire, Scotland. He is best known for his translation of Proust's work under the title Remembrance of Things Past.
Feb 10 1890: Birth of Boris Pasternak, best known as the author of Doctor Zhivago, in Moscow, Russia.
Sep 01 1890: Birth of Arthur W. Upfield, author of detective novels set in the Australian outback, in Gosport, Hampshire, England.
Oct 09 1890: Mr Jabez Wilson visits Sherlock Holmes to ask for help in The Red-Headed League, the second of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories to be published in The Strand Magazine.
Apr 24 1891: Sherlock Holmes visits Dr Watson and asks him to accompany him for a week on the Continent as he evades Professor Moriarty in The Adventure of the Final Problem by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
May 04 1891: A grief-stricken Dr Watson concludes that Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty are both dead, fallen into the Reichenbach Falls during a struggle in The Adventure of the Final Problem by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Sep 28 1891: Herman Melville, novelist, died in New York, USA, at the age of 72.
Jan 03 1892: J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, born in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
Mar 13 1892: Birth of Janet Flanner, journalist and essayist, in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
Jun 26 1892: Pearl S. Buck, novelist whose stories are often located in China, best known for The Good Earth, born in Hillsboro, West Virginia, USA.
Dec 21 1892: Rebecca West, writer probably best known for Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, born in London, England.
Jun 13 1893: Birth of Dorothy L. Sayers, best known for mystery novels featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, in Oxford, England.
Apr 09 1893: Victor Gollancz, publisher, born in Maida Vale, London, England.
Dec 06 1893: Sylvia Townsend Warner, novelist, born in England.
Feb 08 1894: Robert Ballantyne, novelist best known for Coral Island, died in Rome, Italy, at the age of 68.
Mar 30 1894: The Murder of the Honourable Ronald Adair provokes Sherlock Holmes to come out of hiding and contact Dr. Watson again in The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, a short-story published in The Strand Magazine.
Jul 26 1894: Aldous Huxley, novelist perhaps best known for Brave New World, born in Godalming, Surrey, England.
Sep 13 1894: J. B. Priestley, novelist perhaps best known for The Good Companions, born in Bradford, England.
Oct 14 1894: E. E. Cummings, poet, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Dec 03 1894: Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist and travel writer, died in Samoa, at the age of 44.
Apr 23 1895: Violet Smith consults Sherlock Holmes about her fears of a man who is following her in The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist, a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle published in The Strand Magazine.
Jul 24 1895: Robert Graves, novelist and essayist, born in Wimbledon, London, England.
Dec 01 1895: Henry Williamson, nature writer and author of Tarka the Otter, born in London, England.
May 26 1896: Publication of the ninth and last volume of the Goncourt Journal. The writer, Edmond de Goncourt, died just six weeks later.
Jul 03 1896: Last entry by Edmond de Goncourt in his journal; he died 12 days later.
Jul 16 1896: Edmond de Goncourt, elder of the Goncourt brothers, diarists and men-about-town, died in Champrosay, a suburb of Paris, at the age of 74.
Sep 24 1896: Birth of F. Scott Fitzgerald, writer probably best known for The Great Gatsby, in St Paul, Minnesota, USA.
May 26 1897: Publication of Dracula, a classic tale of vampires by Bram Stoker.
Jan 14 1898: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who published under the pen name Lewis Carroll, died in Guildford, Surrey, England, at the age of 65.
Jun 22 1898: Erich Maria Remarque, novelist best known for All Quiet on the Western Front, born in Osnabr¨ck, Germany.
Jun 23 1898: Winifred Holtby, writer best known for the novel South Riding, born in Rudston, Yorkshire, England.
Aug 17 1898: Dr. Edward Byrne falls into a crevasse on Arcturus Glacier in the opening scene of Thomas Wharton's novel Icefields.
Nov 29 1898: C. S. Lewis, author of the Narnia series of children's books, born in Belfast, Ireland.
Jan 17 1899: Nevil Shute Norway, who wrote novels under the name Nevil Shute, born in Ealing, London, England.
Apr 22 1899: Vladimir Nabokov, novelist, born in St Petersburg, Russia.
Jul 21 1899: Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, born in Oak Park, Illinois, USA.
Aug 27 1899: C. S. Forester, writer best known for the Hornblower novels, born in Cairo, Egypt.
Oct 19 1899: Miguel Angel Asturias, writer perhaps best known for the novel The Green Pope, born in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Dec 16 1899: Sir Noël Coward, playwright, composer, and actor, born in Teddington, London, England.
Jan 20 1900: R. D. Blackmore, writer best known for the historical novel Lorna Doone, died in Teddington, Middlesex, England, at the age of 74.
Apr 19 1900: Richard Hughes, novelist, playwright and poet, born in Weybridge, Surrey, England.
Apr 24 1900: Elizabeth Goudge, novelist, born in Wells, England.
Jul 24 1900: Birth of Zelda Sayre, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, in Montgomery, Alabama, USA.
Dec 16 1900: Birth of V. S. Pritchett, novelist, in Ipswich, Norfolk, England.
Aug 31 1901: In an interview published in Harper's Weekly, Arthur Conan Doyle hints that he might resurrect Sherlock Holmes, responding to continuing popular pressure after trying to kill him off in The Adventure of the Final Problem in 1893.
Oct 01 1901: Publication of Kim, a novel by Rudyard Kipling.
Dec 01 1901: C. E. Tunnicliffe, naturalist and artist, born in Langley, Cheshire, England. Tunnicliffe is perhaps best known as the illustrator of Tarka the Otter.
Feb 27 1902: John Steinbeck, novelist probably best known for The Grapes of Wrath, born in Salinas, California, USA.
Aug 16 1902: Georgette Heyer, writer best known for Regency romance novels, born in Wimbledon, London, England.
Sep 03 1902: Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson start investigating Baron Gruner in The Adventure of the Illustrious Client, a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Jun 25 1903: Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell, novelist and essayist, born in Motihari, Bihar, India.
Jul 10 1903: Birth of John Wyndham, scifi writer, in Dorridge, Knowle, Warwickshire, England.
Jul 14 1903: Irving Stone, best known as the author of long biographical novels, born in San Francisco, California.
Oct 28 1903: Evelyn Waugh, writer and novelist, born in London, England.
Nov 13 1903: Thomas Raddall, historical novelist and historian of Nova Scotia, born in Hythe, Kent, England.
Jan 23 1904: Anya Seton, historical novelist, born in New York city, USA.
Aug 27 1904: Norah Lofts, writer of historical novels, born in Shipdham, Norfolk, England.
Oct 02 1904: Graham Greene, novelist, born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England.
Dec 26 1904: Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer and novelist, born in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Mar 24 1905: Jules Verne, novelist, died in Amiens, France, at the age of 77.
May 16 1905: H. E. Bates, writer and novelist, born in Rushden, Northamptonshire, England.
May 24 1905: Mikhail Sholokov, author of And Quiet Flows the Don, born in the Ukraine.
Sep 04 1905: Mary Renault, writer of historical novels, born in Forest Gate, London.
Oct 15 1905: C. P. Snow, scientist and novelist best known for the 'Strangers and Brothers' sequence, born in Leicester, England.
Dec 21 1905: Birth of Anthony Powell, novelist best known for 'A Dance to the Music of Time' series, in Westminster, England.
May 29 1906: T. H. White, best known as the author of The Once and Future King, born in Bombay, India.
Aug 28 1906: John Betjeman, poet, born in Hampstead Heath, London, England.
Sep 01 1906: Eleanor Hibbert, who wrote historical novels under the pen name of Jean Plaidy, and also wrote under the names Victoria Holt and Philippa Carr, born in England.
Oct 10 1906: R. K. Narayan, novelist whose stories were often set in the fictional south Indian town of Malgudi, born in Madras, India.
Dec 13 1906: Laurens van der Post, journalist, conservationist, and writer, born in Philippolis, South Africa.
Jan 17 1907: A. W. Wainwright, fellwalker, writer, and artist, born in Blackburn, Lancashire, England.
May 13 1907: Birth of Daphne du Maurier, best known as the author of Rebecca, in London, England.
May 27 1907: Rachel Carson, ecologist and writer of Silent Spring, born in Springdale, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
May 31 1907: Peter Fleming, travel writer best known for News from Tartary, born in London, England.
Dec 10 1907: Rudyard Kipling, novelist and poet, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Jan 09 1908: Birth of Simone de Beauvoir, writer, philosopher, and feminist, in Paris, France.
Jan 28 1908: Sidney Paget, illustrator best known for his illustrations for the Sherlock Holmes stories in The Strand Magazine, died in Margate, Kent, England, at the age of 47.
Mar 02 1908: Birth of Olivia Manning, best known as the author of the Balkan Trilogy, in Portsmouth, England.
May 22 1908: W. G. Hoskins, historian and writer of The Making of the English Landscape, born in Exeter, England.
Jun 30 1908: Winston Graham, historical novelist best known for the Poldark series, born in Manchester, England.
Aug 08 1908: Birth day of Octavio Notre-Dame, the main character in C. S. Richardson's brilliant novel The Emperor of Paris.
Aug 21 1908: M. M. Kaye, best known as the author of romantic historical novels set in India, including The Far Pavilions, born in India.
Sep 17 1908: John Creasey, prolific novelist, born in Southfields, Surrey, England. Using many different pseudonyms, Creasey is reputed to have written almost 600 novels.
Sep 19 1908: Mika Waltari, writer of historical novels, born in Helsinki, Finland.
Dec 27 1908: Percy Boyd Staunton throws a snowball that hits Mrs. Dempster and results in the premature birth of Paul Dempster in the opening scene of Fifth Business by Robertson Davies.
Feb 18 1909: Wallace Stegner, environmentalist and novelist, writer of the memoir Wolf Willow, born in Lake Mills, Iowa, USA.
Mar 18 1909: C. Walter Hodges, children's book illustrator and theatre designer, born in Beckenham, Kent, England.
Jul 28 1909: Malcolm Lowry, novelist best known for Under the Volcano, born in Wallasey, Merseyside, England.
Sep 14 1909: Peter Scott, son of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott and sculptor Kathleen Bruce, born in London, England. In adult life, Peter Scott became a well known naturalist, wildlife artist, broadcaster, writer, and conservationist.
Jun 09 1910: George Newnes, publisher, died in Lynton, Devon, England, at the age of 59. He is best known as the founder and publisher of The Strand Magazine.
Aug 09 1910: Robert van Gulik, best known as the author of the Judge Dee mysteries, born in Zutphen, The Netherlands.
Jul 09 1911: Birth of Mervyn Peake, writer of the Gormenghast series of surreal novels, in Kuling, Jiangxi, central China.
Sep 19 1911: William Golding, best known as the author of Lord of the Flies, born in Cornwall, England.
Dec 11 1911: Birth of Naguib Mahfouz, novelist, in Cairo, Egypt.
Dec 22 1911: Birth of Henry Treece, best known as a writer of historical novels for children, in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, England.
Feb 12 1912: R. F. Delderfield, novelist best known for family sagas set in the west country, born in London, England.
Feb 27 1912: Lawrence Durrell, novelist best known for 'The Alexandria Quartet', born in Jalandhar, India.
May 03 1912: Birth of May Sarton, poet and novelist, in Wondelgem, Belgium.
May 28 1912: Birth of Patrick White, novelist, in London, England.
Jun 24 1912: Birth of Mary Wesley, novelist, in Englefield Green, Surrey, England.
Jul 20 1912: Andrew Lang, collector of folk tales, died in Banchory, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, at the age of 68.
Aug 10 1912: Jorge Amado, novelist, born in Itabuna, Bahia, Brazil.
Aug 15 1912: Julia Child, author of cookery books, born in Pasadena, California, USA.
Feb 27 1913: Birth of novelist Irwin Shaw in the Bronx, New York City.
Mar 29 1913: R. S. Thomas, poet, born in Cardiff, Wales.
Jun 02 1913: Barbara Pym, novelist, born in Oswestry, Shropshire, England.
Aug 11 1913: Angus Wilson, novelist, born in Bexhill, Sussex, England.
Aug 28 1913: Robertson Davies, novelist and journalist, born in Thamesville, Ontario, Canada.
Sep 28 1913: Edith Pargeter, aka Ellis Peters, best known as the author of the Brother Cadfael mysteries, born in Horsehay, Shropshire, England.
Nov 07 1913: Albert Camus, novelist probably best known for The Plague, born in Mondovi, Algeria.
Nov 25 1913: Birth of Lewis Thomas, physician and essayist, in Flushing, New York, USA.
Dec 12 1913: George Whitman, owner of the famous bookshop Shakespeare and Company in Paris, born in East Orange, New Jersey, USA.
Jan 26 1914: Kaye Webb, editor for Puffin Books, born in Chiswick, London, England.
Feb 25 1914: Sir John Tenniell died in London, England, at the age of 93. He was an illustrator, best known for his woodcuts for Alice in Wonderland.
Mar 13 1914: Birth of novelist W. O. Mitchell in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Apr 25 1914: Ellen Ternan, an actress who became the mistress of Charles Dickens, died in London, England, at the age of 95.
Apr 26 1914: Novelist Bernard Malamud born in Brooklyn, New York, USA.
Jun 24 1914: A train carrying poet Edward Thomas stopped briefly at the station of Adlestrop, in Gloucestershire, an incident that he later memorialized in the much-anthologized poem Adlestrop.
Jul 15 1914: Birth of Gavin Maxwell, naturalist, travel writer, and author of Ring of Bright Water, in Elrig, Scotland.
Aug 01 1914: W. J. Burley, crime writer best known for the 'Wycliffe' series, born in Falmouth, Cornwall, England.
Jan 03 1915: Death of James Elroy Flecker, poet, in Davos, Switzerland, at the age of 30.
Feb 11 1915: Patrick Leigh Fermor, travel writer, born in London, England.
May 10 1915: Monica Dickens, novelist, born in London, England.
Jun 11 1915: Saul Bellow, novelist, born in Lachine, Quebec, Canada.
Dec 29 1915: Robert Ruark, novelist and journalist, born in Wilmington, North Carolina, USA.
Feb 28 1916: Henry James, probably best known as the author of The Portrait of a Lady, died in London, England, at the age of 71.
Sep 12 1916: Mary Stewart, novelist, born in Sunderland, County Durham, England.
Oct 03 1916: James Herriot born in Sunderland, County Durham, England. James Herriot is the pen name of veterinarian and writer James Alfred Wight.
Nov 14 1916: Death of H. H. Munro, short story writer, killed by a sniper, near Beaumont-Hamel, France, at the age of 45. Munro published under the pen-name Saki.
Dec 17 1916: Penelope Fitzgerald, novelist, born in England.
Feb 25 1917: Anthony Burgess, literary critic and novelist, born in Manchester, England.
Apr 09 1917: Edward Thomas, poet, killed in France at the Battle of Arras, at the age of 39.
Jul 24 1917: John Hillaby, walker and travel writer, born in Leeds, England.
Sep 17 1917: Birth of Han Suyin, writer, in Xinyang, Henan province, central China.
Dec 06 1917: The Halifax Explosion, caused by the collision and detonation of a munitions ship, devastated Halifax Harbour and surroundings, causing an estimated 2,000 deaths. Historian Thomas Raddall, then a teenager living in Halifax, survived the explosion, and wrote about it in his 1976 memoir In My Time.
Dec 16 1917: Arthur C. Clarke, scifi author best known for 2001: A Space Odyssey, born in Minehead, Somerset, England.
Dec 21 1917: Diana Athill, editor and writer, born in Kensington, London, England.
Jan 23 1918: Robert Gregory, Irish soldier and airman, killed in action in WW1. He was the inspiration for W. B. Yeats' famous poem "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death".
Feb 01 1918: Birth of Muriel Spark, novelist best known for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Nov 02 1918: Roger Lancelyn Green, writer of children's books, born in Norwich, England.
Dec 11 1918: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, historian and writer, born in Kislovodsk, Russia.
Jul 15 1919: Birth of Iris Murdoch, novelist, in Dublin, Ireland.
Oct 22 1919: Birth of Doris Lessing, author, in Kermanshah, now Iran.
Dec 06 1919: Eric Newby, travel writer, born in Hammersmith, London, England.
Jan 02 1920: Official birthdate of Isaac Asimov, scifi author, in Petrovichi, Smolensk, Russia. His actual birthdate is not known.
Mar 03 1920: Ronald Searle, artist, illustrator, and cartoonist best known for 'St Trinians', born in Cambridge, England.
Mar 25 1920: Paul Scott, novelist best known for the 'Raj Quartet' and other books set in India, born in Southgate, London, England.
Mar 26 1920: Publication of This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald's first published novel.
Apr 03 1920: F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre married in New York City, USA.
May 09 1920: Richard Adams, author of Watership Down, born Newbury, Berkshire, England.
Jul 12 1920: Pierre Berton, journalist and writer of popular books on Canadian history, born in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.
Aug 03 1920: Birth of P. D. James, crime novelist, in Oxford, England.
Aug 22 1920: Ray Bradbury, sci-fi writer, born in Waukegan, Illinois, USA.
Oct 08 1920: Frank Herbert, author of the Dune series of scifi novels, born in Tacoma, Washington, USA.
Oct 31 1920: Dick Francis, writer of crime novels, born in Lawrenny, Wales.
Nov 20 1920: Leo Tolstoy, writer and philosopher, probably best known as the author of War and Peace, died in the stationmaster's house at Astapovo Junction, Russia.
Dec 14 1920: Rosemary Sutcliff, historical novelist, born in West Clandon, Surrey, England.
Feb 16 1921: John Graham, also known as Araucaria, crossword puzzle setter, born in Oxford, England.
May 12 1921: Farley Mowat, writer, born in Belleville, Ontario, Canada.
Aug 25 1921: Brian Moore, novelist, born in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Oct 26 1921: Birth of Frances "Scottie" Fitzgerald, daughter and only child of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA.
Nov 09 1921: Alfred Coppel, prolific scifi and pulp fiction writer, born in Oakland, California.
Mar 09 1922: Gregory Rabassa, translator, born in Yonkers, New York, USA. Rabassa translates from Portuguese and Spanish into English and is probably best known for his translations of some works of Julio Cortázar and Gabriel García Márquez.
Jun 25 1922: Alan Hunter, writer of crime fiction featuring Inspector Gently, born in Hoveton St John, Norfolk England.
Aug 11 1922: Mavis Gallant, short-story writer, born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Sep 09 1922: Pauline Baynes, book illustrator best known for her work on books by C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, born in Hove, Sussex, England.
Nov 06 1922: Ronald Blythe, writer and essayist, best known for Akenfield, born in Acton, Suffolk, England.
Nov 10 1922: Constance Beresford-Howe, novelist, born in Montreal, Canada.
Nov 11 1922: Kurt Vonnegut, novelist, born in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
Nov 16 1922: Writer José Saramago born in Azinhaga, Portugal.
Nov 18 1922: Marcel Proust, novelist best known for Remembrance of Things Past, died in Paris, France, at the edge of 51.
Jan 23 1923: Birth of Walter M. Miller Jr, author of A Canticle for Leibowicz, in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, USA.
Jan 31 1923: Norman Mailer, writer and novelist, born in Long Branch, New Jersey, USA.
Mar 26 1923: Elizabeth Jane Howard, novelist, born in London, England, UK.
Mar 27 1923: Shasaku Endo, novelist, born in Tokyo, Japan.
Apr 21 1923: John Mortimer, writer and creator of Horace Rumpole, born in Hampstead, London, England.
Jun 20 1923: The opening day for Frank Trask's tours on the Arcturus Glacier in the closing scene of Thomas Wharton's novel Icefields.
Jul 24 1923: William Weaver, translator best known for his work on 20th century Italian novels, born in USA.
Aug 25 1923: Birth of Dorothy Dunnett, historical novelist, in Dunfermline, Scotland.
Oct 06 1923: Yasar Kemal, novelist, born in Gökcedam, Osmaniye, Ottoman Empire (now Turkey).
Oct 15 1923: Italo Calvino, novelist, born in Santiago de Las Vegas, Cuba.
Nov 20 1923: Nadine Gordimer, novelist, born near Johannesburg, South Africa.
Dec 10 1923: W. B. Yeats, poet, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
May 04 1924: Edith Nesbitt, children's writer, died in New Romney, Kent, England, at the age of 65.
Jun 01 1924: William Stevenson, journalist and writer best known for A Man Called Intrepid, born in London, England.
Jun 24 1924: Franz Kafka, writer of surreal fiction, died in Vienna, Austria.
Aug 03 1924: Death of Joseph Conrad, novelist, in Bishopsbourne, near Canterbury, England, at the age of 66.
Sep 04 1924: Birth of Joan Aiken, novelist and children's writer, in Rye, Sussex, England.
Sep 27 1924: Birth of Josef Škvorecký, novelist, in Náchod, Czechoslovakia.
Oct 10 1924: James Clavell, author best known for the Asian Saga, born in Australia.
Oct 29 1924: Death of Frances Hodgson Burnett, novelist best known for the children's book The Secret Garden, in Plandome, New York, USA, at the age of 74.
Nov 21 1924: Christopher Tolkien, the third son of J.R.R. Tolkien, and the literary executor for his father's papers, born in Leeds, England.
Jan 07 1925: Gerald Durrell, naturalist, conservationist, and writer, born in Jamshedpur, India.
Jan 19 1925: Nina Bawden, novelist, born in Ilford, Essex, England.
Feb 04 1925: Russell Hoban, novelist, born in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, USA.
Mar 12 1925: Harry Harrison, scifi writer, born in Stamford, Connecticut, USA.
Apr 10 1925: Publication of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Apr 14 1925: Poet Ann Lewis-Smith born in Ireland.
May 27 1925: Tony Hillerman, author of mystery novels set in the Four Corners area of US, born in Sacred Heart, Oklahoma, USA.
May 27 1925: John Cheever, novelist and short story writer, born in Quincy, Massachusetts, USA.
Jul 22 1925: Jack Matthews, novelist and short story writer, born in Columbus, Ohio, USA.
Aug 18 1925: Brian Aldiss, scifi writer, born in East Dereham, Norfolk, England.
Sep 06 1925: Andrea Camilleri, writer of crime novels featuring Inspector Montalbano, born in Porto Empedocle, Sicily.
Oct 03 1925: Gore Vidal, best known as a writer of sprawling historical novels mostly focused on US events, born in West Point, New York, USA.
Oct 11 1925: Elmore Leonard, crime writer, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Dec 29 1925: Birth of Dudley Pope, writer of nautical fiction, especially the Ramage series, in Ashford, Kent, England.
Jan 13 1926: Michael Bond, writer and creator of Paddington Bear and Monsieur Pamplemousse, born in Newbury, Berkshire, England.
Mar 31 1926: John Fowles, novelist probably best known as the author of The French Lieutenant's Woman, born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England.
Apr 28 1926: Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, born in Monroeville, Alabama, USA.
Jun 03 1926: Allen Ginsberg, poet best known for Howl, born in Newark, New Jersey, USA.
Jul 18 1926: Birth of Margaret Laurence, novelist, in Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada.
Sep 30 1926: Gillian Avery, children's writer, born in Reigate, Surrey, England.
Oct 02 1926: James, later Jan, Morris, journalist and travel writer, borm in Clevedon, Somerset, England..
Oct 31 1926: H. R. F. Keating, prolific writer of crime fiction and creator of Inspector Ghote, born in St. Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, England.
Jan 29 1927: Edward Abbey, best known as the writer of Desert Solitaire, born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, USA.
Feb 01 1927: Galway Kinnell, poet, born in Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
Mar 03 1927: Nicholas Freeling, writer of mystery novels notably those featuring Inspector Van Der Valk, born in London, England.
Mar 06 1927: Birth of Gabriel García Márquez, best known as the writer of One Hundred Years of Solitude, in Aracataca, Colombia.
May 07 1927: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, novelist and screenwriter, born in Cologne, Germany.
May 22 1927: Peter Matthiessen, novelist and writer on nature and landscape, born in New York City, USA.
Jun 14 1927: Jerome K. Jerome, author of Three Men in a Boat, died in England.
Jun 26 1927: Robert Kroetsch, novelist, poet and teacher, born in Heisler, Alberta, Canada.
Sep 29 1927: Birth of Barbara Mertz, aka Elizabeth Peters, author of the Amelia Peabody mysteries, in Canton, Illinois, USA.
Sep 30 1927: W. S. Merwin, poet, born in New York City, USA.
Oct 08 1927: Death of Mary Webb, Shropshire novelist, in St Leonards-on-Sea, on southeastern coast of England, at the age of 46.
Oct 14 1927: Dylan Thomas, poet, born in Swansea, Wales.
Oct 16 1927: Günther Grass, novelist probably best known for The Tin Drum, born in Danzig (now Gdansk), Poland.
Dec 16 1927: Peter Dickinson, novelist, especially known for mystery novels, born in Africa.
Jan 11 1928: Thomas Hardy, novelist and poet, died in Dorchester, England, at the age of 87.
Jan 16 1928: Funeral of Thomas Hardy, novelist and poet, took place at Westminster Abbey, London.
Mar 30 1928: Birth of Tom Sharpe in London, England. Sharpe writes blistering satirical novels.
Apr 04 1928: Maya Angelou, writer and poet, born in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
Apr 24 1928: Gavin Young, journalist and travel writer, born in Wales.
May 16 1928: Edmund Gosse, writer probably best known for Father and Son, a memoir of his troubled relationship with his father, died in London, England, at the age of 79.
Jul 16 1928: Anita Brookner, novelist, born in London, England.
Sep 02 1928: Birth of David Staunton, the central character in Robertson Davies's second Deptford novel, The Manticore.
Sep 06 1928: Robert M. Pirsig, writer and philosopher best known for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Nov 11 1928: Carlos Fuentes, Mexican novelist and essayist, born in Panama City.
Dec 10 1928: Sigrid Undset, author of historical novels, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Jan 06 1929: Jules Feiffer, cartoonist and illustrator, born in The Bronx, New York, USA.
Jan 29 1929: Publication ofAll Quiet on the Western Front by Eric Maria Remarque, a novel about a German soldier's experience in World War I.
May 04 1929: Mystery writer Eric Wright born in London, England.
Jun 02 1929: Children's author Nortom Juster, best known for The Phantom Tollbooth, born in Brooklyn, New York, USA.
Jun 10 1929: Edward O. Wilson, famous for his writings on biodiversity, born in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
Oct 21 1929: Birth of Ursula K. Le Guin, sci-fi and fantasy author, in Berkeley, California, USA.
Nov 18 1929: Publication of Robert Graves' autobiography and memoir of World War I entitled Goodbye to All That.
Dec 10 1929: Thomas Mann, novelist perhaps best known for Death in Venice, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Feb 17 1930: Birth of Ruth Rendell, writer of crime and mystery novels, in London.
Feb 28 1930: C. K. Scott Moncrieff died in Rome, Italy, at the age of 40. He is best known for his translation of Proust's work under the title Remembrance of Things Past.
Mar 02 1930: Death of D. H. Lawrence, novelist and poet, in Vence, France, at the age of 44.
May 08 1930: Gary Snyder, poet and essayist, born in San Francisco, California, USA.
May 27 1930: John Barth, novelist, born in Cambridge, Maryland, USA.
Jun 24 1930: Jack Rabinovitch, Canadian businessman and founder of the Giller Prize, born in Montreal, Canada.
Jul 07 1930: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, died in Crowborough, Sussex, England, at the age of 71.
Aug 08 1930: Birth of Barry Unsworth, novelist, in Wingate, County Durham, England.
Aug 17 1930: Ted Hughes, poet, born in Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire, England.
Sep 29 1930: Colin Dexter, writer of a series of police procedurals featuring Inspector Morse, born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England.
Oct 30 1930: Timothy Findley, novelist, born in Toronto. Ontario, Canada.
Nov 15 1930: J. G. Ballard, scifi author and novelist, born in Shanghai, China.
Nov 16 1930: Chinua Achebe, novelist, born in Ogidi, Nigeria, Africa.
Jan 06 1931: E. L. Doctorow, novelist, born in the Bronx, New York, USA.
Feb 12 1931: Janwillem van de Wetering, writer of detective fiction mostly set in Amsterdam, born in The Netherlands.
Feb 18 1931: Toni Morrison, novelist and essayist, born in Lorain, Ohio, USA.
Mar 02 1931: Jane Rule, novelist best known for Desert of the Heart, born in Plainfield, New Jersey, USA.
Mar 02 1931: Tom Wolfe, journalist and novelist, born Richmond, Virginia, USA.
Mar 27 1931: Arnold Bennett, writer best known for the Clayhanger novels set in the Potteries district of the English Midlands, died in England, at the age of 63.
Apr 02 1931: Howard Engel, best known for the Benny Cooperman detective novel series, born in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
May 02 1931: Martha Grimes, detective novelist, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Jul 10 1931: Julian May, scifi writer and author of the Saga of the Pliocene Exile series, born in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Sep 22 1931: Birth of Fay Weldon, novelist, in Alvechurch, Worcestershire, England.
Oct 19 1931: David Cornwell, aka John le Carré, writer of espionage novels, born in Poole, Dorset, England.
Nov 28 1931: Birth of Dervla Murphy, travel writer, in Lismore, Ireland.
Jan 05 1932: Umberto Eco, novelist best known for The Name of the Rose, born in Alessandria, Italy.
Mar 06 1932: Publication of John Cowper Powys's novel A Glastonbury Romance.
Mar 11 1932: George Cockcroft, who writes under the pen-name Luke Rhinehart, born in USA..
Mar 18 1932: Birth of John Updike, writer and novelist probably best known for the Rabbit series, in Shillington, Pennsylvania, USA.
Apr 15 1932: Birth of Eva Figes, novelist and essayist, in Berlin, Germany.
Jul 06 1932: Kenneth Graham, author of The Wind in the Willows, died in Pangbourne, Berkshire, England.
Aug 17 1932: V. S. Naipaul, novelist and travel writer, born in Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago.
Sep 07 1932: Malcolm Bradbury, novelist probably best known for The History Man, born in Sheffield, England.
Sep 17 1932: Robert B. Parker, best known for crime novels featuring Spenser, born in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA.
Dec 10 1932: John Galsworthy, English author of the Forsyte Saga series of novels, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Jan 16 1933: Susan Sontag, essayist, novelist, and activist, born in New York City, USA.
Jan 31 1933: Death of John Galsworthy, author of the Forsyte Saga series of novels, in Hampstead, England, at the age of 65.
Mar 19 1933: Philip Roth, novelist, born in Newark, New Jersey, USA.
Apr 29 1933: Constantine P. Cavafy, poet, died in Alexandria, Egypt, at the age of 70.
Jul 07 1933: David McCullough, historian and writer, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Jul 09 1933: Oliver Sacks, neurologist and writer, born in Willesden, London, England.
Aug 25 1933: Birth of journalist Diana Norman in Devon, England. She wrote historical mysteries under the pen-name of Ariana Franklin.
Dec 09 1933: Patrick Leigh Fermor leaves London on the first stage of his three-year-long walking journey to Constantinople (Istanbul), as described in his classic travel account A Time of Gifts.
Apr 10 1934: David Halberstam, journalist and writer, born in New York City, USA.
Apr 28 1934: Diane Johnson, novelist, born in Moline, Illinois, USA.
Jul 13 1934: Wole Soyinka, poet and writer, born in Abeokuta, Nigeria.
Sep 21 1934: Leonard Cohen, poet and singer-songwriter, born in Westmount, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Jan 25 1935: Novelist, poet, and translator D. M. Thomas, born Carnkie, Cornwall, England.
Feb 10 1935: Julian Rathbone, novelist, born Blackheath, London, England.
Apr 27 1935: Rosemary Hawley Jarman, historical novelist, born in Worcester, England.
May 29 1935: André Brink, novelist, born in Vrede, South Africa.
Jun 02 1935: Carol Shields, novelist, born in Oak Park, Illinois, USA.
Sep 28 1935: Pierre Ryckmans, who used the pen-name of Simon Leys, born in Brussels, Belgium.
Sep 20 1935: Keith Roberts, scifi author, born in Kettering, Northamptonshire, England.
Sep 29 1935: Winifred Holtby, writer best known for the novel South Riding, died in London, England, at the age of 37.
Oct 25 1935: Publication of Green Hills of Africa, Ernest Hemingway's fictionalized account of his big game hunting trip to East Africa in 1933.
Dec 01 1935: George Bowering, novelist and poet, born in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada.
Jan 10 1936: Stephen E. Ambrose, historian and writer, born in Decatur, Illinois, USA.
Feb 25 1936: Ralph Cosham, book narrator, born in England.
Mar 07 1936: Birth of Georges Perec in Paris, France. Perec was an experimentalist writer best known for his novel Life: A User's Manual.
Mar 22 1936: Edith Grossman born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She is a translator of Spanish-language novels and is probably best known for her translation of Don Quixote.
Mar 28 1936: Mario Vargas Llosa, novelist and essayist, born in Arequipa, Peru.
Apr 03 1936: Birth of Reginald Hill in West Hartlepool, County Durham, England. Hill is best known for his police procedural crime novels featuring Dalziel and Pascoe..
Apr 30 1936: A. E. Housman, poet, died in Cambridge, England, at the age of 77.
Jul 20 1936: Alistair MacLeod, short-story writer and novelist, born in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Aug 11 1936: Jonathan D. Spence, writer and historian specializing in the history of modern China, born in Surrey, England.
Aug 24 1936: Novelist A. S. Byatt born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England.
Oct 25 1936: Martin Gilbert, historian and biographer, born in London, England.
Mar 04 1937: Birth of crime novelist and criminal lawyer William Deverell in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Mar 08 1937: Publication of George Orwell's examination of social conditions in the north of England, The Road to Wigan Pier.
Mar 10 1937: Death of Yevgeny Zamyatin, novelist, in Paris, France, at the age of 53.
Jun 01 1937: Colleen McCullough, novelist, born in Wellington, New South Wales, Australia.
Jun 08 1937: Gillian Clarke, poet, born in Cardiff, Wales.
Jun 18 1937: Gail Godwin, novelist, born in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
Aug 21 1937: Robert Stone, novelist and journalist, born in Brooklyn, New York, USA.
Sep 21 1937: Publication of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, published by George Allen and Unwin in London, England.
Dec 17 1937: John Kennedy Toole, author of the comic novel A Confederacy of Dunces, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Dec 19 1937: J.R.R. Tolkien writes to his publishers, Allen and Unwin, and mentions that he has begun writing a 'new story about Hobbits', the tale that would eventually turn into The Lord of the Rings.
Apr 15 1938: David Helwig, poet and novelist, born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
May 25 1938: Margaret Forster, novelist, born in Carlisle, England, UK.
Jul 28 1938: Robert Hughes, art critic and writer, born in Sydney, Australia.
Aug 11 1938: Death of Edith Wharton, novelist, in Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, France, at the age of 75.
Aug 25 1938: Frederick Forsyth, writer of thrillers, born in Ashford, Kent, England. Forsyth is best known to Canadians as the author of the short story, The Shepherd, which is broadcast every Christmas Eve on the CBC Radio program As It Happens.
Oct 03 1938: Jack Hodgins, novelist, born in the Comox Valley, British Columbia, Canada.
Oct 28 1938: Anne Perry, crime novelist, born in Blackheath, London, England.
Dec 10 1938: Pearl S. Buck, novelist whose stories are often located in China, best known for The Good Earth, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Jan 28 1939: W. B. Yeats, poet, died in Menton, France, at the age of 73.
Apr 13 1939: Seamus Heaney, poet, born in Castledawson, Northern Ireland.
Apr 14 1939: Publication of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck in USA.
Jun 05 1939: Margaret Drabble, novelist, born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England.
Jun 14 1939: Peter Mayle, best known for the memoir A Year in Provence, born in Brighton, Sussex, England.
Sep 06 1939: Death of Arthur Rackham, artist and book illustrator, near Limpsfield, Surrey, England, at the age of 71.
Nov 18 1939: Birth of Margaret Atwood, poet and novelist, in Ottawa, Ontario.
Dec 15 1939: World première screening of the film adaption of Margaret Mitchell's Civil War novel Gone With The Wind. The event took place at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, amid much publicity and fanfare.
Feb 29 1940: E. F. Benson, prolific writer probably best known for the Mapp and Lucia series of humorously satirical novels, died in London, England, at the age of 72.
May 13 1940: Bruce Chatwin, novelist and travel writer, born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England.
May 28 1940: Maeve Binchy, novelist, born in Dalkley, County Dublin, Ireland.
Nov 17 1940: Death of Eric Gill, typeface designer, in Uxbridge, Middlesex, England, at the age of 58.
Dec 21 1940: Death of F. Scott Fitzgerald, writer probably best known for The Great Gatsby, in Hollywood, California, USA, at the age of 44.
Feb 07 1941: Crawford Kilian, novelist, born in New York City, USA.
Feb 19 1941: Stephen Dobyns, best known as the writer of the 'Saratoga' series of detective novels, born in Orange, New Jersey, USA.
Mar 18 1941: Isaac Asimov starts writing the classic sci-fi short-story Nightfall, which was published in the September issue of Astounding magazine.
Mar 26 1941: Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and writer, born in Nairobi, Kenya.
Apr 10 1941: Birth of Paul Theroux, novelist and travel writer, in Medford, Massachusetts, USA.
May 19 1941: Birth of Nora Ephron, novelist and screenwriter, in New York City, USA.
Jun 01 1941: Death of Hugh Walpole, author of the Herries chronicles, at Brackenburn, Manesty Park, Derwentwater, Cumberland, at the age of 57.
Jun 10 1941: Philip Caputo, novelist and journalist, born in Westchester, Illinois, USA.
Aug 11 1941: Isaac Asimov starts writing a short story called The Encyclopaedists, the first story in the 'Foundation' series, and later the opening chapter in the classic sci-fi novel Foundation.
Sep 10 1941: Stephen Jay Gould, palaeontologist, biologist, an essayist, born in New York.
Sep 17 1941: Isaac Asimov receives a cheque for $126 for the sale of his short story called The Encyclopaedists, the first story in the 'Foundation' series, to Astounding magazine. The story later became the opening chapter in the classic sci-fi novel Foundation.
Sep 26 1941: T. S. Eliot completes an essay on Rudyard Kipling's poetry for a selected edition of his poems.
Sep 22 1942: Gail Bowen, writer of mystery novels set in Saskatchewan, born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Sep 28 1942: Birth of Donna Leon, mystery writer best known for novels set in Venice featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti, in Montclair, New Jersey, USA.
Dec 01 1942: Birth of novelist John Crowley in Presque Isle, Maine, USA.
Mar 01 1943: Witold Rybczynski, architect and writer, born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
May 29 1943: Linden MacIntyre, journalist, broadcaster, and novelist, born in St Lawrence, Newfoundland, Canada.
Sep 12 1943: Michael Ondaatje, novelist, born in Sri Lanka.
Dec 09 1943: Joanna Trollope, novelist, born in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, England.
May 12 1944: William Horwood, novelist best known for the Duncton series, born in Oxford, England.
Jul 26 1944: The Neuvic train robbery (a real historical event) takes place in the Dordogne region of France, the event that underlies the plot in Martin Walker's 6th Bruno, Chief of Police mystery, The Resistance Man.
Sep 28 1944: Birth of Simon Winchester, journalist and non-fiction writer, in London, England.
Oct 27 1944: Birth of J. A. Jance, writer of crime and mystery novels, in South Dakota, USA.
Dec 10 1944: Carol Rumens, poet, born in Forest Hill, London, UK.
Dec 29 1944: Birth of Douglas Porch, military historian, in Tallahassee, Florida, USA.
Jan 06 1945: Barry Lopez, essayist, nature writer, and fiction writer, born in Port Chester, New York, USA.
Aug 17 1945: Publication of George Orwell's political satire called Animal Farm.
Nov 24 1945: Nuruddin Farah, novelist, born in Baidoa, Somalia.
Dec 08 1945: John Banville, novelist, born in Wexford, Ireland.
Jan 19 1946: Julian Barnes, novelist, born in Leicester, England.
Jan 20 1946: Susan Vreeland, novelist, born in Racine, Wisconsin, USA.
Mar 22 1946: Rudy Rucker, cyberpunk novelist, computer scientist and mathematician, born in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
Aug 13 1946: H. G. Wells, novelist and writer, died in London, England, at the age of 79. A prolific writer in several genres, he is best known for his science fiction novels, especially The War of the Worlds.
Aug 29 1946: Leona Gom, novelist and poet, born in Fairview, Alberta, Canada.
Nov 26 1946: Andreas Schroeder, Canadian-based writer, born in Hoheneggelsen, West Germany.
Dec 10 1946: Hermann Hesse, novelist, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Dec 17 1946: Death of Constance Garnett, translator best known for her work on 19th century Russian novels, at her home near Edenbridge, southern England, at the age of 84.
Jan 16 1947: Magdalen Nabb, writer of crime novels featuring Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia, born in Church, near Blackburn, Lancashire, England.
Mar 21 1947: Birth of Michael Dibdin in Wolverhampton, England. Dibdin is best known as the author of crime novels set in Italy and featuring Aurelio Zen.
Mar 24 1947: Birth of Alan Weisman, journalist and author, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Apr 12 1947: Birth of Tom Clancy, writer of military-focussed thrillers, in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Apr 24 1947: Willa Cather, novelist, died in Manhattan, New York, USA, at the age of 73.
May 13 1947: Stephen R. Donaldson, writer of fantasy novels, especially 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever' series, born in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Jun 08 1947: Sara Paretsky, writer of crime novels featuring private investigator V. I. Warshawski, born in Ames, Iowa, USA.
Jun 17 1947: Death of Maxwell Perkins, book editor, in Stamford, Connecticut, USA, at the age of 62. Perkins is especially associated with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe.
Jun 19 1947: Birth of novelist Salman Rushdie in Bombay (now called Mumbai), India.
Jun 28 1947: Birth of journalist and novelist Mark Helprin in Manhattan, New York City, USA.
Sep 26 1947: Hugh Lofting, writer and creator of Doctor Doolittle, died in Topanga, California, USA, at the age of 61.
Feb 03 1948: Birth of Henning Mankell, writer of crime novels featuring Detective Kurt Wallander, in Stockholm, Sweden.
Mar 10 1948: Death of Zelda (Sayre) Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, in Asheville, North Carolina, USA, at the age of 47.
Mar 17 1948: Birth of William Gibson, author of cyberpunk novels, in Conway, South Carolina, USA.
Jun 21 1948: Ian McEwan, novelist, born in Aldershot, Hampshire, England.
Jul 04 1948: Katherine Govier, novelist, born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Aug 24 1948: Birth of Alexander McCall Smith in Bulawayo, then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.
Sep 24 1948: Birth of George R. R. Martin, fantasy writer, in Bayonne, New Jersey, USA.
Dec 02 1948: Birth of novelist T. Coraghessan Boyle, in Peekskill, New York, USA.
Dec 07 1948: Birth of Mark Kurlansky, journalist and writer of non-fiction books, in Hartford, Connecticut, USA.
Dec 10 1948: T. S. Eliot, literary critic and poet, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Mar 17 1949: Rufus Hamilton, aided by his brother George, kills "Silver" Burgundy, and steals his money and car, the pivotal event in George Elliott Clarke's true-crime novel George and Rue.
Jan 11 1949: Birth of Adam Zamoyski, historian and writer, in New York City, USA.
Jan 12 1949: Birth of Haruki Murakami, novelist, in Kyoto, Japan.
Feb 26 1949: Birth of Elizabeth George, author of complex crime novels, in Warren, Ohio, USA.
May 04 1949: Birth of Graham Swift, novelist, in London, England.
Jun 08 1949: Publication of George Orwell's bleak dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Jun 10 1949: Sigrid Undset, author of historical novels, died in Lillehammer, Norway, at the age of 67.
Jun 21 1949: Jane Urquhart, novelist, born in Little Longlac, Ontario, Canada.
Jul 27 1949: George and Rufus Hamilton are hanged in Fredericton, New Brunswick, in George Elliott Clarke's true-crime novel George and Ru.
Aug 25 1949: Martin Amis, novelist, born in Oxford, England, UK.
Sep 26 1949: Jane Smiley, novelist, born in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Oct 05 1949: Peter Ackroyd, novelist, born in London, England.
Jan 21 1950: Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell, novelist and essayist, died in London, England, at the age of 46.
Feb 07 1950: D. K. Broster, historical novelist, died in Bexhill, London, England, at the age of 72.
Feb 07 1950: Birth of novelist Karen Joy Fowler in Bloomington, Indiana, USA.
Mar 14 1950: Poet Dylan Thomas began his first cross-country tour of the United States.
Mar 17 1950: Peter Robinson, author of crime novels featuring Inspector Banks, born in Yorkshire, England.
Apr 20 1950: Steve Erickson, novelist, born in Santa Monica, California, USA.
May 30 1950: M. G. Vassanji, novelist, born in Kenya, Africa.
Oct 27 1950: A. N. Wilson, novelist and literary biographer, born in England.
Apr 05 1951: Guy Vanderhaeghe, novelist, born in Esterhazy, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Jul 02 1951: Publication of The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson.
Aug 20 1951: Greg Bear, scifi novelist, born in San Diego, California, USA.
Aug 24 1951: Oscar Hijuelos, novelist, born in New York City, USA.
Oct 22 1951: Elizabeth Hay, novelist, born in Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada.
Oct 31 1951: UK release of the movie Scrooge, retitled A Christmas Carol for its US release, an adaptation of the short novel by Charles Dickens. The movie featured Alistair Sim in the title role.
Dec 08 1951: Birth of travel writer and journalist Bill Bryson in Des Moines, Iowa, USA.
Dec 21 1951: Birth of Fred Stenson in Pincher Creek, Alberta, Canada. Stenson writes historical novels set in the Canadian west.
Dec 22 1951: Charles de Lint, fanstasy and scifi novelist, born in Bussum, The Netherlands.
Feb 19 1952: Amy Tan, writer probably best known for The Joy Luck Club, born in Oakland, California, USA.
Mar 01 1952: Nevada Barr, writer of mystery novels featuring Anna Pigeon, born in Yerington, Nevada, USA.
Mar 11 1952: Douglas Adams, writer of the 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' series, born in Cambridge, England.
Mar 23 1952: Birth of Kim Stanley Robinson, science fiction writer, in Waukegan, Illinois, USA.
Mar 27 1952: Dana Stabenow, novelist and author of the Kate Shugak mysteries, born in Anchorage, Alaska, USA.
May 20 1952: Birth of Walter Isaacson, journalist and biographer, in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Jun 07 1952: Birth of Orhan Pamuk, novelist, in Istabul, Turkey.
Jun 20 1952: Vikram Seth, novelist, born in Calcutta, India.
Jul 03 1952: Birth of Rohinton Mistry, novelist, in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India.
Jul 06 1952: Birth of Hilary Mantel, novelist and literary critic, in Glossop, Derbyshire, England.
Aug 09 1952: Jeffery Farnol, writer of Regency romance novels and swashbucklers, died in Eastbourne, Sussex, England, at the age of 74.
Mar 10 1953: Âke Edwardson, crime writer, born in Eksjö, Småland, Sweden.
Apr 20 1953: Birth of Sebastian Faulks, novelist, in Donnington, Berkshire, England.
Jul 22 1953: Author Paul Quarrington born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Aug 12 1953: Great 1953 Ionian Earthquake affects large areas of southwest Greece, including the island of Cephalonia, and impacts the lives of characters in Louis de Bernières' novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin.
Nov 09 1953: Dylan Thomas, poet, died in Manhattan, USA, at the age of 39.
Jan 25 1954: First broadcast of Under Milk Wood a play for voices written by the poet Dylan Thomas, by BBC radio.
Feb 15 1954: Iain Banks, novelist and scifi writer, born in Dunfermline, Scotland.
Mar 28 1954: Death of Francis Brett Young, novelist, in Cape Town, South Africa.
Jul 06 1954: Louise Erdrich, novelist, born in Little Falls, Minnesota, USA.
Jul 21 1954: Publication of The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, the first volume in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Aug 03 1954: Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, writer better known under the pen name Colette, died in Paris, France, at the age of 82.
Aug 15 1954: Stieg Larsson, crime writer, born in Skelleftehamn, Sweden.
Aug 29 1954: Bernard Scudder, translator of Icelandic books, born in Canterbury, England, UK.
Sep 17 1954: Publication of Lord of the Flies, a novel by William Golding.
Nov 07 1954: Guy Gavriel Kay, writer of fantasy and alternative fiction, born in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Nov 08 1954: Kazuo Ishiguro, novelist, born in Nagasaki, Japan.
Nov 11 1954: Publication of The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien, the second volume in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Dec 08 1954: Birth of Louis de Berières, novelist best known for Captain Corelli's Mandolin, in London, England.
Aug 02 1955: Caleb Carr, novelist specializing in stories set in the Victorian era, born in New York, USA.
Aug 12 1955: Thomas Mann, novelist perhaps best known for Death in Venice, died in Zürich, Switzerland, at the age of 80.
Oct 07 1955: First public reading of Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl at the Sixth Gallery in San Francisco, California, USA.
Oct 20 1955: Publication of The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien, the third volume in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Oct 26 1955: Publication of The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson.
Jan 31 1956: A. A. Milne, writer and creator of Winnie the Pooh, died at the age of 74.
May 04 1956: David Guterson, novelist, born in Seattle, Washington, USA.
May 14 1956: Gillian Bradshaw, writer of historical novels and alternate history novels, born in Arlington County, Virginia, USA.
Jun 09 1956: Patricia Cornwell, author of crime novels, born in Miami, Florida, USA.
Jul 11 1956: Birth of writer Amitav Ghosh in Calcutta, India.
Aug 24 1956: Adam Gopnik, cultural commentator and staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Nov 06 1956: Brian Doyle, author and poet, born in New York, USA.
Jun 03 1957: Death of Arthur Ransome, author, best known for children's fiction, especially the Swallows and Amazons series, in Cheadle, Manchester, England, at the age of 83.
Jun 26 1957: Malcolm Lowry, novelist best known for Under the Volcano, died in Ripe, East Sussex, England, at the age of 47.
Oct 03 1957: At the end of an obscenity trial, California State Superior Court Judge Clayton Horn decided that Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl was not obscene, finding that it had "redeeming social importance".
Oct 26 1957: Nikos Kazantzakis, writer best known for the novel Zorba the Greek, died in Freiburg, Germany, at the age of 74.
Nov 13 1957: Stephen Baxter, sci-fi author, born in Liverpool, England.
Dec 10 1957: Albert Camus, novelist probably best known for The Plague, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Dec 17 1957: Death of Dorothy L. Sayers, best known for mystery novels featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, in Witham, Essex, England, at the age of 64.
Dec 24 1957: An unnamed pilot sets off from north Germany and, after his aircraft's electrical systems fail, is guided safely to land at RAF Minton by a ghost WWII pilot in Frederick Forsyth's brilliant short story The Shepherd.
Jan 19 1958: Death of Robert Gibbings in Oxford, England, at the age of 68. He was a sculptor and artist especially known for his wood engraving illustrations of books and was the sometime owner of the Golden Cockerel Press.
Jul 01 1958: Birth of mystery writer Louise Penny in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Aug 06 1958: Fryn Tennyson Jesse, novelist, died in St John's Wood, London, England, at the age of 70.
Oct 13 1958: Publication of A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond, the first book in the series featuring the well-loved bear character.
Dec 10 1958: Swedish Academy conferred the Nobel Prize in Literature on Boris Pasternak, best known as the author of Doctor Zhivago, even though he had officially refused the honour and was not able to travel to Stockholm for the ceremony.
Oct 31 1959: Neal Stephenson, writer of lengthy alternate fiction novels, born in Fort Meade, Maryland, USA.
Jan 04 1960: Albert Camus, novelist probably best known for The Plague, killed in a car crash in the town of Villeblevin, France, at the age of 46.
Jan 12 1960: Nevil Shute Norway, who wrote novels under the name Nevil Shute, died in Melbourne, Australia, at the age of 60.
Apr 28 1960: Ian Rankin, writer best known for the Inspector Rebus series of crime novels, born in Cardenden, Fife, Scotland.
Apr 29 1960: Robert J. Sawyer, scifi writer, born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
May 30 1960: Death of Boris Pasternak, best known as the author of Doctor Zhivago, in Peredelkino, Russia, at the age of 70.
Jul 11 1960: Harper Lee's influential novel To Kill a Mockingbird was published in the USA.
Sep 30 1960: Nicola Griffith, scifi writer, born in Yorkshire, England.
Nov 24 1960: Matthew Kneale, author of English Passengers, born in England.
Jan 28 1961: Birth of Arnaldur Indridason, crime novelist, in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Feb 17 1961: Publication of The Agony and the Ecstasy, a biographical novel about Michelangelo by Irving Stone.
Jul 02 1961: Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, died in Ketchum, Idaho, USA, at the age of 61.
Aug 12 1961: Publication of The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster.
Sep 13 1961: Birth of Tom Holt, novelist, in London, England.
Oct 16 1961: Publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck, by A. A. Knopf, New York.
Nov 24 1961: Birth of novelist Arundhati Roy in Shillong, Meghalaya, India.
May 01 1962: Sir Sydney Cockerell, director of the Fitzwilliam Museum (1908-1937) and executor of Thomas Hardy's will, died in England, at the age of 94.
Aug 09 1962: Hermann Hesse, novelist, died in Montagnola, Switzerland, at the age of 85.
Sep 03 1962: E. E. Cummings, poet, died in Madison, New Hampshire, USA, at the age of 67.
Sep 07 1962: Karen Blixen, aka Isak Dinesen, best known as the author of the memoir Out of Africa, died at Rungstedlund, in Denmark, at the age of 77.
Sep 07 1962: Jennifer Egan, novelist, born in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Sep 27 1962: Publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, one of the most influential books in the environmental and conservation movement in the 20th century.
Oct 19 1962: Birth of novelist Tracy Chevalier in Washington, D.C., USA.
Dec 10 1962: John Steinbeck, US writer, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Jan 29 1963: Robert Frost, poet, died in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, at the age of 88.
Feb 25 1963: Thomas Wharton, novelist, born in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada.
Jun 17 1963: Death of John Cowper Powys, novelist, in Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales, at the age of 90.
Jun 25 1963: Yann Martel, novelist, born in Salamanca, Spain.
Sep 01 1963: Publication of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, the third George Smiley espionage novel by John Le Carré.
Nov 14 1963: Gail Anderson-Dargatz, novelist, born in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, Canada.
Nov 22 1963: C. S. Lewis, author of the Narnia series of children's books, died in Oxford, England, at the age of 64.
Nov 22 1963: Aldous Huxley, novelist perhaps best known for Brave New World, died in Los Angeles, California, USA, at the age of 69.
Jan 17 1964: T. H. White, best known as the author of The Once and Future King, died aboard ship near Greece, at the age of 57.
Feb 13 1964: Death of Arthur W. Upfield, author of detective novels set in the Australian outback, in Bowral, New South Wales, Australia, at the age of 73.
Apr 04 1964: Alfred Duggan, author of historical novels, died in Ross-on-Wye, Wales, at the age of 60.
Apr 14 1964: Rachel Carson, ecologist and writer of Silent Spring, died in USA, at the age of 56.
Jul 24 1964: Banana Yoshimoto, novelist, born in Tokyo, Japan.
Oct 12 1964: Will Ferguson, humorist, travel writer and novelist, born in Fort Vermilion, Alberta, Canada.
Jan 04 1965: T. S. Eliot, literary critic and poet, died in London, England, at the age of 76.
Mar 04 1965: Novelist Khaled Hosseini born in Kabul, Afghanistan.
May 03 1965: Death of Howard Spring, novelist probably best known for Fame is the Spur, in Falmouth, Cornwall, England, at the age of 76.
Jun 05 1965: Eleanor Farjeon, children's author, died in Hampstead, London, England, at the age of 74.
Jul 01 1965: Robert Ruark, novelist and journalist, died in London, England, at the age of 49.
Jul 31 1965: J. K. Rowling, children's author and crime fiction novelist, best known for the Harry Potter series, born in Yate, Gloucestershire, England.
Dec 10 1965: Mikhail Sholokov, author of And Quiet Flows the Don, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Dec 16 1965: W. Somerset Maugham died at Cap Ferrat, France, at the age of 91. Maugham was a travel writer and novelist but is best known for his short stories about British expatriates living in the Far East.
Apr 02 1966: C. S. Forester, writer best known for the Hornblower novels, died in Berkeley, California, USA, at the age of 66.
Apr 10 1966: Evelyn Waugh, writer and novelist, died in Combe Florey, Somerset, England, at the age of 62.
Jun 10 1966: Death of Henry Treece, best known as a writer of historical novels for children, in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England.
Sep 24 1966: Date of the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, the pivotal event in Stieg Larsson's novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
Oct 31 1966: Birth of Joseph Boyden, novelist, in Willowdale, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Nov 30 1966: Publication of Les Belles Images, a novel by Simone de Beauvoir.
Feb 08 1967: Victor Gollancz, publisher, died in England, at the age of 73.
Aug 31 1967: Kenneth Oppel, writer of children's and young adult fiction, born in Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada
Sep 24 1967: Robert van Gulik, best known as the author of the Judge Dee mysteries, died in The Hague, The Netherlands, at the age of 57.
Dec 10 1967: Miguel Angel Asturias, writer perhaps best known for the novel The Green Pope, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Jan 19 1968: Novelist Eden Robinson born in Haisla Nation Kitamaat Reserve, British Columbia, Canada.
Nov 04 1968: Boy Staunton found dead in his Cadillac in Toronto Harbour at the age of 70 in Robertson Davies' Fifth Business, the first of the Deptford Trilogy. Was it murder of suicide? The death is explored in the next novel, The Manticore.
Nov 12 1968: In his first 2011 Massey Lecture on the subject of Winter, Adam Gopnik remembers this evening during his boyhood in Montreal, watching the snow fall.
Nov 17 1968: Death of Mervyn Peake, writer of the Gormenghast series of surreal novels, in Burcot, Oxfordshire, England, at the age of 57.
Dec 20 1968: John Steinbeck, novelist probably best known for The Grapes of Wrath, died in New York, USA, at the age of 66.
Mar 11 1969: Death of John Wyndham, scifi writer, in Petersfield, Hampshire, England, at the age of 65.
Mar 26 1969: John Kennedy Toole, author of the comic novel A Confederacy of Dunces, died in USA at the age of 31.
Apr 23 1969: Arthur Phillips, novelist, born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
May 28 1969: Muriel Barbery, novelist, born in Casablanca, Morocco.
Jun 14 1969: Peter Hessler, long-form journalist and writer, born in Columbia, Missouri, USA.
Sep 07 1969: Death of Gavin Maxwell, naturalist, travel writer, and author of Ring of Bright Water, in Scotland, at the age of 55.
Oct 30 1969: Murder of Chase Andrews, the pivotal event in Delia Ownens' novel of the Georgia swamplands, Where the Crawdads Sing.
Dec 11 1969: Death of Margaret Irwin, historical novelist, in England, at about the age of 80.
Mar 01 1970: Publication of The Blessing Way, a Navajo mystery by Tony Hillerman.
Jun 07 1970: E. M. Forster, novelist, died in Coventry, England, at the age of 91.
Sep 25 1970: Erich Maria Remarque, novelist best known for All Quiet on the Western Front, died in Locarno, Switzerland, at the age of 72.
Dec 10 1970: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian historian and writer, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden. Solzhenitsyn was not able to be present at the ceremony to receive the award in person.
Jun 07 1971: Publication of Frederick Forsyth's thriller The Day of the Jackal.
Aug 09 1971: Peter Fleming, travel writer best known for News from Tartary, died in Nettlebed, Oxfordshire, England, at the age of 64.
Oct 18 1971: Publication of Bonecrack, the 10th mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Nov 19 1971: Novelist Myla Goldberg born in Laurel, Maryland, USA.
Jun 24 1972: R. F. Delderfield, novelist best known for family sagas set in the west country, died in Sidmouth, Devon, England, at the age of 60.
Oct 16 1972: Publication of Smokescreen, the 11th mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Jan 03 1973: Rory Stewart, writer of books analyzing the political and social situation in Afghanistan and Iraq, born in Hong Kong.
Mar 06 1973: Pearl S. Buck, novelist whose stories are often located in China, best known for The Good Earth, died in Danby, Vermont, USA, at the age of 81.
Mar 26 1973: Sir Noël Coward, playwright, composer, and actor, died in Jamaica, at the age of 73.
Jun 09 1973: John Creasey, prolific novelist, died in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, at the age of 64. Using many different pseudonyms, Creasey is reputed to have written almost 600 novels.
Sep 02 1973: J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, died in Bournemouth, England, at the age of 81.
Oct 15 1973: Publication of Slay-Ride, the 12th mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Dec 10 1973: Patrick White, Australian novelist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Jan 29 1974: H. E. Bates, writer and novelist, died in Little Chart, Kent, England, at the age of 69.
Feb 13 1974: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, historian and writer, is deported from Russia (then the Soviet Union) and sent to Germany (then the Federal Republic of Germany or West Germany), and his Russian citizenship revoked.
Mar 13 1974: Publication of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig.
Jun 09 1974: Miguel Angel Asturias, writer perhaps best known for the novel The Green Pope, died in Madrid, Spain, at the age of 75.
Jul 04 1974: Georgette Heyer, writer best known for Regency romance novels, died in London, England, at the age of 71.
Oct 21 1974: Publication of Knock Down, the 13th crime novel by Dick Francis.
Feb 14 1975: P. G. Wodehouse, prolific writer of comic novels and creator of Jeeves, died in Remsenburg, Long Island, USA, at the age of 93.
Apr 27 1975: Thirty-year-old Kemal Basmaci (Kemal Bey) meets his distant cousin, 18-year-old Füsun, and falls instantly in love with her in Orhan Pamuk's novel The Museum of Innocence.
May 26 1975: Kemal Basmaci (Kemal Bey) identifies this day as containing the happiest moment of his life in Orhan Pamuk's novel The Museum of Innocence.
Mar 24 1976: Death of E. H. Shepard in England at the age of 96. Shepard was an artist and illustrator, who created drawings for the Winnie the Pooh books and The Wind in the Willows.
Apr 28 1976: Richard Hughes, novelist, playwright and poet, died in Talsarnau, north Wales, at the age of 76.
Jun 17 1976: Four companions - Harry Boyd, Eleanor Dew, Ralph Cody, and Gwen Symon - leave Yellowknife for a canoe trip down the Thelon River, in Elizabeth Hay's novel Late Nights on Air.
Aug 15 1976: Birth of Robert Macfarlane, non-fiction writer, in Halam, Northamptonshire, England, UK.
Sep 30 1976: Publication of The Shepherd, a short story by Frederick Forsyth, that is broadcast every Christmas Eve on CBC Radio's As It Happens.
Dec 10 1976: Saul Bellow, American novelist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Jun 21 1977: The Patel family and their zoo animals set sail from Madras on board the cargo ship Tsimtsum in the central narrative of Yann Martel's novel Life of Pi.
Jul 02 1977: Vladimir Nabokov, novelist, died in Montreux, Switzerland, at the age of 77.
Jul 02 1977: The cargo ship Tsimtsum sinks, and Pi Patel finds himself on a life boat in the Pacific with some zoo animals, among them a Bengal tiger called Richard Parker, in the central narrative of Yann Martel's novel Life of Pi.
Aug 13 1977: Henry Williamson, novelist and nature writer, author of Tarka the Otter, died in England, at the age of 81.
Sep 15 1977: Publication of The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien, as compiled and edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien.
Sep 22 1977: Publication of Richard Adams's novel The Plague Dogs.
Oct 17 1977: Publication of Risk, the 16th mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Oct 21 1977: Publication of Kathleen Paterson's children's novel Bridge to Terabithia.
Feb 14 1978: After surviving 227 days on a lifeboat on the Pacific, Pi Patel and the Bengal tiger called Richard Parker make landfall on the coast of Mexico in the central narrative of Yann Martel's novel Life of Pi.
Mar 01 1978: Paul Scott, novelist best known for the 'Raj Quartet' and other books set in India, died in London, England, at the age of 57.
Mar 08 1978: First episode of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 10:30 pm. Originally conceived as a radio show, the series was later made into a book.
May 01 1978: Sylvia Townsend Warner, novelist, died in Frome Vauchurch, Dorset, England, at the age of 84.
Jun 12 1978: Publication of The Private Life of Florence Nightingale, an historical novel by Richard Gordon.
Nov 07 1978: Death of Janet Flanner, journalist and essayist, in New York City, USA, at the age 86.
Feb 07 1979: C. E. Tunnicliffe, naturalist and artist, died in Malltraeth, Angelsey, Wales, at the age of 77. Tunnicliffe is perhaps best known as the illustrator of Tarka the Otter.
Jun 21 1979: Publication of Sally Hemings, an historical novel by Barbara Chase-Riboud.
Aug 26 1979: Mika Waltari, writer of historical novels, died in Finland at the age of 70.
Sep 13 1979: Publication of Chopin: A Biography by Adam Zamoyski.
Sep 29 1979: Publication of Life Before Man, a novel by Margaret Atwood.
Oct 08 1979: Publication of Whip Hand, the 18th mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Dec 24 1979: First broadcast of Frederick Forsyth's short story The Shepherd on CBC Radio's news show As It Happens. The story was read by host Alan Maitland and has been rebroadcast every Christmas Eve since.
Jan 11 1980: Barbara Pym, novelist, died in Finstock, Oxfordshire, England, at the age of 66.
Apr 24 1980: Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer and novelist, died in Paris, France, at the age of 76.
May 15 1980: Publication of Misia: The Life of Misia Sert, a biography by Arthur Gold and Robert Fitzdale.
Jul 01 1980: C. P. Snow, scientist and novelist best known for the 'Strangers and Brothers' sequence, died in London, England, at the age of 74.
Jul 08 1980: Publication of The Origin, a biographical novel about Charles Darwin by Irving Stone.
Jul 23 1980: Death of Olivia Manning, best known as the author of the Balkan Trilogy, in Ryde, Isle of Wight, England, at the age of 72.
Oct 06 1980: Publication of Reflex, the 19th mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Jan 26 1981: Publication of John Banville's novel Kepler.
Mar 01 1981: Publication of True Stories, a book of poems by Margaret Atwood.
Mar 08 1981: Broadcast of the first episode of the BBC's radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.
Mar 16 1981: Publication of The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, by G. B. Edwards.
Jun 18 1981: Publication of Elena by Judith Egan, a historical novel set at the time of the Russian Revolution.
Jul 10 1981: Birth of author Karen Russell in Miami, Florida, USA.
Oct 05 1981: Publication of Twice Shy, the 20th mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Nov 09 1981: Publication of Funeral Games, an historical novel by Mary Renault.
Jan 01 1982: Publication of Rudy Rucker's cyberpunk novel Software, the first book in the Ware tetralogy.
Jan 22 1982: Publication of Indemnity Only, the first V. I. Warshawski crime novel by Sara Paretsky
Jan 28 1982: Publication of The Great Fire of London, a novel by Peter Ackroyd.
Mar 03 1982: Death of Georges Perec in Ivry-sur-Seine, France, at the age of 45. Perec was an experimentalist writer best known for his novel Life: A User's Manual.
Apr 19 1982: Publication of The Voyage of the Destiny, an historical novel about Sir Walter Raleigh by Robert Nye.
May 04 1982: Publication of Wolfnight, a crime novel featuring Henri Castaing by Nicholas Freeling.
May 28 1982: Publication of English Music, a novel by Peter Ackroyd.
Oct 11 1982: Publication of Banker, the 21st mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Dec 10 1982: Gabriel García Mârquez, best known as the writer of One Hundred Years of Solitude, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Jan 01 1983: Publication of Margaret Atwood's book of short stories Bluebeard's Egg.
Mar 01 1983: Publication of The Little Drummer Girl, a spy novel by John Le Carré.
Mar 12 1983: Publication of Heartburn, a savagely funny novel by Nora Ephron.
Mar 15 1983: Rebecca West, writer probably best known for Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, died at the age of 90.
Mar 24 1983: Publication of The Apostate, an historical novel by Ashley Aasheim.
Apr 09 1983: Publication of Eagle Song, an historical novel by James Houston.
May 28 1983: Publication of Long Voyage Back, a post-apocalyptic novel by Luke Rhinehart.
Sep 10 1983: Norah Lofts, writer of historical novels, died in England, at the age of 79.
Oct 03 1983: Publication of The Danger, the 22nd mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Oct 20 1983: Publication of Winter's Tale, an alternate reality novel by Mark Helprin.
Nov 30 1983: Publication of Generations: An American Family, a biographical investigation by John Egerton.
Dec 10 1983: William Golding, best known as the author of Lord of the Flies, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Dec 13 1983: Mary Renault, writer of historical novels, died in South Africa, at the age of 78.
Feb 21 1984: Mikhail Sholokov, author of And Quiet Flows the Don, died at the age of 78.
Apr 01 1984: Elizabeth Goudge, novelist, died in Peppard Common, Oxfordshire, England, at the age of 83.
May 16 1984: Death of novelist Irwin Shaw in Davos, Switzerland, at the age of 71.
May 19 1984: John Betjeman, poet, died in Trebetherick, Cornwall, England, at the age of 77.
Jul 01 1984: Publication of William Gibson's cyberpunk novel Neuromancer.
Aug 14 1984: J. B. Priestley, novelist perhaps best known for The Good Companions, died in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, at the age of 89.
Sep 13 1984: Publication of Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard, an account of a young boy in Shanghai, China, in World War II, just before it was over-run by the Japanese. Ballard drew on his own childhood experiences for the novel.
Sep 24 1984: Publication of Proof, the 23rd mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Oct 12 1984: Publication of The Conquest of the Sahara an account of France's colonial ambitions in North Africa between 1870 and 1910 by military historian Douglas Porch.
Jan 01 1985: Publication of Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale.
Jan 01 1985: Publication of Susan Kay's historical novel Legacy.
Mar 11 1985: Publication of The Tenth Man, a novel by Graham Greene.
Mar 27 1985: Publication of Brian Moore's historical novel about New France, Black Robe.
Sep 19 1985: Italo Calvino, novelist, died in Siena, Italy, at the age of 61.
Sep 23 1985: Publication of Break In, the 24th mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Sep 25 1985: Publication of Hawksmoor, a novel by Peter Ackroyd.
Sep 30 1985: Birth of novelist Téa Obreht in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
Dec 07 1985: Robert Graves, novelist and essayist, died in Deya, Majorca, at the age of 90.
Feb 11 1986: Frank Herbert, author of the Dune series of scifi novels, died in Madison, Wisconsin, USA, at the age of 65.
Mar 18 1986: Novelist Bernard Malamud died in Manhattan, New York, USA, at the age of 71.
Apr 14 1986: Death of Simone de Beauvoir, writer, philosopher, and feminist, in Paris, France, at the age of 78.
Apr 24 1986: Publication of English Country Pubs, an illustrated guide by Derry Brabs.
Jun 18 1986: Death of Frances "Scottie" Fitzgerald, daughter and only child of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, at the age of 64.
Jul 12 1986: Publication of the English language edition of Adieu, Volodya, a posthumous novel by the actor Simone Signoret.
Jul 18 1986: Publication of Home: A Short History of an Idea, an examination by Witold Rybczynski.
Aug 26 1986: Publication of Niccolò Rising, the first volume in Dorothy Dunnett's House of Niccolò series of historical novels.
Aug 26 1986: Publication of The Telling of Lies: A Mystery, a novel by Timothy Findley.
Oct 06 1986: Publication of Bolt, the 25th mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Jan 05 1987: Death of Margaret Laurence, novelist, in Lakefield, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 60.
Mar 17 1987: Publication of Gallow's View, the 1st Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Mar 19 1987: Publication of Knots and Crosses, the first Inspector Rebus novel by Ian Rankin.
Aug 01 1987: Publication of Monsieur Pamplemousse Takes the Cure, a gastronomic mystery by Michael Bond.
Sep 07 1987: Publication of Chatterton, a novel by Peter Ackroyd.
Sep 21 1987: Publication of Hot Money, the 26th mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Oct 08 1987: Roger Lancelyn Green, writer of children's books, died in Cheshire, England, at the age of 68.
Jan 01 1988: Publication of A Dedicated Man, the 2nd Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Mar 12 1988: Publication of Video Night in Kathmandu, a book of travel essays by Pico Iyer.
Mar 12 1988: Publication of The Greenlanders, an historical novel by Jane Smiley.
Mar 12 1988: Publication of The Perón Novel, an historical novel by Tomás Eloy Martínez.
Mar 12 1988: Publication of the English language version of Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Márquez.
Apr 05 1988: Publication of Michael Dibdin's novel Ratking, the first Aurelio Zen mystery.
May 01 1988: Publication of A Great Deliverance, the first Inspector Lynley crime novel by Elizabeth George.
May 12 1988: Publication of Richard Adams's historical novel Traveller.
Jul 07 1988: Pius Fernandes starts writing his analysis of Alfred Corbin's diary in M. G. Vassanji's novel of east Africa, The Book of Secrets.
Aug 12 1988: Pius Fernandes finishes his notes on Alfred Corbin's diary in M. G. Vassanji's novel of east Africa, The Book of Secrets.
Sep 12 1988: Publication of Leslie Gadallah's fantasy novel The Loremasters.
Sep 29 1988: Publication of The Edge, the 27th mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Oct 01 1988: Publication of Margaret Atwood's novel Cat's Eye.
Dec 13 1988: Mollie Hardwick, mystery writer, died at the age of 88.
Jan 01 1989: Publication of A Necessary End, the 3rd Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Jan 18 1989: Bruce Chatwin, novelist and travel writer, died in the south of France, at the age of 48.
Mar 14 1989: Edward Abbey, best known as the writer of Desert Solitaire, died near Oracle, Arizona, USA, at the age of 62.
Apr 17 1989: Publication of First Light, a novel by Peter Ackroyd.
Apr 19 1989: Death of Daphne du Maurier, best known as the author of Rebecca, in Cornwall, England, at the age of 81.
Jun 01 1989: Publication of The Russia House, a spy novel by John Le Carré.
Jul 01 1989: Publication of Letting in the Rumour, a book of poetry by Gillian Clarke.
Jul 25 1989: Publication of The Hanging Valley, the 4th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Aug 09 1989: Publication of The Hermit of Eyton Forest, the fourteenth Brother Cadfael mystery by Ellis Peters.
Aug 26 1989: Irving Stone, best known as the author of long biographical novels, died at the age of 86.
Aug 29 1989: Sir Peter Scott, son of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott and sculptor Kathleen Bruce, died in Bristol, England, at the age of 79. In adult life, Peter Scott became a well known naturalist, wildlife artist, broadcaster, writer, and conservationist.
Sep 21 1989: Publication of Martin Amis' novel London Fields.
Oct 26 1989: Publication of Race of Scorpions, the third volume in Dorothy Dunnett's House of Niccolò series of historical novels.
Nov 04 1989: Publication of James Houston's historical novel Running West.
Nov 13 1989: Publication of Straight, the 28th mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Jan 18 1990: Publication of Monsieur Pamplemousse Investigates, a gastronomic mystery by Michael Bond.
Mar 01 1990: Publication of A. S. Byatt's novel Possession.
Jun 04 1990: Publication of Michael Dibdin's novel Vendetta, the second Aurelio Zen mystery.
Jul 09 1990: Publication of Caedmon's Song, a novel by Peter Robinson.
Aug 01 1990: Publication of Those in Peril, a crime novel featuring Castaing by Nicholas Freeling.
Sep 01 1990: Publication of Deadly Appearances, the first Joanne Kilbourn mystery by Gail Bowen.
Sep 01 1990: Publication of East is East, a darkly humorous novel by T. Coraghessan Boyle.
Sep 17 1990: Publication of Longshot, the 29th mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Sep 30 1990: Death of Patrick White, novelist, in Australia, at the age of 78.
Oct 23 1990: Tony, Charis, and Roz have lunch and an encounter with their nemesis, Zenia, at the Toxique restaurant in Toronto, in the opening scene of Margaret Atwood's 1993 novel The Robber Bride.
Oct 25 1990: Publication of Well-Schooled in Murder, the third Lynley and Havers crime novel by Elizabeth George.
Nov 06 1990: Publication of Gabriel García Márquez's biographical novel about Simon Bolivar, The General in His Labyrinth.
Nov 07 1990: Lawrence Durrell, novelist best known for The Alexandria Quarte, died in Sommières, France, at the age of 78.
Nov 08 1990: Anya Seton, historical novelist, died in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, USA, at the age of 86.
Jan 20 1991: A. W. Wainwright, fellwalker, writer, and artist, died in Kendal, England, at the age of 84.
Apr 03 1991: Graham Greene, novelist, died in Vevey, Switzerland, at the age of 86.
May 31 1991: Angus Wilson, novelist, died in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England, at the age of 77.
Jun 03 1991: Publication of Past Reason Hated, the 5th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Jun 20 1991: Publication of The Rector's Wife, a romance novel by Joanna Trollope.
Sep 01 1991: Publication of Wilderness Tips, a collection of short stories by Margaret Atwood.
Sep 05 1991: Publication of Comeback, the 30th mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Oct 23 1991: Publication of Monsieur Pamplemousse Rests His Case, the seventh gastronomic mystery by Michael Bond.
Oct 31 1991: Publication of Scales of Gold, the fourth volume in Dorothy Dunnett's House of Niccolò series of historical novels.
Jan 11 1992: W. G. Hoskins, historian and writer of The Making of the English Landscape, died in England, at the age of 83.
Feb 27 1992: Publication of the brilliant historical novel Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth.
Apr 06 1992: Isaac Asimov, scifi author, died in New York, USA, at the age of 72.
May 26 1992: Publication of Michael Dibdin's novel Cabal, the third Aurelio Zen mystery.
Jun 19 1992: Publication of Death at La Fenice, the 1st Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Jul 23 1992: Rosemary Sutcliff, historical novelist, died in Arundel, Sussex, England, at the age of 71.
Sep 01 1992: Publication of Recalled to Life, the 13th Dalziel and Pascoe police procedural novel by Reginald Hill.
Oct 28 2014: Publication of Wednesday's Child, the 6th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Sep 03 1992: Publication of Driving Force, the 31st mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Oct 01 1992: Publication of The Vintner's Art: How Great Wines are Made, by Hugh Johnson and James Haliday.
Dec 01 1992: Publication of The Diversity of Life by Edward O. Wilson.
Dec 23 1992: Publication of Nicola Griffith's scifi novel Ammonite.
Dec 25 1992: Monica Dickens, novelist, died in Reading, England, at the age of 77.
Jan 01 1993: Publication of Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, the first book in the Mars trilogy.
Jan 01 1993: Publication of Death In a Strange Countryg, the 2nd Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Jan 08 1993: Eleanor Hibbert, who wrote historical novels under the pen name of Jean Plaidy, and also wrote under the names Victoria Holt and Philippa Carr, died in England at the age of 86.
Apr 13 1993: Wallace Stegner, environmentalist and novelist, writer of the memoir Wolf Willow, died in Sante Fe, New Mexico, USA, at the age of 84.
Jun 19 1993: William Golding, best known as the author of Lord of the Flies, died in Cornwall, England, at the age of 81.
Oct 02 1993: Publication of Margaret Atwood's novel The Robber Bride.
Oct 14 1993: Publication of Decider, the 32nd mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Nov 04 1993: Publication of The Unicorn Hunt, the fifth volume in Dorothy Dunnett's House of Niccolò series of historical novels.
Nov 22 1993: Anthony Burgess, literary critic and novelist, died in London, England, at the age of 76.
Dec 03 1993: Death of Lewis Thomas, physician and essayist, in USA, at the age of 80.
Jan 01 1994: Publication of Dressed For Death, the 3rd Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Jan 01 1994: Publication of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, a true-crime account of a death in Savannah, Georgia, by John Berendt.
Jan 01 1994: Publication of Final Account / Dry Bones That Dream, the 7th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Mar 01 1994: Publication of A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, one of the longest novels in the English language.
Mar 01 1994: Publication of Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.
Mar 23 1994: Publication of A Superior Death, the second Anna Pigeon mystery by Nevada Barr.
Apr 01 1994: Publication of Moosewood Sandhills, a book of poetry by Tim Lilburn.
Apr 01 1994: Death of Thomas Raddall, historical novelist and historian of Nova Scotia, in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Canada, at the age of 70.
Apr 11 1994: Publication of Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Berières.
Apr 18 1994: Publication of Michael Dibdin's novel Dead Lagoon, the fourth Aurelio Zen mystery.
Sep 06 1994: Publication of Field Notes, short stories by Barry Lopez.
Sep 07 1994: James Clavell, author best known for the Asian Saga, died in Switzerland at the age of 69.
Sep 12 1994: Publication of Snow Falling on Cedars, a novel by David Guterson.
Oct 27 1994: Publication of Sharon Penman's historical novel When Christ and His Saints Slept.
Dec 08 1994: Publication of The Private Life of Plants by David Attenborough.
Jan 01 1995: Publication of Death and Judgment, the 4th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Jan 30 1995: Gerald Durrell, naturalist, conservationist, and writer, died at the age of 70.
Feb 23 1995: James Herriot died in Thirlby, Yorkshire, England, at the age of 78. James Herriot is the pen name of veterinarian and writer James Alfred Wight.
Mar 21 1995: Publication of Moo, a novel of university life by Jane Smiley.
Apr 06 1995: Publication of Nevada Barr's novel, Ill Wind, the third Anna Pigeon mystery.
May 10 1995: Publication of Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Danuel C. Dennett.
May 16 1995: Publication of Thomas Wharton's novel Icefields.
Jul 16 1995: Death of May Sarton, poet and novelist, in USA, at the age of 83.
Sep 12 1995: Publication of Come to Grief, the 34th mystery novel by Dick Francis.
Oct 14 1995: Edith Pargeter, aka Ellis Peters, best known as the author of the Brother Cadfael mysteries, died in Madeley, Shropshire, England, at the age of 82.
Nov 02 1995: Publication of To Lie With Lions, the sixth volume in Dorothy Dunnett's House of Niccolò series of historical novels.
Dec 02 1995: Robertson Davies, novelist and journalist, died in Orangeville, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 82.
Dec 10 1995: Poet Seamus Heaney awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Dec 13 1995: US release of the film Sense and Sensibility, based on Jane Austen's novel, and directed by Ang Lee.
Jan 09 1996: Death of Walter M. Miller Jr, author of A Canticle for Leibowicz, at the age of 72.
Feb 01 1996: Publication of Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by historian Stephen Ambrose.
Jan 16 1996: Kaye Webb, editor for Puffin Books, died in Little Venice, London, England, at the age of 81.
Apr 12 1996: Publication of David Quammen's fine book about island biogeography, The Song of the Dodo.
Apr 30 1996: Publication of A Cure for Death by Lightning, a nove by Gail Anderson-Dargatz.
Jun 01 1996: Publication of Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.
Jun 14 1996: Publication of Innocent Graves, the 8th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Jun 22 1996: Publication of The Lions of Al-Rassan, an alternate history novel by Guy Gavriel Kay.
Jun 26 1996: In Death Valley, a group of geologists finds the first mysterious extra-terrestrial artifact in The Forge of God, Greg Bear's 1987 sci-fi novel of the apocalypse.
Aug 06 1996: Publication of A Game of Thrones, first volume in A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series by George R. R. Martin.
Sep 04 1996: Publication of William Gibson's cyberpunk novel Idoru.
Sep 05 1996: Publication of Acqua Alta, the 5th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Sep 07 1996: Publication of Margaret Atwood's novel Alias Grace.
Sep 28 1996: Publication of A Killing Spring, the fifth Joanne Kilbourn mystery by Gail Bowen.
Sep 29 1996: Shasaku Endo, novelist, died at the age of 73.
Oct 02 1996: Publication of David Cruise and Alison Griffiths's imaginative recreation of The Great Adventure: How the Mounties Conquered the West.
Oct 10 1996: John Hillaby, walker and travel writer, died in York, England, at the age of 79.
Oct 14 1996: Publication of The Tailor of Panama by John Le Carré.
Dec 16 1996: Laurens van der Post, journalist, conservationist, and writer, died in London, England, at the age of 90.
Jan 01 1997: Publication of Quietly In Their Sleep, the 6th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Jan 01 1997: Publication of Michael Dibdin's novel Cosi Fan Tutti, the fifth Aurelio Zen mystery.
Jan 27 1997: Publication of Kim Echlin's novel Elephant Winter.
Mar 27 1997: Death of V. S. Pritchett, novelist, in London, England, at the age of 96.
Apr 05 1997: Allen Ginsberg, poet best known for Howl, died in New York City, USA, at the age of 70.
Apr 15 1997: Publication of Margaret George's historical novel The Memoirs of Cleopatra.
Apr 22 1997: Publication of Arundhati Roy's novel of family and social life in southern India The God of Small Things.
Apr 24 1997: Publication of Silverwing, the first novel in the Silverwing trilogy about bats by Kenneth Oppel.
Apr 25 1997: Death of Dudley Pope, writer of nautical fiction, especially the Ramage series, at the age of 71.
Jun 30 1997: Publication of J. K. Rowling's book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first volume in the series.
Aug 11 1997: Publication of Dead Right, the 9th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Sep 02 1997: Publication of Déjà Dead, the 1st Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Sep 06 1997: Publication of The Underpainter, Jane Urquhart's fourth novel.
Nov 06 1997: Publication of Caprice and Rondo, the seventh volume in Dorothy Dunnett's House of Niccolò series of historical novels.
Dec 04 1997: Publication of Julian Rathbone's historical novel The Last English King.
Dec 15 1997: Publication of Diane Johnson's novel about Americans in Paris, Le Divorce.
Jan 01 1998: Publication of A Noble Radiance, the 7th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Feb 25 1998: Death of novelist W. O. Mitchell in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, at the age of 83.
Jun 03 1998: Publication of Jeffrey Archer's post-Cold War thriller The Eleventh Commandment.
Jul 01 1998: Publication of Kim Stanley Robinson's book Antarctica.
Jul 02 1998: Publication of J. K. Rowling's book Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second volume in the series.
Aug 03 1998: Publication of Stephen Baxter's sci-fi novel Moonseed.
Sep 05 1998: Publication of Verdict in Blood, the sixth Joanne Kilbourn mystery by Gail Bowen.
Oct 28 1998: Ted Hughes, poet, died in Devon, England, at the age of 68.
Oct 28 1998: Publication of Not Safe After Dark: And Other Stories, short stories by Peter Robinson.
Dec 01 1998: Publication of Michael Dibdin's novel A Long Finish, the sixth Aurelio Zen mystery.
Dec 10 1998: Writer José Saramago awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Jan 01 1999: Publication of Fatal Remedies, the 8th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Jan 01 1999: Publication of The Crow Trap, the first Vera Stanhope mystery by Ann Cleeves.
Jan 11 1999: Brian Moore, novelist, died in Malibu, California, USA, at the age of 77.
Feb 08 1999: Death of Iris Murdoch, novelist, in Oxford, England, at the age of 79.
Mar 01 1999: Publication of The Man Who Loved Jane Austen, a novel by Ray Smith.
Apr 03 1999: Publication of To the River, a book of poetry by Tim Lilburn.
May 18 1999: Publication of Death du Jour, the 2nd Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Apr 26 1999: Publication of In a Dry Season, the 10th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Jul 08 1999: Publication of J. K. Rowling's book Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third volume in the series.
Aug 12 1999: Publication of Sunwing, the second novel in the Silverwing trilogy about bats by Kenneth Oppel.
Aug 31 1999: Publication of Darwin's Radio, a speculative fiction novel by Greg Bear.
Sep 01 1999: Publication of The Martians by Kim Stanley Robinson.
Sep 20 1999: Publication of Michael Dibdin's novel Blood Rain, the seventh Aurelio Zen mystery.
Sep 30 1999: Publication of Alistair MacLeod's only novel No Great Mischief.
Oct 01 1999: Publication of Sky Humour, a book of poetry by Sid Marty.
Oct 14 1999: Publication of Voyage to the North Star, an arctic adventure story by Peter Nichols.
Oct 19 1999: Publication of Barry Unsworth's novel Losing Nelson.
Oct 26 1999: Publication of Winter Count, short stories by Barry Lopez.
Dec 01 1999: Publication of The Ice Finders: How a Poet, a Professor, and a Politician Discovered the Ice Age by Edmund Blair Bolles.
Dec 10 1999: Günther Grass, novelist probably best known for The Tin Drum, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Jan 01 2000: Publication of Friends in High Places, the 9th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Jan 01 2000: Publication of Telling Tales, the second Vera Stanhope mystery by Ann Cleeves.
Jan 25 2000: Publication of Monkey Beach, a novel by Eden Robinson.
Mar 02 2000: Publication of English Passengers, a historical novel by Matthew Kneale.
Mar 28 2000: Death of Anthony Powell, novelist best known for 'A Dance to the Music of Time' series, in England, at the age of 94.
Apr 28 2000: Penelope Fitzgerald, novelist, died in England, at the age of 83.
May 02 2000: Publication of Myla Goldberg's novel Bee Season.
Jun 06 2000: Publication of Bill Bryson's book about travelling around Australia, In a Sunburned Country.
Jun 29 2000: Publication of Gemini, the eighth and final volume in Dorothy Dunnett's House of Niccolò series of historical novels.
Jul 08 2000: Publication of J. K. Rowling's book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth volume in the series.
Jul 25 2000: Publication of Deadly Décisions, the 3rd Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Aug 08 2000: Publication of Kings of Albion, an historical novel by Julian Rathbone.
Aug 10 2000: Publication of One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw, an extended essay by Witold Rybczynski.
Aug 21 2000: Publication of The Boilerplate Rhino: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder, a collection of essays by David Quammen.
Sep 01 2000: Publication of Cutter's Island: Caesar in Captivity, an historical novel by Vincent Panella.
Sep 02 2000: Publication of The Blind Assassin, a novel by Margaret Atwood.
Sep 09 2000: Publication of Burying Ariel, the seventh Joanne Kilbourn mystery by Gail Bowen.
Sep 14 2000: Publication of Cold is the Grave, the 11th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Sep 25 2000: R. S. Thomas, poet, died in Wales, at the age of 87.
Oct 05 2000: Keith Roberts, scifi author, died in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, at the age of 65.
Nov 27 2000: Malcolm Bradbury, novelist probably best known for The History Man, died in Norwich, England, at the age of 68.
Jan 04 2001: Publication of The Constant Gardener, a novel by John le Carré.
Jan 18 2001: Gavin Young, journalist and travel writer, died in London, England, at the age of 72.
Mar 09 2001: Publication of A Sea of Troubles, the 10th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Apr 02 2001: Publication of Joanne Harris's novel Five Quarters of the Orange.
Apr 02 2001: Publication of Dialogues of the Dead, the 19th Dalziel and Pascoe police procedural novel by Reginald Hill.
Apr 10 2001: Publication of Jane Urquhart's fifth novel The Stone Carvers.
May 11 2001: Douglas Adams, writer of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, died in Montecito, California, USA, at the age of 49.
May 13 2001: R. K. Narayan, novelist whose stories were often set in the fictional south Indian town of Malgudi, died at the age of 94.
May 22 2001: Publication of John Adams, a biography by David McCullough.
May 25 2001: First annual Towel Day, celebrating the life, work, and creativity of Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Jul 17 2001: Publication of Fatal Voyage, the 4th Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Aug 06 2001: Jorge Amado, novelist, died in Bahia, Brazil, at the age of 88.
Aug 07 2001: Publication of The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester.
Sep 01 2001: Publication of The Coldest March: Scott's Fatal Antarctic Expedition by Susan Solomon.
Sep 04 2001: Publication of Fury, a satirical novel of New York by Salman Rushdie.
Sep 15 2001: Publication of The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.
Oct 02 2001: Publication of Aftermath, the 12th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Nov 09 2001: Death of Dorothy Dunnett, historical novelist, in Scotland, at the age of 78.
Dec 10 2001: V. S. Naipaul, novelist and travel writer, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Dec 11 2001: Publication of Stanley Park, a novel by Timothy Taylor.
Jan 01 2002: Publication of Wilful Behavior, the 11th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Jan 22 2002: Publication of Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky.
Feb 18 2002: Publication of Hunting Season, the tenth Anna Pigeon mystery by Nevada Barr.
Feb 26 2002: Publication of The Years of Rice and Salt, an alternate history novel by Kim Stanley Robinson.
Apr 01 2002: Publication of Michael Dibdin's novel And Then You Die, the eighth Aurelio Zen mystery.
May 07 2002: Publication of Death's Jest Book, the 20th Dalziel and Pascoe police procedural novel by Reginald Hill.
May 20 2002: Stephen J. Gould, influential palaeontologist, biologist, and essayist, died in Manhattan, New York, USA, at the age of 60.
Jun 21 2002: Timothy Findley, novelist, died in the small town of Brignoles, France, at the age of 71.
Aug 27 2002: Publication of The Glass Coffin, the eighth Joanne Kilbourn mystery by Gail Bowen.
Sep 03 2002: Publication of trade paperback edition of Tears of the Giraffe, the second installment of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith.
Oct 02 2002: Publication of Diane Smith's epistolatary novel Letters from Yellowstone.
Oct 03 2002: Publication of Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination, an examination by Peter Ackroyd.
Oct 13 2002: Stephen E. Ambrose, historian and writer, died in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, USA, at the age of 66.
Nov 12 2002: Publication of trade paperback edition of Morality for Beautiful Girls, the third installment of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith.
Nov 15 2002: W. J. Burley, crime writer best known for the 'Wycliffe' series, died in Holywell, Cornwall, England, at the age of 88.
Dec 30 2002: Death of Mary Wesley, novelist, in Totnes, Devon, England, at the age of 90.
Jan 01 2003: Publication of Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, a historical account by Ross King.
Jan 01 2003: Publication of Uniform Justice, the 12th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Jan 14 2003: Publication of The Summer that Never Was, the 13th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Feb 03 2003: Publication of Pattern Recognition, a novel by William Gibson.
Apr 01 2003: Publication of Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester.
Apr 29 2003: Publication of US hardcover edition of The Kalahari Typing School for Men, the fourth installment of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith.
May 05 2003: Publication of Oryx and Crake, a dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood.
May 06 2003: Publication of The Bug, a novel by Ellen Ullman.
May 14 2003: Publication of The Man Who Found Time: James Hutton and the Discovery of the Earth's Antiquity, by Jack Repcheck.
May 29 2003: Publication of The Kite Runner, a novel by Khaled Hosseini.
Jun 21 2003: Publication of J. K. Rowling's book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth volume in the series.
Jul 08 2003: Winston Graham, historical novelist best known for the Poldark series, died in London, England, at the age of 95.
Jul 16 2003: Carol Shields, novelist, died in Victoria, British Columbia, at the age of 68.
Jul 20 2003: Nicholas Freeling, writer of mystery novels notably those featuring Inspector Van Der Valk, died in Strasbourg, France, at the age of 76.
Jul 21 2003: Publication of Bare Bones, the 6th Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Aug 07 2003: Publication of Michael Dibdin's novel Medusa, the ninth Aurelio Zen mystery.
Aug 14 2003: Publication of Edward P. Jones's novel The Known World.
Aug 19 2003: Publication of Language Visible: Unravelling the Mystery of the Alphabet from A to Z by David Sacks.
Sep 01 2003: Publication of Tracy Chevalier's historical novel The Lady and the Unicorn.
Sep 11 2003: Publication of Audubon's Elephant, an account of the artist and his project to publish The Birds of America by Duff Hart-Davis.
Sep 23 2003: Publication of Quicksilver, the first volume of The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson.
Oct 06 2003: Publication of Tilt: A Skewed History of the Tower of Pisa by Nicholas Shrady.
Oct 16 2003: Publication of Simon Winchester's non-fiction book The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Oct 23 2003: Publication of Poem for the Day Two, a fine poetry anthology.
Jan 02 2004: Publication of Playing with Fire, the 14th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Jan 04 2004: Death of Joan Aiken, novelist and children's writer, in Petworth, West Sussex, England, at the age of 79.
Jan 16 2004: At the age of 72, Dervla Murphy, travel writer, sets off from London en route to Siberia, to explore the Russian Far East and write about her adventures in Silverland: A Winter Journey Beyond the Urals.
Jan 29 2004: M. M. Kaye, best known as the author of romantic historical novels set in India, including The Far Pavilions, died in Lavenham, Suffolk, England, at the age of 95.
Feb 20 2004: Guy Vanderhaeghe's historical novel The Last Crossing, championed by Jim Cuddy, won the Canada Reads competition run by CBC radio.
Mar 01 2004: Publication of Cassandra & Jane: A Jane Austen Novel by Jill Pitkeathley.
Mar 03 2004: Publication of Doctored Evidence, the 13th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Apr 01 2004: Publication of Chaucer, a brief biography by Peter Ackroyd.
Apr 22 2004: Publication of Karen Joy Fowler's novel entitled The Jane Austen Book Club.
May 30 2004: Alfred Coppel, prolific scifi and pulp fiction writer, died in Menlo Park, California, USA, at the age of 82.
Jun 01 2004: Publication of Gillian Clarke's book of poetry entitled Making the Beds for the Dead.
Jun 07 2004: Publication of Amitav Ghosh's novel of the Sundabarans, The Hungry Tide.
Jun 14 2004: Publication of Monday Mourning, the 7th Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Aug 10 2004: Publication of Defining the Wind: The Beaufort Scale, and How a 19th Century Admiral Turned Science into Poetry by Scott Huler.
Aug 13 2004: Julia Child, author of cookery books, died in Montecito, California, USA, at the age of 91.
Aug 31 2004: Publication of The Egyptologist, a novel by Arthur Phillips.
Sep 21 2004: Publication of The System of the World, third volume of The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson.
Nov 05 2004: Publication of Dark Fire, second in the Matthew Shardlake Tudor mysteries by C. J. Sansom.
Nov 09 2004: Stieg Larsson, crime writer, died in Stockholm, Sweden, at the age of 50.
Nov 09 2004: Publication of The Children's Blizzard, a historical account of the storm of January 12 1883 by David Laskin.
Nov 16 2004: Publication Jacquard's Web, a history of punched-card technology by James Essinger.
Nov 26 2004: C. Walter Hodges, children's book illustrator and theatre designer, died Moretonhampstead, Devon, England, at the age of 95.
Nov 30 2004: Pierre Berton, journalist and writer of popular books on Canadian history, died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 84.
Dec 28 2004: Susan Sontag, essayist, novelist, and activist, died in New York City, USA, at the age of 71.
Jan 03 2005: Publication of Through Siberia by Accident, Dervla Murphy's account of travel in the Lake Baikal region in 2002.
Feb 15 2005: Publication of Strange Affair, the 15th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Feb 26 2005: Alan Hunter, writer of crime fiction featuring Inspector Gently, died in Norfolk, England, at the age of 82.
Mar 03 2005: Publication of Blood from a Stone, the fourteenth Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Mar 25 2005: Publication of Kill-site, a book of poetry by Tim Lilburn.
Apr 05 2005: Saul Bellow, novelist, died in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA, at the age of 89.
Apr 19 2005: Publication of Joseph Boyden's novel Three Day Road.
Apr 26 2005: Publication of Blackfly Season, the third John Cardinal mystery by Giles Blunt.
May 23 2005: Publication of The Dead Place, the sixth Cooper and Fry mystery by Stephen Booth.
May 24 2005: Publication of 1776, a history of the beginning of the American Revolutionary War by historian David McCullough.
Jun 03 2005: Publication of The Sea, a novel by John Banville.
Jun 21 2005: Publication of the North American edition of Sun and Shadow, the third Inspector Winter crime novel by Åke Edwardson.
Jun 30 2005: Publication of Cross Bones, the 8th Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Jul 04 2005: Publication of The Stranger House, a novel by Reginald Hill.
Jul 11 2005: Publication of Oak: The Frame of Civilization by William Bryant Logan.
Jul 16 2005: Publication of J. K. Rowling's book Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince, the sixth volume in the series.
Aug 01 2005: Publication of William Ruddiman's thought-provoking book discussing Plows, Plagues and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate.
Aug 04 2005: Publication of Michael Dibdin's novel Back to Bologna, the tenth Aurelio Zen mystery.
Aug 16 2005: Publication of The Time in Between, a moovl by David Bergen
Aug 23 2005: Publication of Jane Urquhart's sixth novel A Map of Glass.
Sep 09 2005: Publication of Julian Barnes's novel Arthur & George.
Oct 03 2005: Publication of Still Life., the first Armand Gamache mystery by Louise Penny
Oct 04 2005: Publication of William Deverell's courtroom drama novel April Fool.
Oct 11 2005: Publication of Margaret Atwood's retelling of the tale of Odysseus from the perspective of his wife, The Penelopiad.
Nov 05 2005: John Fowles, novelist probably best known as the author of The French Lieutenant's Woman, died in Lyme Regis, Dorset, England, at the age of 79.
Nov 08 2005: Publication in US of A Feast for Crows, the fourth fantasy novel in A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin.
Mar 09 2006: Publication of Blue Shoes and Happiness, the seventh installment of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith.
Apr 01 2006: Publication of Through a Glass, Darkly, the 15th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Apr 13 2006: Death of Muriel Spark, novelist best known for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, in Italy, at the age of 88.
Apr 18 2006: Publication of Certainty, a novel by Madeleine Thien.
Apr 18 2006: Publication of Marq de Villiers's book Windswept: The Story of Wind and Weather.
Apr 18 2006: Book launch for Alberta Formed - Alberta Transformed, edited by Michael Payne, Donald G. Wetherell, and Catherine Cavanaugh, the centennial history of Alberta. The book launch was held at Rutherford House on the University of Alberta campus.
Apr 25 2006: Publication of Oracle Bones: A journey between China and the West, an exploration of modern China by Peter Hessler.
May 16 2006: Publication of The Janissary Tree, the first Inspector Yasim mystery by Jason Goodwin.
May 22 2006: Publication of The Darkness and the Deep, the 2nd DI Marjory Fleming mystery by Aline Templeton.
Jun 19 2006: Publication of Piece of my Heart, the 14th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Jul 11 2006: Publication of Break no Bones, the 9th Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Aug 01 2006: Publication of Jennifer Egan's third novel The Keep.
Aug 22 2006: Publication of The Endless Knot, the tenth Joanne Kilbourn mystery by Gail Bowen.
Aug 30 2006: Death of Naguib Mahfouz, novelist, in Cairo, Egypt, at the age of 94.
Sep 26 2006: Publication of The Library at Night, a rumination by Alberto Manguel.
Sep 30 2006: Publication of A Fatal Grace, the second Armand Gamache mystery by Louise Penny..
Oct 02 2006: Publication of The God Delusion, a lengthy polemic by Richard Dawkins.
Oct 17 2006: Publication of Lullabies for Little Criminals, a novel by Heather O'Neill.
Oct 20 2006: Eric Newby, travel writer, died in Guilford, Surrey, England, at the age of 86.
Nov 02 2006: Publication of Silverland: A Winter Journey Beyond the Urals, Dervla Murphy's account of her travels in the Russian Far East in 2004.
Jan 01 2007: Publication of Hidden Depths, the third Vera Stanhope mystery by Ann Cleeves.
Jan 01 2007: Publication of The Cruelest Month, the 3rd Armand Gamache mystery by Louise Penny.
Feb 06 2007: Publication of Mistress of the Art of Death, a historical mystery by Ariana Franklin, Book 1 in the Mistress of the Art of Death series.
Mar 01 2007: Publication of The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, the eighth installment of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith.
Mar 06 2007: Publication of Medicus, the first Giaus Petreius Ruso mystery by Ruth Downie.
Mar 06 2007: Publication of The God of Spring, a historical novel by Arabella Edge.
Mar 13 2007: Publication of Death Comes for the Fat Man, the twenty-second Dalziel and Pascoe mystery by Reginald Hill.
Mar 23 2007: Publication of Ian McEwan's tenth novel On Chesil Beach.
Mar 30 2007: Michael Dibdin, author of a series of detective novels featuring Aurelio Zen, died in USA, at the age of 60.
Apr 10 2007: Publication of Walter Isaacson's biography of Albert Einstein called Einstein: His Life and Universe.
Apr 12 2007: Kemal Basmaci (Kemal Bey) dies in Milan, Italy, at the age of 62 in Orhan Pamuk's novel The Museum of Innocence.
Apr 11 2007: Kurt Vonnegut, novelist, died in New York, USA, at the age of 84.
Apr 15 2007: Publication of Feast: Why Humans Share Food, an archaeological and anthropological examination by Martin Jones.
Apr 17 2007: Publication of The Children of Hurin, by J.R.R. Tolkien, as compiled and edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien.
Apr 23 2007: David Halberstam, journalist and writer, died in a car crash in Menlo Park, California, USA, at the age of 73, just a few days after completing his monumental book on the Korean War, The Coldest Winter.
May 10 2007: Publication of Suffer the Little Children, the 16th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
May 22 2007: Publication of Khaled Hosseini's second novel of Afghanistan, A Thousand Splendid Suns.
May 29 2007: Publication of Raven Black, the first Shetland mystery novel by Ann Cleeves.
May 31 2007: Publication of The Outlander by Gil Adamson.
Jul 10 2007: Publication of The World Without Us, an examination by journalist Alan Weisman.
Jul 21 2007: Publication of J. K. Rowling's book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final volume in the series.
Jul 25 2007: Posthumous publication of Michael Dibdin's novel End Games, the eleventh Aurelio Zen mystery.
Aug 07 2007: Publication of Darkwing, Kenneth Oppel's novel about Paleocene bats.
Aug 18 2007: Magdalen Nabb, writer of crime novels featuring Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia, died in Florence, Italy, at the age of 60.
Aug 21 2007: Publication of The Assassin's Song, a novel by M. G. Vassanji.
Aug 22 2007: Publication of The Best Laid Plans, a humorous novel by Terry Fallis.
Aug 28 2007: Publication of Bones to Ashes, the 10th Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Sep 04 2007: Publication of The Twice Born, a novel of ancient Egypt by Pauline Gedge.
Sep 11 2007: Publication of Friend of the Devil, the 17th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Sep 25 2007: Publication of The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, an account by journalist David Halberstam.
Oct 01 2007: Publication of Malcolm Hughes's sci-fi novel The Commons.
Oct 15 2007: Bernard Scudder, translator of Icelandic books, died in Reykjavik, Iceland, at the age of 53.
Oct 16 2007: Publication of The Snake Stone by Jason Goodwin, the second historical mystery novel featuring Investigator Yashim.
Nov 10 2007: Norman Mailer, novelist and writer, died in New York, USA, at the age of 84.
Nov 27 2007: Jane Rule, novelist best known for Desert of the Heart, died on Galiano Island, British Columbia, Canada, at the age of 76.
Dec 10 2007: Doris Lessing, novelist, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Jan 01 2008: Publication of A Rule Against Murder, the 4th Amrnad Gamache mystery by Louise Penny
Jan 15 2008: Publication of Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin.
Jan 31 2008: Publication of The Serpent's Tale, a historical mystery by Ariana Franklin, Book 2 in the Mistress of the Art of Death series.
Feb 28 2008: Julian Rathbone, novelist, died in Thorney Hill, Hampshire, England, at the age of 73.
Mar 01 2008: Publication of Miracle at Speedy Motors, the ninth installment of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith.
Mar 03 2008: Publication of A Cure for All Diseases, the 23rd Dalziel and Pascoe police procedural novel by Reginald Hill.
Mar 04 2008: Publication of Terra Incognita, the second Giaus Petreius Ruso mystery by Ruth Downie.
Mar 18 2008: Arthur C. Clarke, scifi author best known for 2001: A Space Odyssey, died in Colombo, Sri Lanka, at the age of 90.
Apr 01 2008: Publication of Winter Study, the fourteenth Anna Pigeon mystery by Nevada Barr.
Apr 03 2008: Publication of Bruno, Chief of Police, book 1 in the Bruno, Chief of Police series by Martin Walker.
Apr 04 2008: Publication of Revelation, fourth in the Matthew Shardlake Tudor mysteries by C. J. Sansom.
Apr 28 2008: Publication of Writers in Paris: Literary Lives in the City of Light, an examination by David Burke.
Jul 21 2008: Publication of Cockroach, a novel by Rawi Hage.
Jul 31 2008: Publication of King Driftwood, poems by Robert Minhinnick.
Aug 03 2008: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, novelist and writer, died at his home near Moscow, Russia, at the age of 89.
Aug 12 2008: Publication of The Brutal Heart, the eleventh Joanne Kilbourn mystery by Gail Bowen.
Aug 26 2008: Publication of Devil Bones, the 11th Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Sep 01 2008: Publication of the English-language version of Muriel Barbery's novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog.
Sep 09 2008: Publication of Neal Stephenson's novel Anathem.
Sep 15 2008: Publication of Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood, the book of the 2008 CBC Massey Lectures.
Sep 16 2008: Publication of Ian Rankin's crime novel Doors Open.
Sep 16 2008: Publication of Whote Nights, the second Shetland mystery novel by Ann Cleeves.
Sep 16 2008: Publication in North America of the English language version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the first volume in the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson.
Sep 30 2008: Publication of Nino Ricci's novel The Origin of Species.
Sep 30 2008: Publication of All the Colours of Darkness, the 18th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Oct 12 2008: First of the 2008 series of CBC Massey Lectures, given by Margaret Atwood in St. John's, Newfoundland. The lectures were also published as a book called Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.
Oct 14 2008: Publication of Sea of Poppies, a historical novel and the first volume in the Ibis trilogy by Amitav Ghosh.
Oct 26 2008: Tony Hillerman, writer best known for mystery novels set in Navajo country, died in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the age of 83.
Jan 01 2009: Publication of The Dark Vineyard, book 2 in the Bruno, Chief of Police series by Martin Walker.
Jan 16 2009: John Mortimer, writer and creator of Horace Rumpole, died in London, England, at the age of 85.
Jan 22 2009: Publication of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley, the first Flavia de Luce mystery.
Jan 27 2009: John Updike, writer and novelist probably best known for the Rabbit series, died in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, USA, at the age of 76.
Jan 27 2009: Publication of Angels and Ages: A Short Book about Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life, a lengthy essay by Adam Gopnik.
Feb 20 2009: Publication of Red Bones, the third Shetland mystery by Ann Cleeves.
Feb 21 2009: Publication of The Cello Suites, a book about J. S. Bach and Pablo Casals by Eric Siblin.
Mar 03 2009: Publication of Paths of Glory, Jeffery Archer's biographical novel about mountain climber George Mallory.
Mar 19 2009: Publication of Grave Goods, a historical mystery by Ariana Franklin, Book 3 in the Mistress of the Art of Death series.
Mar 28 2009: Publication of Who Killed Jackie Bates? Murder and Mercy During the Great Depression, an examination by historian Bill Waiser of a 1933 murder in central Saskatchewan.
Apr 07 2009: Publication of Borderline, the fifteenth Anna Pigeon mystery by Nevada Barr.
Apr 08 2009: Publication of About face, the 18th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Apr 19 2009: Death of J. G. Ballard, sci-fi writer, in London, England, at the age of 78.
Apr 21 2009: Publication of Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, the tenth installment of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith.
May 07 2009: Publication of Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall, short stories by Kazuo Ishiguro.
May 07 2009: Publication of The Children's Book, a novel of the end-Victorian and Edwardian eras by A. S. Byatt.
May 14 2009: Publication of Lords of the Sea by John Hale, a history of Athenian naval power between the battle of Salamis (480 BC) and the take-over of the port of Piraeus by the Macedonians in 322 BC.
May 28 2009: Publication of Midnight Fugue, the 24th Dalziel and Pascoe police procedural novel by Reginald Hill.
Jun 15 2009: Publication of February, a novel by Lisa Moore.
Jul 07 2009: Publication of Persona Non Grata, the third Giaus Petreius Ruso mystery by Ruth Downie.
Jul 27 2009: Publication of Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness, an extended discussion of urban natural history by Lyanda Lynn Haupt.
Jul 28 2009: Publication in North America of the English language version of The Girl who Played with Fire, the second volume in the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson.
Jul 28 2009: Publication of The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre.
Aug 06 2009: Publication of Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson.
Aug 18 2009: Publication of Becoming George Sand by Rosalind Brackenbury.
Aug 24 2009: Publication of Remarkable Creatures, Tracy Chevalier's historical novel about Mary Anning.
Aug 25 2009: Publication of 206 Bones, the 12th Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Sep 04 2009: Publication of The Players, an historical novel by Margaret Sweatman.
Sep 22 2009: Publication of The Year of the Flood, a dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood.
Sep 22 2009: Publication of The Brutal Telling, the 5th Arnamd Gamache mystery by Louise Penny.
Sep 28 2009: Publication of The Ice Lovers, a novel of Antarctica by Jean McNeil.
Oct 20 2009: Publication of The Vintage Caper, a frothy mystery novel by Peter Mayle.
Dec 01 2009: Publication of Greg Mortensen's account of his work in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Stones into Schools.
Jan 01 2010: Publication of The Hangman, the 6.5th Armand Gamache mystery by Louise Pnnny.
Jan 12 2010: Publication of The Godfather of Kathmandu, the fourth Sonchai Jitpleecheep crime novel by John Burdett.
Jan 01 2010: Publication of Blue Lightning, the fourth Shetland mystery by Ann Cleeves.
Jan 18 2010: Robert B. Parker, best known for crime novels featuring Spenser, died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, at the age of 77.
Jan 21 2010: Author Paul Quarrington died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 56.
Feb 14 2010: Dick Francis, writer of crime novels, died in Grand Cayman at the age of 89.
Feb 16 2010: Publication of A Night too Dark, the 17th Kate Shugak mystery by Dana Stabenow.
Mar 02 2010: Publication of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, a delightful novel by Helen Simonson.
Mar 04 2010: Publication of The Double Comfort Safari Club, the eleventh installment of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith.
Mar 09 2010: Publication of The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag, by Alan Bradley, the second Flavia de Luce mystery.
Mar 12 2010: Nicholas Dickner's novel Nikolski, championed by Michel Vezina, wins the Canada Reads competition run by CBC radio.
Mar 30 2010: Publication of Curiosity, Joan Thomas's fine historical novel about Mary Anning.
Mar 30 2010: Publication of Under Heaven, an alternate history novel of eighth century China by Guy Gavriel Kay.
Apr 01 2010: Publication of A Murderous Procession, a historical mystery by Ariana Franklin, Book 4 in the Mistress of the Art of Death series.
Apr 01 2010: Publication of The Age of Waterlilies, a novel by Theresa Kishkan.
Apr 01 2010: Publication of Lost River, the 10th Cooper and Fry police procedural novel by Stephen Booth.
Apr 01 2010: Publication of Love You to Death, the first novella in a new series by Gail Bowen, featuring talk-radio host Charlie D.
Apr 06 2010: Publication of A River in the Sky, the 19th Amelia Peabody mystery by Elizabeth Peters.
Apr 13 2010: Publication of Writing Jane Austen by Elizabeth Aston.
Apr 29 2010: Publication of Girl in Translation, a novel by Jean Kwok.
May 04 2010: Publication of Jane Smiley's novel Private Life.
May 04 2010: Publication of A Question of Belief, the 19th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
May 25 2010: Publication in North America of the English language version of The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the third volume in the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson.
Jun 08 2010: Publication of Jennifer Egan's fourth novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad.
Jun 18 2010: Writer José Saramago died in Tías, Las Palmas, Spain, at the age of 87.
Jul 10 2010: Publication of Black Diamond, book 3 in the Bruno, Chief of Police series by Martin Walker.
Jul 15 2010: Publication of Andrew Fowles's historical novel Necessary Things.
Jul 27 2010: Publication of Carl Hiaasen's crime novel Star Island.
Jul 27 2010: Publication of J. A. Jance's crime novel Queen of the Night.
Aug 10 2010: Publication of Crime Machine, the fifth John Cardinal crime novel by Giles Blunt.
Aug 17 2010: Publication of Frederick Forysth's thriller The Cobra.
Aug 17 2010: Publication of The Nesting Dolls, the twelfth Joanne Kilbourn mystery by Gail Bowen.
Aug 26 2010: Publication of Saskatchewan writer Byrna Barclay's novel The Forest Horses.
Aug 31 2010: Publication of Sara Paretsky's 14th V. I. Warshawski crime novel, Body Work.
Sep 01 2010: Publication of Eric Wright's eighteenth mystery novel A Likely Story.
Sep 01 2010: Publication of Ann Birch's historical novel Settlement.
Sep 07 2010: Publication of William Gibson's novel Zero History.
Sep 07 2010: Publication of Frederick Ruess's novel The Geography of Secrets.
Sep 07 2010: Publication of Annabel Lyon's historial novel about Alexander and Aristotle, The Golden Mean.
Sep 08 2010: Posthumous publication of José Saramago's novel The Elephant's Journey.
Sep 13 2010: Publication of Room, a novel of captivity by Emma Donoghue.
Sep 14 2010: Publication of Robert Cording's book of poetry entitled Walking with Ruskin.
Sep 14 2010: Publication of Snakewoman of Little Egypt, a novel by Robert Hellenga.
Sep 14 2010: Publication of Bad Boy, the 19th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Sep 28 2010: Publication of Years of Red Dust, short stories set in Shanghai, China, by Qiu Xiaolong.
Sep 28 2010: Publication of Bury Your Dead, the 6th Armand Gamache mystery by Louise Penny.
Oct 01 2010: Publication of Brian Doyle's novel of the Oregon coast, Mink River.
Oct 01 2010: Publication of Two O'Clock Creek: Poems New and Selected by Brian Hunter.
Oct 26 2010: Publication in English of The Track of Sand by Andrea Camilleri, the 12th Inspector Montalbano mystery.
Oct 31 2010: Publication of In the Suicide's Library: A Book Lover's Journey, a book of ruminations on books, poetry, fatherhood, and assorted other life matters by Tim Bowling.
Nov 02 2010: Publication of Simon Winchester's non-fiction book Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories.
Dec 10 2010: Mario Vargas Llosa, novelist, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Dec 14 2010: Publication of The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson a collection of 22 short stories by Kim Stanley Robinson.
Dec 21 2010: Publication of Caveat Emptor, the fourth Giaus Petreius Ruso mystery by Ruth Downie.
Jan 01 2011: Publication of Before the Poison, a novel by Peter Robinson.
Jan 18 2011: Publication of Bride of New France, an historical novel by Suzanne Desrochers.
Jan 24 2011: Publication of The Water Rat of Wanchai, the first Ava Lee novel by Ian Hamilton.
Jan 27 2011: Death of journalist Diana Norman in England, at the age of 77. She wrote historical mysteries under the pen-name of Ariana Franklin.
Feb 04 2011: Publication of Silent Voices, the fourth Vera Stanhope mystery by Ann Cleeves.
Feb 08 2011: Publication of A Red Herring without Mustard, the third Flavia de Luce mystery by Alan Bradley.
Mar 01 2011: Publication of The Tiger's Wife, a novel of the Balkans by Téa Obreht.
Mar 03 2011: Publication of Daughters-in-Law, a novel of family life by Joanna Trollope.
Mar 22 2011: Publication of The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, the twelfth installment of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith.
Mar 27 2011: H. R. F. Keating, prolific writer of crime fiction and creator of Inspector Ghote, died in England, at the age of 84.
Mar 29 2011: Publication of the English language version of The Troubled Man, the 13th Kurt Wallander detective novel by Henning Mankell.
Apr 04 2011: Publication of Drawing Conclusions, the 20th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Apr 15 2011: Publication of Patrick DeWitt's western spoof novel The Sisters Brothers.
Apr 19 2011: Posthumous publication of The Monkey's Wedding and Other Stories, a collection of quirky short stories by Joan Aiken.
Apr 19 2011: Publication of Leaving Van Gogh, a novel by Carol Wallace about the last months of the artist's life as seen through the eyes of Dr Gachet.
May 01 2011: Publication of Mozart's Last Aria, a novel by Matt Rees.
May 01 2011: Publication of Cascadia's Fault: The Deadly Earthquake That Will Devastate North America, a examination by Jerry Thompson.
May 03 2011: Publication of the English-language edition of The Lake, a novel by Banana Yoshimoto.
May 11 2011: Poet Ann Lewis-Smith died in Newport, Pembrokeshire, Wales, at the age of 86.
May 31 2011: Publication of Dreams of Joy, a novel of China by Lisa See.
Jun 10 2011: Patrick Leigh Fermor, travel writer, died in Dumbleton, England, at the age of 96.
Jun 16 2011: Publication of The Disciple of Las Vegas, the second Ava Lee novel by Ian Hamilton.
Jun 21 2011: Robert Kroetsch, novelist, poet and teacher, died near Leduc, Alberta, Canada, at the age of 83.
Jun 28 2011: Publication of The Gambler's Nephew, an historical novel by Jack Matthews.
Jul 01 2011: Publication of Flash and Bones, the 14th Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Jul 12 2011: Publication of A Dance with Dragons, the fifth fantasy novel in A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin.
Aug 02 2011: Publication of Season of Darkness, a mystery novel by Maureen Jennings which is set in WWII Shropshire.
Aug 04 2011: Publication of The Sense of an Ending, a novel by Julian Barnes.
Aug 16 2011: Publication of Ready Player One, a cyberpunk novel by Ernest Cline.
Sep 20 2011: Publication of The Song of Achilles, a retelling of the end of the Trojan War by Madeline Miller .
Sep 29 2011: Publication of The Crowded Grave, the 4th police procedural novel by Martin Walker in the Bruno, Chief of Police series.
Oct 01 2011: Publication of The Painter's Craft, an art and mystery novel by Susan Statham.
Oct 18 2011: Man Booker Prize awarded to The Sense of an Ending, a novel by Julian Barnes.
Oct 24 2011: Publication of Steve Jobs, an authorized biography by Walter Isaacson.
Oct 25 2011: Publication of the English-language version of 1Q84, a novel by Haruki Murakami.
Nov 01 2011: Publication of I am Half-sick of Shadows, the fourth Flavia de Luce mystery by Alan Bradley.
Nov 03 2011: Publication of Death Comes to Pemberley, P. D. James's crime novel featuring the characters and locale from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
Nov 07 2011: First evening broadcast of the 50th season of the CBC's Massey Lectures. First lecture on the subject of Winter by Adam Gopnik, later published as a book.
Dec 13 2011: Russell Hoban, novelist, died in London, England, at the age of 86.
Dec 14 2011: George Whitman, owner of the famous bookshop Shakespeare and Company, died in his home above the shop in Paris, France, at the age of 98.
Dec 30 2011: Ronald Searle, artist, illustrator, and cartoonist best known for 'St Trinians', died in Draguignan, Provence, France, at the age of 91.
Jan 03 2012: Death of Josef Škvorecký, novelist, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 87.
Jan 12 2012: Death of Reginald Hill in Cumbria, England, at the age of 75. Hill is best known for his police procedural crime novels featuring Dalziel and Pascoe.
Feb 02 2012: Publication of The Glass Room, the fifth Vera Stanhope mystery by Ann Cleeves.
Feb 23 2012: Publication of The Wild Beasts of Wuhan, the third Ava Lee novel by Ian Hamilton.
Mar 15 2012: Publication of In the Memory of the Map: A Cartographic Memoir, by Christopher Norment.
Mar 27 2012: Publication of Assiniboia, a book of poetry by Tim Lilburn.
Mar 27 2012: Publication of 419, a novel about internet scams by Will Ferguson.
Apr 03 2012: Publication of Beastly Things, the 21st Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Apr 24 2012: Publication of Kaleidoscope, the thirteenth Joanne Kilbourn mystery by Gail Bowen.
May 15 2012: Carlos Fuentes, Mexican novelist and essayist, died in Mexico City, at the age of 83.
May 23 2012: Publication of 2312, a novel of the future by Kim Stanley Robinson.
May 29 2012: Publication in English of The Age of Doubt by Andrea Camilleri, the 14th Inspector Montalbano mystery.
Jun 05 2012: Ray Bradbury, sci-fi writer, died in Los Angeles, California, USA, at the age of 91.
Jun 20 2012: Publication of The Red Pole of Macau, the 4th Ava Lee novel by Ian Hamilton.
Jun 26 2012: Death of Nora Ephron, novelist and screenwriter, in New York City, USA, at the age of 71.
Jul 03 2012: Publication of I Dream of Zenia with the Bright Red Teeth, a short story by Margaret Atwood in The Walrus magazine.
Jul 30 2012: Maeve Binchy, novelist, died in Dublin, Ireland, at the age of 72.
Jul 31 2012: Gore Vidal, novelist and essayist, died in Hollywood Hills, California, USA, at the age of 86.
Aug 02 2012: Publication of The Devil's Cave, book 5 in the Bruno, Chief of Police series by Martin Walker.
Aug 06 2012: Robert Hughes, art critic and writer, died in New York, USA, at the age of 74.
Aug 06 2012: The International Astronomical Union approved the name Tolkien for a small crater on the planet Mercury.
Aug 12 2012: Publication of The Beautiful Mystery, the 8th Armand Gamache novel by Louise Penny.
Aug 14 2012: Publication of The Emperor of Paris, a novel about books and the power of words by Canadian writer C. S. Richardson.
Aug 16 2012: Publication of Watching the Dark, the 20th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Aug 22 2012: Nina Bawden, novelist, died in London, England, at the age of 87.
Aug 28 2012: Publication of Bones Are Forever, the 15th Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Sep 25 2012: Publication of M. G. Vassanji's novel of East Africa, The Magic of Saida.
Oct 02 2012: Publication of Donna Leon's mystery novel The Jewels of Paradise.
Oct 29 2012: Penguin Books and Random House publishers announce a merger, making the new company the world's largest publisher of consumer books, comprising about a quarter of the market.
Nov 26 2012: Publication of Evil for Evil, the 7th DI Marjory Fleming mystery by Aline Templeton.
Dec 10 2012: Mo Yan, novelist perhaps best known for Red Sorghum, presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Jan 08 2013: Publication of The Scottish Banker of Surabaya, the 5th Ava Lee novel by Ian Hamilton.
Jan 08 2013: Publication of Prairie Silence: A Rural Expatriate's Journey to Reconcile Home, Love and Faith, a memoir about growing up in North Dakota by Melanie Hoffert.
Jan 29 2013: Publication of Speaking from Among the Bones, the fifth Flavia de Luce mystery by Alan Bradley.
Jan 30 2013: Publication of The Rosy Project by Graeme Simsion.
Jan 31 2013: Pubication of Dead Water, the 5th Shetland mystery by Ann Cleeves.
Mar 21 2013: Chinua Achebe, novelist, died in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, at the age of 82.
Mar 26 2013: Publication of The Golden Egg, the 22nd Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Apr 03 2013: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, novelist and screenwriter, died in New York City, USA, at the age of 85.
Apr 04 2013: Publication of The Cuckoo's Calling, the 1st Cormoran Strike novel, by Robert Galbraith (pen name of J. K. Rowling).
Jun 06 2013: Tom Sharpe, satirical novelist, died in Llafranc, Catalonia, Spain, at the age of 85.
Jun 06 2013: Publication of The Resistance Man, book 6 in the Bruno, Chief of Police series by Martin Walker.
Jun 09 2013: Iain Banks, novelist and scifi writer, died in England at the age of 59.
Aug 01 2013: Publication of Children of the Revolution, the 21st Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Aug 08 2013: Death of Barbara Mertz, aka Elizabeth Peters, author of the Amelia Peabody mysteries, in Frederick, Maryland, USA, at the age of 85.
Aug 15 2013: Publication of Bones of the Lost, the 16th Tempe Brennan mystery by Kathy Reichs.
Aug 20 2013: Elmore Leonard, crime writer, died in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA, at the age of 87.
Aug 27 2013: Publication of How the Light Gets In, the 9th Armand Gamache novel by Louise Penny.
Aug 30 2013: Seamus Heaney, poet, died in Dublin, Ireland, at the age of 74.
Sep 10 2013: Publication of The Orenda, Joseph Boyden's historical novel about the Huron, Iroquois, and Jesuits.
Oct 01 2013: Death of Tom Clancy, writer of military-themed thrillers, in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, at the age of 66.
Oct 10 2013: In Stockholm, Sweden, the Swedish Academy announces that short-story writer Alice Munro is the winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Oct 12 2013: Oscar Hijuelos, novelist, died in New York City, USA, at the age of 62.
Oct 28 2013: Publication of Bad Blood, the 8th DI Marjory Fleming mystery by Aline Templeton.
Nov 17 2013: Doris Lessing, novelist, died in London, England, at the age of 94.
Nov 26 2013: William Stevenson, journalist and writer best known for A Man Called Intrepid, died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 89.
Nov 26 2013: John Graham, also known as Araucaria, crossword puzzle setter, died in Cambridgeshire, England, at the age of 92.
Dec 01 2013: Publication of The Dragon Head of Hong Kong, the 0.5th Ava Lee novel, a series pre-quel, by Ian Hamilton.
Jan 02 2014: Elizabeth Jane Howard, novelist, died in Bungay, Suffolk, England, UK, at the age of 90.
Jan 14 2014: Publication of The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches, the sixth Flavia de Luce mystery by Alan Bradley.
Jan 27 2014: Publication of The Two Sisters of Borneo, the 6th Ava Lee novel by Ian Hamilton.
Feb 18 2014: Mavis Gallant, short-story writer, died in Paris, France, at the age of 91.
Mar 06 2014: Joseph Boyden's novel The Orenda, championed by Wab Kinew, won the Canada Reads competition on CBC radio.
Apr 01 2014: Publication of By Its Cover, the 23rd Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Apr 05 2014: Peter Matthiessen, novelist and writer on nature and landscape, died in Sagaponack, New York, USA, at the age of 86.
Apr 08 2014: Peter Matthiessen's last novel, Paradise, is published, three days after the writer's death.
Apr 17 2014: Gabriel García Márquez, best known as the writer of One Hundred Years of Solitude, died in Mexico City, Mexico, at the age of 87.
Apr 20 2014: Alistair MacLeod, short-story writer and novelist, died in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 77.
May 05 2014: Publication of The Children's Return, book 7 in the Bruno, Chief of Police series by Martin Walker.
May 06 2014: Farley Mowat, writer, died in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 92.
May 09 2014: Mary Stewart, novelist, died in Lochawe, Scotland, at the age of 97.
May 28 2014: Maya Angelou, writer and poet, died in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA, at the age of 86.
Jun 19 2014: Publication of The Silkworm, the 2nd Cormoran Strike novel, by Robert Galbraith (pen name of J. K. Rowling).
Jun 30 2014: The Governor General's office announces that author Guy Gavriel Kay is appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada "For his contributions to the field of speculative fiction as an internationally celebrated author".
Jul 13 2014: Nadine Gordimer, novelist, died in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the age of 90.
Aug 01 2014: Pierre Ryckmans, who used the pen-name of Simon Leys, died in Canberra, Australia, at the age of 77.
Aug 19 2014: Publication of Dear Committee Members an epistolary novel by Julie Schumacher.
Aug 26 2014: Publication of The Long Way Home, the 10th Armand Gamache novel by Louise Penny.
Sep 03 2014: Publication of Bones Never Lie, the 17th Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Sep 11 2014: Publication of Thin Air, the 6th Shetland mystery by Ann Cleeves.
Sep 24 2014: Publication of The Rosie Effect a novel by Graeme Simsion
Sep 30 2014: Ralph Cosham, book narrator, died in Reston, Virgina, USA, at the age of 78.
Oct 28 2014: Galway Kinnell, poet, died in Sheffield, Vermont, USA, at the age of 87.
Oct 28 2014: Publication of Abbatoir Blues, the 22th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Nov 19 2014: Ursula Le Guin presented with the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the National Book Awards in New York City.
Nov 27 2014: P. D. James, crime novelist, died in Oxford, England, at the age of 94.
Dec 25 2014: Publication of The Prince of Shanghai, the 7th Ava Lee novel by Ian Hamilton.
Jan 10 2015: Robert Stone, novelist and journalist, died in Key West, Florida, USA, at the age of 77.
Jan 29 2015: Colleen McCullough, novelist, died on Norfolk Island, at the age of 77.
Feb 03 2015: Martin Gilbert, historian and biographer, died in London, England, at the age of 78.
Feb 06 2015: Hilary Mantel was invested as a Dame Commander of the British Empire for services to literature in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace conducted by Prince Charles.
Feb 06 2015: André Brink, novelist, died on a plane flight from the Netherlands to South Africa, at the age of 79.
Feb 28 2015: Yasar Kemal, novelist, died in Istanbul Turkey, at the age of 91.
Mar 03 2015: Publication of The Buried Giant, a novel by Kasuo Ishiguro.
Mar 20 2015: Publication of Sing a Worried Song, the sixth Arthur Beauchamp novel by William Deverell.
Apr 07 2015: Publication of Falling In Love, the 24th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Apr 13 2015: Günther Grass, novelist probably best known for The Tin Drum, died in Lübeck, Germany, at the age of 87.
Apr 23 2015: Publication of The Third Sin, the 9th DI Marjory Fleming mystery by Aline Templeton.
Jul 02 2015: Publication of Speaking In Bones, the 18th Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Jul 07 2015: Publication of Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson, a sci-fi novel about travel to another star system.
Jul 21 2015: E. L. Doctorow, novelist, died in New York City, USA, at the age of 84.
Aug 25 2015: Publication of The Nature of the Beast, the 11th Armand Gamache novel by Louise Penny.
Aug 30 2015: Oliver Sacks, neurologist and writer, died in Manhattan, New York, USA, at the age of 82.
Oct 05 2015: Death of Henning Mankell, writer of crime novels featuring Detective Kurt Wallander, in Goteborg, Sweden, at the age 67.
Oct 09 2015: Mystery writer Eric Wright died in Canada at the age of 86.
Oct 20 2015: Publication of Career of Evil, the 3rd Cormoran Strike novel, by Robert Galbraith (pen name of J. K. Rowling).
Dec 22 2015: Publication of The Princeling of Nanjing, the 8th Ava Lee novel by Ian Hamilton.
Jan 01 2016: Publication of Cold Earth, the seventh Shetland mystery by Ann Cleeves.
Jan 20 2016: Constance Beresford-Howe, novelist, died in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England, at the age of 94.
Jan 31 2016: Gillian Avery, children's writer, died in Oxford, England, at the age of 89.
Feb 19 2016: Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, died in Monroeville, Alabama, USA, at the age of 89.
Feb 19 2016: Umberto Eco, novelist best known for The Name of the Rose, died in Milan, Lombardy, Italy, at the age of 84.
Mar 08 2016: Publication of The Waters of Eternal Youth, the 25th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
May 31 2016: Publication of Do Not Say We Have Nothing, a novel by Madeleine Thien.
Jun 13 2016: Gregory Rabassa, translator, died in Branford, Connecticut, USA, at the age of 94. Rabassa translated from Portuguese and Spanish into English. He is probably best known for his translations of works of Julio Cortázar and Gabriel García Márquez.
Jul 14 2016: Publication of When the Music's Over, the 23rd DCI Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Aug 30 2016: Publication of A Great Reckoning, the 12th Armand Gamache novel by Louise Penny.
Sep 06 2016: Publication of A Gentleman in Moscow, a novel by Amor Towles.
Oct 13 2016: The Nobel Committee announces that Bob Dylan has been awarded the Nobel Prize in literature for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".
Nov 01 2016: Publication of The Bone Collection: Four Novellas, the 0.5th, 15.5th, 16.5th and 17.5th Tempe Brennan stories by Kathy Reichs.
Nov 07 2016: Leonard Cohen, poet and singer-songwriter, died in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 82.
Dec 24 2016: Richard Adams, author of Watership Down, died in Oxford, England, at the age of 96.
Jan 16 2017: Publication of The Couturier of Milan, the 9th Ava Lee novel by Ian Hamilton.
Mar 21 2017: Colin Dexter, writer of a series of police procedurals featuring Inspector Morse, died in Oxford, England, at the age of 86.
Apr 24 2017: Robert M. Pirsig, writer and philosopher best known for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, died in South Berwick, Maine, USA, at the age of 88.
Jun 27 2017: Michael Bond, writer and creator of Paddington Bear and Monsieur Pamplemousse, died in London, England, at the age of 91.
Jul 17 2017: Publication of Sleeping in the Ground, the 24th Inspector Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Aug 06 2017: Jack Rabinovitch, Canadian businessman and founder of the Giller Prize, died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 87.
Aug 23 2017: Susan Vreeland, novelist, died in San Diego, California, USA, at the age of 71.
Aug 19 2017: Brian Aldiss, scifi writer, died in Oxford, England, UK, at the age of 92.
Aug 29 2017: Publication of Glass Houses, the 13th Armand Gamache novel by Louise Penny.
Oct 05 2017: The Nobel Committee announces that Kazuo Ishiguro has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2017.
Jan 01 2018: Publication of Wild Fire, the eigth Shetland mystery by Ann Cleeves.
Jan 06 2018: Publication of The Imam of Tawi-Tawi, the 10th Ava Lee novel by Ian Hamilton.
Jan 18 2018: Peter Mayle, best known for the memoir A Year in Provence, died in Provence, France, at the age of 78.
Jan 22 2018: Death of Ursula K. Le Guin, sci-fi and fantasy author, in Portland, Oregon, USA, at the age of 88.
Feb 20 2018: Publication of The Woman in the Water, the 11th Charles Lenox mystery by Donna Leon.
Mar 20 2018: Publication of The Temptation of Foregiveness, the 27th Guido Brunetti mystery by Charles Finch.
May 14 2018: Tom Wolfe, journalist and novelist, died in Manhattan, New York, USA, at the age of 88.
Jun 12 2018: Publication of A Taste For Vengeance, book 11 in the Bruno, Chief of Police series by Martin Walker.
May 22 2018: Philip Roth, novelist, died in Manhattan, New York, USA, at the age of 85.
Jun 05 2018: Publication of Something in the Water, a novel by Caroline Steadman,
Aug 01 2018: Publication of Seaweed Chronicles: A World at the Water's Edge by Susan Hand Shetterly, a book about the natural history of seaweed and its function as an ecnonomic resource alog the northeast US coast.
Aug 11 2018: V. S. Naipaul, novelist and travel writer, died in London, England, at the age of 85.
Aug 18 2018: Publication of Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Ownens' novel of the Georgia swamplands,
Sep 18 2018: Publication of Lethal White, the 4th Cormoran Strike novel by Robert Galbraith (pen name of J. K. Rowling).
Nov 14 2018: Publication of Kingdom of the Blind, the 14th Armand Gamache novel by Louise Penny.
Dec 04 2018: Publication of The Goddess of Yantai, the 11th Ava Lee novel by Ian Hamilton.
Dec 29 2018: Philip Pullman to be awarded a knighthood for "services to literature", as announced in the Queen's New Years Honours List 2019.
Dec 29 2018: Margaret Atwood to be made a C.B.E. for "services to literature", as announced in the Queen's New Years Honours List 2019.
Jan 22 2019: Publication of Fate, the 1st Uncle Chow Tung novel by Ian Hamilton.
Jan 23 2019: Diana Athill, editor and writer, died in London, England, at the age of 101.
Mar 05 2019: Publication of Unto Us A Son Is Given, the 28th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
May 02 2019: Publication of Underland, an exploration by Robert Macfarlane.
Jun 04 2019: Publication of The Body in the Castle Well, book 12 in the Bruno, Chief of Police series by Martin Walker.
Jul 02 2019: Publication of The Mountain Master of Sha Tin, the 12th Ava Lee novel by Ian Hamilton.
Jul 16 2019: Howard Engel, best known for the Benny Cooperman detective novel series, died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 88.
Aug 05 2019: Toni Morrison, novelist and essayist, died in New York, USA, at the age of 88.
Aug 27 2019: Publication of A Better Man, the 15th Armand Gamache novel by Louise Penny.
Sep 10 2019: Publication of The Testaments, Margaret Atwood's sequel to The Handmaid's Tale.
Sep 18 2019: Writer Graeme Gibson died in London, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 85.
Sep 25 2019: Publication of Many Rivers to Cross, the 26th DCI Banks novel by Peter Robinson.
Oct 14 2019: In a rare occurrence, the Booker Prize Committee split the award, granting awards to Margaret Atwood for The Testaments and Bernadine Evaristo for Girl, Woman.
Oct 17 2019: Publication of Agent Running in the Field, novelist John le Carré's last published book
Jan 16 2020: Christopher Tolkien, the third son of J.R.R. Tolkien, and the literary executor for his father's papers, died in Draguignan, France, at the age of 95.
Mar 03 2020: Publication of Trace Elements, the 29th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Mar 17 2020: Publication of A Conspiracy of Bones, the 19th Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Apr 28 2020: Publication of Oystercatcher, book 12.5 in the Bruno, Chief of Police series by Martin Walker.
May 26 2020: Publication of The Diamond Queen of Singapore, the 13th Ava Lee novel by Ian Hamilton.
Sep 01 2020: Publication of All the Devils are Here, the 16th Armand Gamache novel by Louise Penny.
Nov 20 2020: Jan Morris, journalist and travel writer, died in Pwllheli, Wales, at the age of 94.
Dec 12 2020: David Cornwell, aka John le Carré, writer of espionage novels, died in Truro, Cornwall, England, at the age of 89.
Dec 25 2020: Barry Lopez, essayist, nature writer, and fiction writer, died at the age of 75.
Jan 05 2021: Publication of Fortune, the 3rd Uncle Chow Tung novel by Ian Hamilton.
Mar 08 2021: Children's author Norton Juster, best known for The Phantom Tollbooth, died in Northampton, Massachusetts, USA, at the age of 91.
Mar 04 2021: Publication of Transient Desires, the 30th Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Jul 06 2021: Publication of The Bone Code, the 20th Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Aug 31 2021: Publication of The Madness of Crowds, the 17th Armand Gamache mystery by Louise Penny.
Oct 12 2021: Publication of State of Terror, a thriller co-written by Hilary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny.
Jan 11 2022: Publication of Something to Hide, the 21st Lynley and Havers police procedural by Elizabeth George.
Mar 15 2022: Publication of Give Unto Others, the 31st Guido Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon.
Jul 05 2022: Publication of Cold, Cold Bones, the 21st Tempe Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.
Aug 07 2022: David McCullough, historian and writer, died in Hinghan, Massachusetts, USA, at the age of 89.
Sep 13 2022: Publication of Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, an autobioagraphical graphic novel by Kate Beaton.
Sep 22 2022: Death of Hilary Mantel, novelist and literary critic, in Exeter, Devon, England, at the age of 70.
Nov 29 2022: Publication of A World of Curiosities, the 18th Armand Gamache mystery by Louise Penny.
Jan 03 2023: Publication of The General of Tiananmen Square, the 15th Ava Lee novel by Ian Hamilton.
Jan 04 2023: Death of Fay Weldon, novelist, in Northampton, England, UK. at the age of 91.
Jan 14 2023: Ronald Blythe, writer and essayist, best known for Akenfield, died in Wormingford, Essex, England, at the age of 100.
Mar 26 2023: Novelist, poet, and translator D. M. Thomas, died in Truro, Cornwall, England, at the age of 88.
Apr 10 2023: Anne Perry, writer of mystery novels, died in Los Angeles, California, USA, at the age of 84.
May 19 2023: Martin Amis, novelist, died in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, USA, at the age of 73.
Nov 16 2023: Novelist A. S. Byatt died in London, England, at the age of 87.
Dec 29 2023: Writer Alexander McCall Smith appointed Knight Bachelor for services to literature, academia and charity in the New Year's Honours List.
Dec 29 2023: Writer Jung Chang, best known for her memoir and family autobiography Wild Swans, appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services to literature and history in the New Year's Honours List.
Aug 05 2312: Start of Earth's Rewilding in Kim Stanley Robinson's alternate future novel 2312.
This is a purely idiosyncratic list. It includes information, factoids really, about writers, essayists, and poets whose work I have, mostly, enjoyed through the years.
This presentation has been compiled and is © 1998-2011 by
Alwynne B. Beaudoin (bluebulrush@gmail.com)
Last updated July 30, 2011
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