1844 American novelist George Washington Cable, author of Old Creole Days, was born in New Orleans, LA. Although his family owned slaves and he fought for the Confederacy in his youth, in his writings he opposed both slavery and the post-war denial of rights to freed slaves.

1854 Irish poet, dramatist, and wit Oscar Wilde, author of The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray, was born in Dublin.

1880 Mystery author Arthur B. Reeve, creator of the "scientific detective" Craig Kennedy, was born in Patchogue, Long Island.

1885 French Nobel laureate Francois Mauriac, whose novel Vipers' Tangle is often considered his masterpiece, was born in Bordeaux.

1888 Playwright and Nobel laureate Eugene O'Neill was born in New York City. Among the many great works by this celebrated dramatist were Mourning Becomes Electra, Strange Interlude, The Iceman Cometh, and the autobiographical, posthumously produced Long Day's Journey Into Night.

1890 American novelist Conrad Richter, author of The Sea of Life, the Pulitzer Prize-winner The Town, and the National Book Award-winner The Waters of Kronos, was born in Pine Grove, PA.

1892 Serbo-Croatian novelist and Nobel laureate Ivo Andric, author of Ex Ponto and The Days of the Consuls, was born near Travnik, Bosnia.

1894 Poet and painter e.e. cummings, whose works included The Enormous Room, Tulips and Chimneys, and Eimi, was born in Cambridge, MA.

1896 Italian poet, translator, and Nobel laureate Eugenio Montale was born in Genoa.

1903 American satirist Nathanael West, author of Miss Lonelyhearts and The Day of the Locust, was born in New York City.

1905 British scientist and novelist C.P. Snow, author of the eleven-volume novel sequence Strangers and Brothers, was born in Leicester.

1915 American playwright Arthur Miller, whose modern classics included Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, was born in New York City.

1919 Danish poet and Nobel laureate Karl A. Gjellerup, author of The Teuton's Apprentice, died in Klotzsche, Germany at age 62.

1920 Mario Puzo, best known for his novel The Godfather, was born in Hell's Kitchen in New York City.

1924 French man of letters and Nobel laureate Anatole France, author of Thais, The Elm-Tree on the Mall, and Penguin Island, died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire at age 80.

1925 Popular and prolific genre writer Elmore Leonard was born in New Orleans. He began his career with westerns, such as The Bounty Hunters, but for the last several decades has written primarily mysteries such as Unknown Man No. 89 and Get Shorty.

1926 Louis Bromfield's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Early Autumn, was published.

1926 Prolific mystery author Evan Hunter, aka Ed McBain, and author of the 87th Precinct novels, was born Salvatore Lombino in New York City.

1927 Ernest Hemingway's short story collection Men Without Women was published. It included the much-anthologized story "Hills Like White Elephants."

1927 German novelist and Nobel laureate Gunter Grass, best known for his 1959 novel The Tin Drum, was born in Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland).

1927 British journalist and mystery writer William Le Queux died in Switzerland at age 63. Some credit his espionage novels with having a great influence on Ian Fleming in his creation of James Bond.

1937 Ernest Hemingway's To Have and Have Not was published. The film version was only loosely based on the novel, but it is the only film based on a book by a Nobel laureate and co-scripted by another Nobel laureate (William Faulkner).

1940 Australian novelist Helen Simpson died at age 42 at Overbury, Worcestershire, of shock following the bombing of a hospital where she was recovering from an operation. She wrote in a wide variety of genres and two of her novels were adapted into films by Alfred Hitchcock.

1977 Novelist MacKinlay Kantor died in Sarasota, FL at age 73. His works included the Pulitzer Prize-winning Andersonville and Glory for Me, which became the acclaimed film The Best Years of Our Lives.

1979 American humorist S.J. Perelman died in New York City at age 75. In addition to many excellent contributions to The New Yorker and plays such as One Touch of Venus, he also wrote the screenplays for the Marx Brothers films Monkey Business and Horse Feathers. Perelman was the brother-in-law of satirist Nathanael West.

1980 Mary O'Hara, author of My Friend Flicka and its sequels, died in Chevy Chase, MD at age 95.

1983 Lewis Nordan's first book, Welcome to the Arrow-Catcher Fair, was published in Baton Rouge, LA.

1988 Mystery author John Ball, best known for his Edgar-winning first book, In the Heat of the Night, died in Encino, CA of colon cancer at age 77.

1989 American author and horse breeder Walter Farley, author of The Black Stallion and its many sequels, died of a heart attack in Sarasota, FL at age 74.

1995 Edith Mary Pargeter, who published under her own name as well as being widely known for her Brother Cadfael mystery series under the name Ellis Peters, died in Shropshire at age 82.

1995 Henry Roth, known for his account of the immigrant experience in Call It Sleep, died at age 89. After his first novel he spent five decades on a variety of occupations before returning to writing and finishing four final novels prior to his death. (Two were published posthumously).

1997 American novelist James Michener died in Austin, TX at age 90 of kidney failure. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his first work of fiction, the story collection Tales of the South Pacific. He is also known for his well-researched, lengthy, and very popular works including Hawaii and Centennial.

1998 Cleveland Amory, youngest ever editor of the Saturday Evening Post, co-founder of the Humane Society of the United States, and author of several books about cats (particularly one named Polar Bear whom he took in in 1977) died of an aneurysm in New York at age 81.

2004 Welsh novelist and screenwriter Bernice Rubens, whose works included Madame Sousatzka, A Solitary Grief, and the Booker Prize-winning The Elected Member, died in London after a stroke at age 76.