This Day in History

Novelist Edith Wharton collapsed from a heart attack at the home of Ogden Codman, a prominent architect and decorator

Novelist Edith Wharton collapsed from a heart attack at the home of Ogden Codman, a prominent architect and decorator. Wharton died from a stroke two months later.⁣ (June 01, 1937)

Victorian poet and novelist Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset, England

Victorian poet and novelist Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset, England. Among his poems, he is known for his novels, including Tess of D’Urbervilles, Far From the Madding Crowd, Jude the Obscure, and The Mayor of Casterbridge. (June 02, 1840)

Alexandre Dumas’ The Knight of Sainte-Hermine was published, 135 years after the author’s death

Alexandre Dumas’ The Knight of Sainte-Hermine was published, 135 years after the author’s death. The nearly finished novel was discovered in newspaper archives after it had been serialized in a French newspaper and later forgotten. Dumas historian Claude Schopp made the discovery when researching the author. Schopp said,”You can imagine my surprise when, among reels and reels of microfilmed archives, I stumbled upon an almost complete serialised novel, entitled The Knight of Sainte-Hermine, and signed by Alexandre Dumas.” The work was complete except for the last section and still reached over 900 pages long in total. (June 03, 2005)

Harlem Renaissance poet Arna Bontemps passed away from a heart attack in his home in Nashville

Harlem Renaissance poet Arna Bontemps passed away from a heart attack in his home in Nashville. Bontemps was a celebrated poet and novelist and collaborated once on a children’s book with Langston Hughes. (June 04, 1973)

Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe published her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin in serial form in the newspaper The National Era

Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe published her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin in serial form in the newspaper The National Era. The narrative was originally meant to be much shorter, but it was immediately popular and several protests were even staged when Stowe missed an issue. (June 05, 1852)

Young adult author Sarah Dessen was born in Evanston, Illinois

Young adult author Sarah Dessen was born in Evanston, Illinois. Dessen’s novel Along For the Ride was a best-seller, turning Dessen into a household name in young adult literature. (June 06, 1970)

Poet and author Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee

Poet and author Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. Giovanni is one of the world’s most popular poets, having won many prestigious awards including the Langston Hughes Medal, the NAACP Image Award, and a Grammy Award for spoken word. She was a contributing voice to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. (June 07, 1943)

Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins passed away from typhoid fever

Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins passed away from typhoid fever. Hopkins was a deeply religious man but struggled with prolonged bouts of depression and an overall melancholy nature. Ironically, his last words were, “I am so happy, I am so happy. I loved my life.” (June 08, 1889)

Poet, playwright, and actor John Howard Payne was born in New York City

Poet, playwright, and actor John Howard Payne was born in New York City. Payne led an eclectic life, but he is best remembered for penning the song “Home! Sweet Home!” (June 09, 1791)

Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winning author Saul Bellow was born in Lachine, Quebec

Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winning author Saul Bellow was born in Lachine, Quebec. Bellow was one of the most prominent and prestigious writers of the 20th century having won the National Book Ward for Fiction three times for his novels The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, and Ravelstein. (June 10, 1915)

Poet and playwright Ben Jonson was born in London, England

Poet and playwright Ben Jonson was born in London, England. Jonson was one of the most talented writers in English history, yet never fully emerged from the shadow cast by his contemporary, William Shakespeare. (June 11, 1572)

Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany

Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany. Anne received a diary for her thirteenth birthday, into which she recorded her thoughts after being hidden from the Nazis in a secret annex of her father’s office for a little over two years. Anne’s diary was published after her death in a concentration camp, becoming one of the most moving and widely read works of literature in the world. (June 12, 1929)

Abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in Litchfield, Connecticut

Abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in Litchfield, Connecticut. Stowe was a prolific writer having published more than 30 works in her lifetime but she is best remembered for her anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which fueled the anti-slavery forces leading up to the Civil War. (June 14, 1811)

Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward’s book, All the President’s Men, depicting their investigation into Watergate, was published by Simon and Schuster

Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward’s book, All the President’s Men, depicting their investigation into Watergate, was published by Simon and Schuster. Gene Roberts called the work “maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time.” (June 15, 1974)

June 16 is Bloomsday, a celebration based on Leopold Bloom’s first outing with his wife from James Joyce’s Ulysses

June 16 is Bloomsday, a celebration based on Leopold Bloom’s first outing with his wife from James Joyce’s Ulysses. The first Bloomsday was celebrated in Dublin in 1924. Since then, Bloomsday has been celebrated in Dublin and around the world in a celebration of James Joyce and Ulysses, including readings of the entire book and tours of different locations from the novel. (June 16, 1900)

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was published by William Heinemann

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart was published by William Heinemann. The book was the first widely read work of literature about Africans, by an African. Achebe was inspired to write his novel after feeling betrayed by Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Achebe loved Conrad’s novel as a child, but as he grew older he realized it portrayed Africans as savages and “rudimentary souls.” Finding no authentic African novels to read, Achebe set out to write his own. His work was groundbreaking in that it opened the eyes of readers around the world, resulting in the growth of world literature as a whole. (June 17, 1958)

Author Gail Godwin was born in Birmingham, Alabama

Author Gail Godwin was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Godwin is known for her novels, although she also writes short stories and libretti. Five of her more recent novels have become bestsellers and finalists for the National Book Award, including A Southern Family and A Mother and Two Daughters. (June 18, 1937)

Author Salman Rushdie was born in Bombay, India

Author Salman Rushdie was born in Bombay, India. Rushdie’s novels have made him a British treasure, but have sparked outrage among Muslims. The leader of Iran famously had a fatwā, an order of assassination, placed on Rushdie, prompting police protection. He has been living in America since 2000. (June 19, 1947)

Poet and dramatist Nicholas Rowe was born in Bedfordshire, England

Poet and dramatist Nicholas Rowe was born in Bedfordshire, England. Rowe was appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in 1715, but he is also believed to be one of the first editors of William Shakespeare’s plays, separating the works into acts and scenes and creating a dramatis personae for each play. (June 20, 1674)

Philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre was born in Paris, France

Philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre was born in Paris, France. Sartre was one of the key figures behind existentialism and Marxism. He is widely read in the fields of liteary theory, sociology, and critical theory. (June 21, 1905)

Novelist Dan Brown was born in Exeter, New Hampshire

Novelist Dan Brown was born in Exeter, New Hampshire. Brown’s The Da Vinci Code caused a sensation and controversy as an attack on the Catholic church. Nevertheless, the book has sold over 80 million copies and all of Brown’s books are international bestsellers. (June 22, 1964)

Russian poet Anna Akhmatova was born in the Odessa Empire (now part of Ukraine)

Russian poet Anna Akhmatova was born in the Odessa Empire (now part of Ukraine). Akhmatova’s poem Requiem depicts her life under Stalin’s regime, including the death of her husband and her son’s long imprisonment in a Soviet labor camp. Akhmatova was short-listed for the Nobel prize several times, although she never won. (June 23, 1889)

Writer and journalist Ambrose Bierce was born in Meigs County, Ohio

Writer and journalist Ambrose Bierce was born in Meigs County, Ohio. Bierce wrote the short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” as well as the book The Devil’s Dictionary, which has been called a masterpiece of American Literature. Aside from his fiction writing, Bierce excelled in journalism, as well as pioneering the genre of realist fiction in America. (June 24, 1842)

Eric Blair, known by his pen name as George Orwell, was born in Motihari, British-occupied India

Eric Blair, known by his pen name as George Orwell, was born in Motihari, British-occupied India. As a young man, Orwell became infatuated by socialist ideals, even attending meetings of the Communist Party for a short time. However, he became disillusioned by the party and focused his efforts on attacking totalitarianism governments through fiction. His novels 1984 and Animal Farm are widely read in schools and among regular readers. In fact, Orwell’s books have experienced a resurgence in readership in the past few years due to the growing tension in American politics. (June 25, 1903)

J

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was published in England. Rowling and her agent struggled to find a publisher for the story, but many deemed it too long for a children’s book at almost 90,000 words. However, Barry Cunningham, a publisher for Bloomsbury, insisted on publishing the book after his eight-year-old daughter called it “so much better than anything else.” The rest is history. (June 26, 1997)

Poet, novelist, and playwright Paul Lawrence Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio

Poet, novelist, and playwright Paul Lawrence Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio. Dunbar is best remembered for writing the lyrics for the musical In Dahomey, the first all-black musical produced on Broadway. Dunbar also wrote many poems and short stories. Unfortunately, Dunbar’s life was cut short by tuberculosis at the age of 33. (June 27, 1872)

Playwright and author Luigi Pirandello was born in Sicily

Playwright and author Luigi Pirandello was born in Sicily. Pirandello was a prolific writer of fiction and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934 for “his almost magical power to turn psychological analysis into good theatre.” (June 28, 1867)

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre burned down after a cannon blast in a performance of Henry VIII went awry

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre burned down after a cannon blast in a performance of Henry VIII went awry. Thankfully, a new theater was rebuilt in 1614 and eventually a replica appeared along the River Thames for modern Shakespeare lovers to enjoy! (June 29, 1613)

Czesław Miłosz, Polish poet, writer, and diplomat was born in what is now Lithuania

Czesław Miłosz, Polish poet, writer, and diplomat was born in what is now Lithuania. Miłosz worked in Warsaw under the Nazis but secretly helped several Jews escape from his government. In 1953 his book, The Captive Mind, discussed how captives behave under an oppressive government and criticized Stalin and all forms of totalitarianism. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980. (June 30, 1911)