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Happy Birthday to Michael Walter, December 31
Nicholas Sparks was born December 31, 1965 in Omaha, Nebraska. Read Orrin's review of The Notebook (1996) (Nicholas Sparks 1965-)
Andrew Johnson (1808-1875) was born in Raleigh, NC on December 29, 1808.
William Gaddis (1922-1998), perhaps the greatest unread author of the past half century, was born in New York, NY on December 29, 1922. His masterpiece, The Recognitions, is a little forbidding--it even has an online readers guide: A READER'S
GUIDE TO WILLIAM GADDIS'S The Recognitions (Steven Moore). But Brothers Judd heartily recommends his National Book Award winning A Frolic of His Own.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), 1907 Nobel Laureate, was born in Bombay, India on December 30, 1865. Read Orrin's reviews of Kim (1901) (Grade: A), Stories and Poems of Rudyard Kipling (Grade: A+), and The Jungle Books (1894) (Grade: A)
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was born in Staunton, VA on December 28, 1856. He had the two worst traits a President of the United States can have: he was naive and he was a hater.
Earl "Fatha" Hines (1903-83) was born in Duquesne, PA on December 28, 1903. Dryfoos recommends his seminal collaboration with Louis Armstrong Hot Fives and Sevens
Charles Portis (1933-) was born in El Dorado, AR on December 28, 1933. Read Orrin's review of True Grit (1968)
Henry Miller (1891-1980) was born in New York, NY on December 26, 1891. Read Orrin's review of Tropic of Cancer (1934)(Grade: F)
Thomas Gray (1716-1771) was born in London, ENG on December 26, 1716. His greatest poem and one of the best English poems ever is Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751)
Jimmy Buffett (1946-) was born in Pascogoula, MS on December 25, 1946.
Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) was born in New York, NY on December 25, 1899. Brothers Judd particularly recommends The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), The Maltese Falcon (1941) and The Big Sleep (1946).
Cab Calloway (1907-94) was born in Rochester, NY on December 25, 1907. Brothers Judd recommends Are You Hep to the Jive?
William the Conqueror was crowned King of England on December 25, 1066. Read Orrin's review of The
Golden Warrior: the Story of Harold and William (1949)(Hope Muntz) (Grade: A)
I.F. "Isidor Feinstein" Stone (1907-89) was born in Philadelphia, PA on December 24, 1907. After 60 years trading on an independent image as a left-wing muckraker, he has been revealed in recent years as a Soviet agent. Read Orrin's review of The Trial of Socrates (1988) (Grade: B-)
Supposedly, it was on December 24, 1822 that Clement Moore (1779-1863) wrote his famous Christmas poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas," better known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas." See Orrin's review of Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous (2000)(Donald W. Foster) (Grade: A)
Juan Ramon Jimenez (1881-1958), Spanish poet and 1956 Nobel Laureate, was born in Moguer, Spain on December 24, 1881. Read Orrin's review of The Complete Perfectionist: A Poetics of Work (1997)(Juan Ramon Jimenez 1881-1958) (edited and translated by Christopher Maurer) (Grade: C+)
Fritz Leiber (1910-92) was born on December 24, 1910. Brothers Judd recommends his The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser (Lankhmar Series)
Joseph Smith (1805-44), founder of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints, was born in Sharon, VT on December 23, 1805. You can check out the
Book of Mormon online and Brothers Judd recommends American Prophet: The Story of Joseph Smith (1999) (Heidi S. Swinton), the companion volume to the recent PBS film.
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896-1957) was born in Palermo, Sicily
on December 23, 1896. He is remembered for his posthumous novel The Leopard (1958).
Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)was born in Maine on December 22, 1869. Read Orrin's review of Selected
Poems of Edward Arlington Robinson (1869-1935) (Grade: C+)
Heinrich Boll (1917-) was born in Cologne, GER on December 21, 1917. Brothers Judd recommends The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum: Or How Violence Develops and Where It Can Lead (1974)
Anthony Powell (1905-75) was born in London, ENG on December 21, 1905. Read Orrin's review of A Dance to the Music of Time (Grade: B-)
Cicily Isabel Fairfield (Rebecca West), (1892-1983) was born in London, ENG on December 21, 1892. Brothers Judd recommends her classic travelogue Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia (1941) and read Orrin's reviews of 1900 (1982)(Grade: A-) and The Return of the Soldier (1918) (Grade: A+)
Steven Spielberg (1946- ) was born in Cincinnati, OH on December 18, 1946. Read Orrin's review of Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)
Alfred Bester was born December 18, 1913. Brothers Judd recommends The Demolished Man (1953)(Alfred Bester 1913-87).
William Safire (1929-) was born in New York, NY on December 17, 1929. Brothers Judd recommends Freedom: A Novel of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.
Penelope (Knox) Fitzgerald, was born on December 17, 1916. Brothers Judd recommends Offshore (1979)(Penelope Fitzgerald 1916-2000).
Ford Madox Ford (Ford Herman Hueffer)(1873-1939) was born in Surrey, UK on December 17, 1873. Read Orrin's review of The Good Soldier (1915) (Grade: B-)
Philip K. Dick (1928-82) was born on December 16, 1928. Read Orrin's review of Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep) (1968)(Grade: B-)
Ludwig Van Beethoven was born December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany.
Jane Austen was born in 1775 in Steventon. UK on December 16, 1775.
Betty Smith (1904-) was born in Brooklyn, NY on December 15, 1904. Brothers Judd recommends A
Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943).
Theodore Weiss (1916-), poet and editor of the Quarterly
Review of Literature, was born in Reading, PA on December 15, 1916. Read his poem: An Everlasting Once
Robert Duvall(1931-) was born in San Diego, CA on January 5, 1931. Brothers Judd particularly recommends his less well known star turn in Tender Mercies (1983) The Apostle (1997) (directed by Robert Duvall 1931-)
Umberto Eco (1932-) was born in Allessandria, Italy on January 5, 1932. Brothers Judd recommends his medieval mystery The Name of the Rose (1981)
Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was born in Woolsthorpe, ENG on January 4, 1643.
Jakob (Ludwig Karl) Grimm (1785-1863) was born in Hanau, GER on January 4, 1785. There's an interesting Red Riding Hood site online.
J.R.R. [John Ronald Reuel ] Tolkein (1892-1973) was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa on January 3, 1892. Read Orrin's review ofThe Lord of the Rings [The Hobbit (1937), The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King (1948)](J.R.R. [John Ronald Reuel] Tolkien 1892-1973) (Grade: A+)
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) was born on January 2, 1920. Read Orrin's review of The Foundation Trilogy (Grade: A-)
J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972) was born in Washington, DC on January 1, 1895.
E.M. [Edward Morgan] Forster (1879-1970) was born in London, ENG on January 1, 1879. Read Orrin's reviews of A Passage to India (1924)(Grade: B) and Aspects of the Novel (1927)(Grade: A-)
Shelby Steele (1946-) was born on January 1, 1946. Read Orrin's review of The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America (1990)
J.D. [Jerome David] Salinger (1919-) was born in New York, NY on January 1, 1919. Read Orrin's reviews of The Catcher in the Rye (1951)(Grade: A+) and Franny and Zooey (1961)(Grade: A+)
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 B.C.-43 BC) was born at Arpinum on January 3, 106 B.C.
J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972) was born in Washington, DC on January 1, 1895.
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