June 1

Colleen McCullough (1937) The Thorn Birds, Bittersweet

 

June 2

Thomas Hardy (1840) Tess of the D’urbervilles, Jude the Obscure, Far from the Madding Crowd

Dorothy West (1907) The Wedding, The Richer, the Poorer

 

June 3

Allen Ginsberg (1926) Poet, Howl

Larry McMurtry (1936) Lonesome Dove, Texasville, The Last Picture Show

 

June 5

Federico García Lorca (1898) Poet, Bodas de Sangre, Poet in New York

Richard Scarry (1919) Busy World series

Ken Follett (1949) Pillars of the Earth, Eye of the Needle

 

June 6

Thomas Mann (1875) The Magic Mountain, Buddenbrooks, Death in Venice

Maxine Kumin (1925) Poet, children’s author

Cynthia Rylant (1954) Henry and Mudge series, Mr. Putter and Tabby series

 

June 7

Nikki Giovanni (1943) Poet, Acolytes, Rosa

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917) Poet, We Are Shining, In Montgomery

 

June 8

Sara Paretsky (1947) V.I. Warshawski mystery series

 

June 9

Kate Petty (1951) Kate the Great series, Ha Ha Baby

Patricia Cornwell (1956) Kay Scarpetta mystery series

 

June 10

Saul Bellow (1915) The Adventures of Augie March, Humboldt’s Gift

Maurice Sendak (1928) Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen

 

June 11

William Styron (1925) The Confessions of Nat Turner, Sophie’s Choice

 

June 12

Johanna Spyri (1829) Heidi

Anne Frank (1929) The Diary of a Young Girl

Rona Jaffe (1932) The Best of Everything, Mazes and Monsters

 

June 13

William Butler Yeats (1865) Poet

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893) Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries

 

June 14

Harriet Beecher Stowe(1811) Uncle Tom’s Cabin

John Bartlett (1820) Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations

Jerzy Kosinski (1933) Being There

John Edgar Wideman (1941) Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File

 

June 15

Brian Jacques (1939) Redwall series

 

June 16

John Howard Griffin (1920) Black Like Me

Erich Segal (1937) Love Story, Oliver’s Story

Joyce Carol Oates (1938) We Were the Mulvaneys, Smooth Talk

 

June 17

James Weldon Johnson (1871) The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, The Creation

John Hersey (1914) A Bell for Adano, Hiroshima

 

June 18

Gail Godwin (1937) Evenings at Five, Unfinished Desires

Chris Van Allsburg (1949) The Polar Express, Jumanji

 

June 19

Tobias Wolff (1945) This Boy’s Life, Old School

Salman Rushdie (1947) Midnight’s Children, The Satanic Verses

 

June 20

Lillian Hellman (1905) Playwright, The Children’s Hour, The Little Foxes

 

June 21

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905) Philosopher, Playwright, No Exit, Being and Nothingness

Mary McCarthy (1912) The Group, The Company She Keeps

Ian McEwan (1948) On Chesil Beach, Atonement, Saturday

 

June 22

Erich Maria Remarque (1898) All Quiet on the Western Front

Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906) Gift From the Sea, Against Wind and Tide

Octavia E. Butler (1947) Parable of the Sower, Mind of My Mind, Clay’s Ark

 

June 23

Jean Anouilh (1910) Playwright, Antigone, The Lark, Becket

David Leavitt (1961) The Two Hotel Francforts, The Man Who Knew Too Much

 

June 24

Ambrose Bierce (1842) The Devil’s Dictionary

 

June 25

George Orwell (1903) 1984, Animal Farm

Dorothy Gilman (1924) Mrs. Pollifax mysteries

Eric Carle (1929) The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Busy Spider, The Very Quiet Cricket

 

June 26

Pearl S. Buck (1892) The Good Earth, The Eternal Wonder

Colin Wilson (1931) The Outsider, Supernatural: Your Guide Through the Unexplained, the Unearthly, and the Unknown

 

June 27

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872) Poet, Lyrics of Lowly Life

Helen Keller (1880) The Story of My Life, The World I Live In

Frank O’Hara (1926) Poet, Lunch Poems, Meditations in an Emergency

Lucille Clifton (1936) Poet, Blessing the Boats, Good Woman

Alice McDermott (1953) That Night, Charming Billy

 

June 28

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712) Philosopher, The Social Contract

Mark Helprin (1947) Winter’s Tale, Freddy and Fredericka

 

June 29

Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900) The Little Prince

 

June 30

David McPhail (1940) Ben Loves Bear, Baby Pig Pig Walks