Contributed by: Mark Woodard
May 1
Joseph Heller (1923) Catch-22
Bobbie Ann Mason (1940) The Girl in the Blue Beret
May 3
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469) The Prince
May 4
Amos Oz (1939) Jews and Words
Graham Swift (1949) Wish You Were Here, Mothering Sunday
David Guterson (1956) Snow Falling on Cedars, Our Lady of the Forest
May 5
Leo Lionni (1910) Swimmy, Theodore and the Talking Mushroom
May 7
Robert Browning (1812) Poet
May 8
Irene Hunt (1907) Across Five Aprils, Up a Road Slowly
Thomas Pynchon (1937) Gravity’s Rainbow, Inherent Vice
Peter Benchley (1940) Jaws
May 9
J.M. Barrie (1860) Peter Pan
Richard Adams (1920) Watership Down
Alan Bennett (1934) The Lady in the Van, The Uncommon Reader
May 11
Sheila Burnford (1918) The Incredible Journey
May 12
Edward Lear (1812) The Owl & the Pussycat, The Duck & the Kangaroo
May 13
Daphne du Maurier (1907) Rebecca, Jamaica Inn
Francine Pascal (1938) Sweet Valley Confidential series
Armistead Maupin (1944) Tales of the City series
May 15
Frank Baum (1856) The Wonderful Wizard of Oz series
Mikhail Bulgakov (1891) The Master and the Margarita
Norma Fox Mazer (1931) Has Anyone Seen My Emily Greene?
May 16
Studs Terkel (1912) American Dreams, Lost and Found, Working
Adrienne Rich (1929) Poet
Bruce Coville (1950) Moongobble and Me series, Unicorn Chronicles
May 17
Eloise Greenfield (1929) The Friendly Four, The Great Migration: Journey to the North
Gary Paulsen (1939) Hatchet series
May 18
Bertrand Russell (1872) Why I Am Not a Christian
Diane Duane (1952) Young Wizards series, Omnitopia Dawn
May 19
Lorraine Hansberry (1930) A Raisin in the Sun
Nora Ephron (1941) Heartburn, I Feel Bad About My Neck
May 20
Honore de Balzac (1799) Cousin Bette, Pere Goriot
May 21
Dante Alighieri (1265) Inferno, The Divine Comedy
Harold Robbins (1916) The Betsy, The Carpetbaggers
May 22
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859) Sherlock Holmes mysteries
Peter Matthiessen (1927) Shadow Country, In Paradise
May 23
Scott O’Dell (1898) Island of the Blue Dolphins, The King’s Fifth
Margaret Wise Brown (1910) Goodnight Songs, The Golden Bunny
May 25
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803) Poet and Essayist
Robert Ludlum (1927) The Jason Bourne series
Raymond Carver (1938) Where I’m Calling From Cathedral
Jamaica Kincaid (1949) A Small Place, See Now Then
May 27
Rachel Carson (1907) Silent Spring, Environmentalist
Herman Wouk (1915) The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War
Tony Hillerman (1925) Leaphorn & Chee mysteries
M.E. Kerr (1932) Edge, Snakes Don’t Miss Their Mothers
May 28
Ian Fleming (1908) James Bond 007 series
Walker Percy (1916) The Moviegoer, Second Coming
May 29
T.H. White (1929) The Once and Future King
Andrew Clements (1949) Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers of the School
May 31
Walt Whitman (1819) Poet, Leaves of Grass