Here are seven author birthdays for this week.
Check out which authors are your favorites, and find out who shares your day.
You can find and buy the books relating to our author birthdays at the LitStack Bookshop on our list of Sharon’s Birthday Picks.
In This Week’s Author Birthdays:
Douglas Adams – March 11
On this day, March 11, in 1952, hospital porter, barn builder, chicken shed cleaner and bodyguard, Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge, England. When not holding odd jobs, he also was a writer. One night, while he lay drunk in a field in Innsbruck, Austria gazing at the stars and clutching a copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Europe, he had the thought that someone should write The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. So he did.
His Guide – which would become a “trilogy in five volumes” – started out as a radio series, then became a television series, a major motion picture and one of the most hallowed cult bibles of all time. Adams died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack in 2001, at age 49.
Jack Kerouac – March 12
On this day, March 12, in 1922, Jack Kerouac, one of the defining members of the Beat Generation, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. The son of French Canadians, he spoke only French until age six and was not confident in English until he was a teen – he purportedly began writing On the Road in French.
On the Road, his iconic book about his road trip across America and Mexico and the relationships that influenced him, was written in three weeks, with a final draft completed in 20 days, but it took 6 more years before it was published, due to its unconventional writing style and its (for the time) graphic and unfettered subject matter.
Kerouac died at age 47 of internal hemorrhaging caused by cirrhosis, the result of a lifetime of heavy drinking.
Ridley Pearson – March 13
On this day, March 13, in 1953, Ridley Pearson was born in Glen Cove, New York. Author (so far) of over 50 books, many of them suspense novels and adventure books for children, he has garnered much acclaim for the series of books he wrote with humorist Dave Barry, collectively known as Peter and the Starcatchers.
This prequel to the Peter Pan legend was prompted when his daughter asked him how Peter and Captain Hook had come to know each other, and the books were made into a play (written by Rick Elice), which premiered on Broadway in early 2012; it earned an astonishing 5 Tony awards. He currently lives and writes in St. Louis, Missouri; today he turns 71.
Tad Williams – March 14
On this day, March 14, in 1957, Tad Williams was born in San Jose, California. His epic fantasies, including the Otherland series, the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series, the Shadowmarch series, and standalone novels such as The War of the Flowers, have not only captured countless imaginations, but have influenced writers such as Christopher Paolini, Patrick Rothfuss and George R.R. Martin (Martin even put a reference to Williams in A Game of Thrones, establishing House Willum, whose characters’ names come from Williams’ The Dragonbone Chair).
Williams also has written numerous short stories, has penned multiple story lines for DC Comics, and even has been cartographer for the maps found in his books. He also does weekly live readings on Facebook! Today, he turns 67.
Ben Okri – March 15
On this day, March 15, in 1959, Ben Okri was born in Minna, Nigeria. A member of the Urhobo people of the Delta State in Nigeria, he moved with his parents to London when he was less than two, returning to Nigeria when he was nine. As a writer, some of his early works were critical of the government and led him to flee the country; returning to England he was homeless for a time but that merely intensified his desire to continue writing.
He published his first novel, Flowers and Shadows, at age 21, and eleven years later was awarded the Man Booker Prize for his novel The Famished Road. Now the author of 12 novels and 14 volumes of poetry, today he turns 65.
Alice Hoffman – March 16
On this day, March 16, in 1952, Alice Hoffman was born in New York City. Having been an author since the age of 21, she now has 31 novels, 12 books for children and young adults, and a book of short stories under her belt, most of which fall under the genre of magical realism.
Her most popular book, Practical Magic, was made into a 1998 film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, and her novel The Dovekeepers, which many consider to be her masterpiece, was made into a television mini-series which aired in 2015. Ms. Hoffman currently resides in Boston; today she turns 72.
William Gibson – March 17
On this day, March 17, in 1948, William Gibson was born in Conway, South Carolina. Coining the term “cyberspace” in a short story published in 1982, he went on to become the leading voice in the speculative fiction subgenre of cyberpunk. His first novel, Neuromancer, which tells the story of a washed up computer hacker, won the Nebula Award, the Phillip K. Dick Award and the Hugo Award – the first novel to win this science fiction “triple crown”.
His 2014 novel The Peripheral is the basis of the television series of the same name broadcast on Amazon Prime 2022, to name just a few pop culture iconographies that can be attributed to his imagination. Holding a dual American/Canadian citizenship, today he turns 76.
Other LitStack Resources
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