Notable August-Born Authors

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August Authors in the Spotlight

Happy Birthday to Notable Authors born in August! 
Click on the links to read reviews.
August 1, 1819
Herman Melville
Famous for Moby-Dick (1851), a whale of a book that produced bipolar reactions of being wholeheartedly panned, then enthusiastically praised. Read my review to find out what I thought about it. 
August 2, 1942
Isabel Allende
Famous for adventurous family sagas such as House of Spirits (1985), Daughter of Fortune (1999), and Zorro (2005), Allende’s version of the legendary masked man. 
August 4, 1841
W.H. Hudson
Famous for Green Mansions (1904), about a man who escapes to the forests of Guyana and forms a relationship with Rima, the mysterious girl who sings like a bird.  This book is definitely different—at times magical and strange, but interesting nonetheless.
    
August 8, 1896
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Famous for The Yearling (1938), about a poor Florida family in the late 1800s and a naughty deer that turns from pet to pest.

August 9, 1927
Daniel Keyes
Famous for Flowers for Algernon (1959), a book about a little mouse that made a big difference to a man named Charlie.  Get out the tissues. Unforgettable.   
August 10, 1952
Suzanne Collins
Famous for The Hunger Games trilogy (2008-2010), in which kids must fight to the death for entertainment—an updated version of Roman gladiators, and although I didn’t really want to read it (but did for my book club), it turned out to be more intriguing than morbid. 
August 15, 1885
Edna Ferber
Famous for many books that were turned into movies, theater productions, or musicals including Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big (1924), Cimarron (1929), Giant (1952), Ice Palace (1958), Saratoga Trunk (1941), and Showboat (1926), a book I really enjoyed.
August 19, 1930
Frank McCourt
Famous for his humorous and heart-breaking memoir, Angela’s Ashes (1996).
August 27, 1871
Theodore Dreiser
Famous for An American Tragedy (1925), and Sister Carrie (1900), about a woman's rise from rags to riches, and the people she stomps on to get there.
August 27, 1899
C.S. Forester
Famous for his Horatio Hornblower series and The African Queen (1935), about an austere spinster and a crude skipper who make their way through the African jungle during WWI. I loved this book and the way Rose and Allnutt’s relationship developed.

August 30, 1797
Mary Shelley
Famous for being a homewrecker and penning the classic, Frankenstein (1818). Read more about the adventures of Mary and Franky in my review.
August 31, 1908
William Saroyan
Famous for the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Time of Your Life (1939), and novels such as My Name Is Aram (1940), and The Human Comedy (1943) about a telegraph messenger during WWII.

Happy Reading,
Annette



Comments

Monica's Bookish Life said…
A great post with several writers whose books I want to try, especially, Rawlings, Ferber, and Shelley!
August 3, 2015 at 10:39 AM
Reading in the Garden said…
Thanks for the comment! I really did enjoy "The Yearling," "Showboat," and "Frankenstein" and the others. Ahhhhh, so many books, so little time!
August 4, 2015 at 5:30 AM
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