Literature

Playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder was born on April 17, 1897, in Madison, Wisconsin.

Writer and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats was born on March 11, 1916, in Brooklyn, New York.

Horatio Alger, Jr. was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, on January 13, 1832.

One of the world’s first female war correspondents, Martha Ellis Gellhorn, was born on November 8, 1908, in St. Louis, Missouri.

Playwright and theater director Moss Hart was born on October 24, 1904, in New York City, New York.

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born on September 26, 1888, in St. Louis, Missouri.

Celebrated American author William Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897, in New Albany, Mississippi.  Known for using a wide range of styles, Faulkner explored America’s geography, history, economy, and social and moral life in his writing.

On September 24, 1966, the US Post Office introduced the American Folklore Series. 

American historian Francis Parkman was born on September 16, 1823, in Boston, Massachusetts.