Curated category
20th-century American short story writers
- Stephen KingStephen Edwin King was born on the 21st of September 1947 in Portland, Maine. His father Donald Edwin King worked as a traveling vacuum salesman after…
- Mark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens was born on the 30th of November 1835, in Florida, Missouri. He grew up as the sixth of seven children to Jane Lampton and John…
- F. Scott FitzgeraldFrancis Scott Key Fitzgerald arrived in the world on the 24th of September 1896. He was born into a middle-class Catholic family in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
- Ernest HemingwayErnest Miller Hemingway was born on the 21st of July 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois. He grew up as the second of six children to Clarence Edmonds Hemingway and…
- Tennessee WilliamsThomas Lanier Williams III arrived in Columbus, Mississippi on the 26th of March 1911. He was the second child born to Edwina Dakin and Cornelius Coffin…
- William FaulknerWilliam Cuthbert Faulkner was born on the 25th of September 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi. He grew up in Oxford, a town where his family lived for most of…
- John SteinbeckJohn Steinbeck was born on the 27th of February 1902 in Salinas, California. He grew up in a small rural valley set about 25 miles from the Pacific Coast.
- Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis on the 11th of November 1922. He descended from a long line of German Americans whose family fortune rested on the…
- Langston HughesJames Mercer Langston Hughes entered the world on the 1st of February 1901, in Joplin, Missouri. His family tree held deep roots of contradiction and…
- Vernor VingeVernor Steffen Vinge published his first short story, "Apartness", in the June 1965 issue of the British magazine New Worlds. He had just received his B.S.
- Saul BellowSolomon Bellows arrived in the world on the 10th of June 1915, within the quiet streets of Lachine, Quebec. His parents had fled Saint Petersburg, Russia…
- Jack LondonJohn Griffith London arrived in San Francisco on the 12th of January 1876. His mother Flora Wellman worked as a music teacher and spiritualist while living…
- Philip K. DickPhilip Kindred Dick was born on the 16th of December 1928 in Chicago, Illinois. He arrived six weeks prematurely alongside his twin sister Jane Charlotte…
- Arthur MillerArthur Asher Miller was born on the 17th of October 1915 in Harlem, Manhattan. He grew up as the second child of Augusta and Isidore Miller.
- H. P. LovecraftHoward Phillips Lovecraft was born on the 20th of August 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island. His father Winfield Scott Lovecraft suffered a psychotic episode…
- Ralph EllisonRalph Waldo Ellison was born on the 1st of March 1913 in Oklahoma City. His father Lewis Alfred worked as a construction foreman and small-business owner…
- Joseph HellerJoseph Heller was born on the 1st of May 1923, in Coney Island. His parents were poor Jewish immigrants from Russia named Lena and Isaac Donald Heller.
- John JakesJohn William Jakes entered the world on the 31st of March 1932, in Chicago, Illinois. His early years unfolded within a city that would later shape his…
- George R. R. MartinGeorge Raymond Martin was born on the 20th of September 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey. His father worked as a longshoreman while his mother's family had once…
- Joe ShusterJoseph Shuster was born on the 10th of July 1914 in Toronto, Ontario. His father Julius ran a tailor shop in the city's garment district while his mother Ida…
- L. Sprague de CampLyon Sprague de Camp was born on the 27th of November 1907 in New York City. He grew up as one of three sons to Lyon de Camp, a businessman dealing in real…
- Lin CarterLinwood Vrooman Carter stood in the infantry during the Korean War from 1951 to 1953. He served as a soldier before he ever became a professional author.
- Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov arrived in the United States on the 3rd of February 1923, aboard the RMS Baltic at age three. His family traveled from Petrovichi, Russian SFSR…
- Timothy ZahnTimothy Zahn grew up in Lombard, Illinois during the mid-20th century. He attended Glenbard East High School within that same town.
- Ambrose BierceAmbrose Gwinnett Bierce was born in a log cabin at Horse Cave Creek in Meigs County, Ohio on the 24th of June 1842. He entered the world as the tenth child…
- Robert E. HowardRobert E. Howard was born on the 22nd of January 1906 in Peaster, Texas. His father worked as a traveling country physician while his mother raised him in a…
- Roger ZelaznyRoger Joseph Zelazny was born in Euclid, Ohio on the 13th of May 1937. He grew up as the only child of a Polish immigrant father and an Irish-American mother.
- Raymond BensonRaymond Benson was born in Midland, Texas, in 1955, a place known for its oil fields and wide-open skies, far removed from the smoky London clubs and exotic…
- Fritz LeiberFritz Leiber Jr. entered the world on the 24th of December 1910, in Chicago, Illinois. He was born to actors Fritz Leiber and Virginia Bronson Leiber.