Curated playlist
American children's writers
- Mark TwainMark Twain predicted he would die with Halley's Comet, and he did. He died the day after it passed closest to the Sun.
- Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut survived the bombing of Dresden by hiding in an underground meat locker.
- Nathaniel HawthorneNathaniel Hawthorne paid $100 to print his first novel, then tried to suppress every surviving copy.
- Jamie Lee CurtisJamie Lee Curtis accepted a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the 78th Venice International Film Festival in September 2021, and she did not sound like a person winding down. "I feel so alive, like I'm this 14-year-old person just…
- Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin was eleven years old when she mailed her first short story to Astounding Science Fiction. The magazine sent it back. She then submitted nothing else for ten years. Nearly sixty years of publishing lay ahead of her after…
- Kelly ClarksonKelly Clarkson's first single debuted at number 60 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. The following week it rose to number 52. Then it shot to number one, breaking a record for the biggest leap to the top that The Beatles had…
- Maria ShriverMaria Shriver was volunteering on her father's 1972 vice presidential campaign when she was sent to the back of the campaign plane, where the reporters sat. In her 2000 book, Ten Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out Into The Real…
- Lupita Nyong'oAfter her Oscar, Lupita Nyong'o says she was offered another slave role, this time on a slave ship.
- Hamilton Wright MabieHamilton Wright Mabie passed the bar exam but hated practicing law. In 1879 he started writing for a magazine.
- Jimmy BuffettJimmy Buffett's first album, Down to Earth, sold just 324 copies after it appeared in August 1970. Decades later, he had sold over 20 million certified records worldwide. James William Buffett became a singer-songwriter, a bestselling…
- Ingri and Edgar Parin d'AulaireA near-fatal bus-trolley collision in Paris sent two artists to America.
- Padraic ColumPadraic Colum was born Patrick Columb in a County Longford workhouse, where his father held a job. That was the 8th of December 1881. He died on the 11th of January 1972, aged 90. By then he had published 61 books, not counting his plays.…
- Mark CubanIn 2002, Mark Cuban told the world that the NBA's manager of officials, Ed T. Rush, "wouldn't be able to manage a Dairy Queen." The restaurant chain took offense. Its management answered with an invitation to prove the point. Cuban…