Curated category
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- 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…
- Theodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt Jr. was born on the 27th of October 1858, at 28 East 20th Street in Manhattan. His youth was defined by debilitating asthma attacks that…
- Henry JamesHenry James was born at 21 Washington Place in Manhattan on the 15th of April 1843. His father Henry James Sr. inherited a fortune from his own father…
- 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…
- Marcel DuchampHenri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp was born on the 28th of July 1887 in Rouen, France. He grew up in a household where art was not merely a hobby but a family…
- 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…
- Woodrow WilsonIn 1856, a child named Woodrow Wilson stood near the front gate of his family's parsonage in Augusta, Georgia. He was three years old when he heard a…
- Ezra PoundEzra Weston Loomis Pound was born on the 30th of October 1885 in a two-story clapboard house in Hailey, Idaho Territory.
- Eugene O'NeillEugene Gladstone O'Neill was born on the 16th of October 1888, inside the Barrett House hotel located at Longacre Square in New York City.
- 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.
- W. H. AudenWystan Hugh Auden was born at 54 Bootham in York, England, on the 21st of February 1907. His father George Augustus Auden worked as a physician while his…
- William JamesWilliam James entered the world on the 11th of January 1842 at the Astor House in New York City. His father Henry James Sr held an independently wealthy…
- 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…
- Jonathan FranzenJonathan Earl Franzen was born on the 17th of August 1959 in Western Springs, Illinois. He grew up in an affluent neighborhood in the St.
- Joseph CampbellIn 1929, Joseph Campbell moved into a rented shack in Woodstock, New York. The structure lacked running water and relied on scattered wells for its supply.
- 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.
- Upton SinclairUpton Beall Sinclair Jr. entered the world on the 20th of September 1878, in Baltimore, Maryland. His father worked as a liquor salesman while his mother…
- Maxwell AndersonJames Maxwell Anderson entered the world on the 15th of December 1888, in Atlantic, Pennsylvania. He was the second of eight children born to William Lincoln…
- Junot Díazthe 31st of December 1968 marked the birth of Junot Díaz in Santo Domingo. His family moved to Parlin, New Jersey six years later.
- W. E. B. Du BoisWilliam Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on the 23rd of February 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. His mother Mary Silvina Burghardt came from a…
- C. Vann WoodwardComer Vann Woodward entered the world on the 13th of November 1908 in Vanndale, Arkansas. This small town served as the county seat from 1886 until 1903 and…
- E. L. DoctorowEdgar Lawrence Doctorow was born on the 6th of January 1931 in the Bronx. His parents were Rose and David Richard Doctorow, second-generation Americans of…
- Shelby FooteShelby Dade Foote Jr. was born on the 17th of November 1916 in Greenville, Mississippi. His father worked for Armour and Company, moving the family from…
- Stephen GreenblattStephen Jay Greenblatt arrived in the world on the 7th of November 1943. He grew up in Newton, Massachusetts after his family moved from Boston.
- Harold BloomHarold Bloom was born on the 11th of July 1930 in New York City. He grew up at 1410 Grand Concourse in the Bronx. His parents were Paula and William Bloom.
- John Stewart BellJohn Stewart Bell was born on the 28th of July 1928 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He grew up in a working class family where financial hardship defined daily…
- Padraic ColumPadraic Colum entered the world on the 8th of December 1881 inside a County Longford workhouse. His father worked there as an employee while his mother Susan…
- Bruce CattonCharles Bruce Catton was born on the 9th of October 1899 in Petoskey, Michigan. He grew up in Benzonia, a small town where his father served as headmaster of…
- Nicholas Murray ButlerNicholas Murray Butler was born on the 2nd of April 1862 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. His father Henry worked as a manufacturing worker while his mother Mary…