Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94) 𝑻𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝑰𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅 and 𝑫𝒓.𝑱𝒆𝒌𝒚𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑴𝒓. 𝑯𝒚𝒅𝒆 (which he wrote in three days after a vivid dream). He collapsed while opening a bottle of wine, asking his wife 'Does my face look strange?', and died of a brain hemorrhage at age 44. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-81) He gave his first novel, 𝑷𝒐𝒐𝒓 𝑭𝒐𝒍𝒌, to some friends, who stayed up all night reading it. They pounded on his door at 4:00 AM to tell him that he'd written a masterpiece. He later said that was the happiest moment of his life. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

In 1960, after a jury finds publisher Penguin Books not guilty in an obscenity trial, the uncensored version of D. H. Lawrence's 𝑳𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒚'𝒔 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 finally goes on sale in the UK. Sales were brisk. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Albert Camus (1913-60) Born in Algeria, he moved to Paris in 1940 and finished 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 as tanks rolled into the city. "A writer cannot put himself today in the service of those who make history; he is at the service of those who suffer it." #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

In 1996 Spalding Gray's one-man play 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒂 𝑺𝒍𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝑺𝒍𝒐𝒑𝒆 opened. One critic wrote of Gray's style: "Spalding the storyteller. Spalding the mystical. Spalding the hilarious. Spalding the self-exposed, the professionally puzzled, the scared, the brave." #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

John Keats (1795-1821) He apprenticed in a hospital and even worked as a surgeon before turning to poetry. Tuberculosis forced him to Italy, where he fell in love with Fanny Brawne and did his best work. He died just as a poor review for 𝑬𝒏𝒅𝒚𝒎𝒊𝒐𝒏 was published. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

James Boswell (1740-95) He loved gossip and drinking, so he went to London, met his hero Samuel Johnson in the back of a bookshop and followed him around for the next 20 years. In 1791 he published 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑺𝒂𝒎𝒖𝒆𝒍 𝑱𝒐𝒉𝒏𝒔𝒐𝒏, the first truly personal biography. #booksky #writingccommunity #authors

Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (1914-53), born this day "I hold a beast, an angel and a madman in me, and my enquiry is as to their working, and my problem is their subjugation and victory, downthrow and upheaval, and my effort is their self-expression." #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

The birthday of Pat Conroy (1945-2016) 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑻𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒔, 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝑺𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒊, etc. Brilliant, lyrical, evocative and intense, he loved the written word unlike anyone I've ever read, and fostered the careers of so many writers, including my own. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Poet John Berryman (1914-72) As treatment for his mental struggles he logged his dreams. These became 𝑫𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔, his best work. A professor at the time, he committed suicide by jumping off a bridge at the U. of Minnesota as students walked by him to class. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

In 1958 Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) was awarded the Nobel Prize. Enraged, the Soviet Union's Communist Party forced him to decline it. His son finally accepted the award on his father's behalf in 1989. 𝑫𝒐𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓 𝒁𝒉𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒈𝒐 is now part of the Russian school curriculum. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

In 1964 French author Jean-Paul Sartre refused the Nobel Prize for Literature, stating that he did not believe that writers should be part of an institution. He also states that the award favored Western models and marginalized writers with different ideologies. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh (1904-67) - 𝑶𝒏 𝑹𝒂𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒏 𝑹𝒐𝒂𝒅 "The question of technique is not simply a matter of grammar and syntax or anything as easy as that. It has to do with the mystical. Real technique is a spiritual quality, a condition of mind..." #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

In 1955 Tolkien's 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒆𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈 was published. Its penultimate chapter, "The Scouring of the Shire", has been called the most important of the entire 𝑳𝑶𝑻𝑹 saga, containing a satire of socialism, allusions to the postwar era, and a nod to environmentalism #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Playwright Arthur Miller (1915-2005) While writing his play 𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝑺𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒏, he went to bed at night and realized that his face was wet from crying, and his throat was sore from speaking and shouting the lines of dialogue as he wrote. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) - Poet, playwright, novelist Imprisoned in 1895 for 'gross indecency', hard labor, hard food and a hard bed wore away his already delicate health. After release he wandered the streets of Paris alone and spent what little he had on drink. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Poet ee cummings (1894-1962) Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote "He offers for sale poetry which is...inexplicable to a person as intelligent as myself...What I propose is this: that you give Mr. Cummings enough rope. He may hang himself; or he may lasso a unicorn." #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Edward Albee’s 𝑾𝒉𝒐'𝒔 𝑨𝒇𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝑽𝒊𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒂 𝑾𝒐𝒐𝒍𝒇? premieres on Broadway in 1962. Albee who liked the sound of the pun, which he first heard at his favorite bar, and used it as his play’s title. In Prague, the play was billed as ‘Who’s Afraid of Franz Kafka?’ #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

In 1967 𝑩𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝑩𝒐𝒚 premiered as a play in Dublin, adapted from Brendan Behan's book. Behan had died three years earlier at age 41. While in New York he became friends with Arthur Miller and Bob Dylan, but his drinking intensified as he struggled with his fame. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

In 1946 Eugene O'Neill's play 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑰𝒄𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉, centering on a group of alcoholics in a boarding house above a saloon, premiered on Broadway, opening to mixed reviews. It's come to be seen as "a harsh and ruthless drama" and "one of America's greatest plays" #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Frank Herbert (1920-86) While writing an article about Oregon sand dunes he became enthralled by his research. He abandoned the article and wrote 𝑫𝒖𝒏𝒆, which was rejected by 23 publishers before a small press known mainly for its auto-repair manuals took a chance #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

In 1955, with Kerouac in attendance, Allen Ginsberg first read 𝑯𝒐𝒘𝒍 at a poetry reading in San Francisco. Ferlinghetti's City Lights Books published it and was brought to trial on obscenity charges, the judge ruling that it was of 'redeeming social importance.' #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

On this day two of William Faulkner's novels were published. He wrote 𝑨𝒔 𝑰 𝑳𝒂𝒚 𝑫𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 in six weeks in 1930 while working night shift at a power plant. But he then struggled mightily with 𝑳𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝑨𝒖𝒈𝒖𝒔𝒕 (1932), ripping out pages and changing his main characters. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Thomas Wolfe (1900-38) - 𝑳𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝑯𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅, 𝑨𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒍; 𝑶𝒇 𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓; 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝑪𝒂𝒏'𝒕 𝑮𝒐 𝑯𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝑨𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏 "Man is born to live, to suffer, and to die, and what befalls him is a tragic lot. There is no denying this in the final end. But we must deny it all along the way." #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

English novelist Graham Greene (1904-91) "Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation." #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Novelist Tim O'Brien, born 1946 - 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒅 "Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can’t remember how you got from where you were to where you are...when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story." #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Poet WS Merwin (1927-2019): I asked how can you ever be sure that what you write is really any good at all and he said you can't you can't you can never be sure you die without knowing whether anything you wrote was any good if you have to be sure don't write #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) He joined the Spanish Armada and wounded his left hand, never regaining its full use. Not the luckiest of men, pirates then captured and enslaved him. Upon returning home he was jailed for fraud. While there he began 𝑫𝒐𝒏 𝑸𝒖𝒊𝒙𝒐𝒕𝒆 #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

T.S. Eliot (1887-1965) Born in St. Louis, he moved to England in 1914 and became a British subject. Of his stormy marriage to Vivienne Haigh-Wood: "To her, the marriage brought no happiness. To me, it brought the state of mind out of which came 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆 𝑳𝒂𝒏𝒅" #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

William Faulkner (1897-1962) From his Nobel acceptance speech: "It is the poet's privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart...The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail." #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Back from Ireland where I presented at the Dublin International Writers Festival. I spoke on Why We Write. "We write to build community, to strip away the pains that plague us and find the purposes, the challenges of simply being alive." bit.ly/42EGFKQ #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Politically active Chilean poet Pablo Neruda died on this date in 1973. He was in the hospital and called his wife saying “they were giving him something that didn’t feel good." A few hours later he was dead. An investigation into his death is still ongoing. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Samuel Johnson (1709-84) At Oxford he often went barefoot because he couldn't afford to repair his shoes. Another student left a new pair of shoes by his door. Johnson was furious that students thought he was a charity case so he left school and started writing. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Ken Kesey (1935-2001) While at Stanford, he took part in a government research project on hallucinogenics. The LSD he was given stayed in his system, and one night he saw a vision of a tall Indian sweeping a floor. The result was 𝑶𝒏𝒆 𝑭𝒍𝒆𝒘 𝑶𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒖𝒄𝒌𝒐𝒐'𝒔 𝑵𝒆𝒔𝒕. #booksky #writingommunity #authors

On this date in 1896 Stephen Crane, then 24, left a New York brothel with two women on his arm. He falsely claimed one to be his wife but the other was arrested for prostitution. Crane's defense of her at her trial ruined his reputation. He died four years later. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) Author of more than 60 mysteries, most of which feature Hercule Poirot. But she grew tired of him, referring to him in her diary as "insufferable" and "an ego-centric creep." This led her to create a new protagonist, Miss Marple. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Roald Dahl (1916-90) As a boy he was sent to private boarding school, which he hated. But Cadbury had chosen his school to test new candies, so each child was given a box of 11 chocolate bars. This memory fueled his writing of 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒉𝒐𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝑭𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

In 1846 Elizabeth Barrett eloped with poet Robert Browning because her father, whose fortune stemmed from slave plantations in Jamaica, wouldn’t approve of her marriage. They moved to Italy, and when she died in 1861, Elizabeth's last word was "Beautiful" #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930) 𝑳𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒚'𝒔 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔 When he died most of his obituaries were unsympathetic. Writers like Forster and Huxley praised him, but it took the obscenity trials for 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒚 to ensure a lasting readership and reputation #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Poet Mary Oliver (1935-2019), National Book Award and Pulitzer winner for work "grounded in solitude and natural harmony." "You can have the other words—chance, luck, coincidence, serendipity. I’ll take grace. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I’ll take it." #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) His wife Sophia was the only one who could decipher his handwriting, so she ended up copying the 1400-page manuscript of 𝑾𝒂𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑷𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒆 at least 4 times. Their marriage has been described as "one of the unhappiest in literary history." #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

In 1952 Scribner's published Hemingway's 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑶𝒍𝒅 𝑴𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒆𝒂. It won the Pulitzer and was the only work specifically cited by the Swedish Academy when it awarded Hemingway the Nobel, noting his "powerful, style-making mastery of the art of modern narration". #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Auhors, sort of....In 1968 Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham make their debut as Led Zeppelin before about 1,200 students in Gladsaxe, Denmark. Plant's lyrics to "Stairway to Heaven" have been hailed as 'stunningly meditative.' Rock On. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Alice Sebold, born 1963 While in college she was attacked, dragged into an underground tunnel and raped. A previous victim in that tunnel had been murdered. Years later she wrote 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝑩𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔 about a 14-year old dead rape victim watching her family grieve. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

In 1957 Jack Kerouac's 𝑶𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒂𝒅 was published. He sat down at his kitchen table, wound a continuous roll of paper into a typewriter, turned on an all-night jazz radio station, and began to write it. It took 20 days to write and 6 years to find a publisher. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Novelist Richard Wright (1908-60) "I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all." #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

In 1980 Peter O’Toole returned to the stage in 𝑴𝒂𝒄𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒉. Spooked by play's legendary curse, he refused to let anyone in the cast say its name. Critics panned his performance, calling it "gruesome" and “heroically ludicrous.” Even so, the play had a successful run. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

The Great Fire of London ignited on this date in 1666, destroying 80% of the city. Diarist Samuel Pepys buried his wine and parmesan cheese to keep them safe, then scurried across the Thames to watch, giving us the most relevant account of the disaster. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950). Inspired by Darwin he wrote 𝑻𝒂𝒓𝒛𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒑𝒆𝒔. The first Tarzan movie in 1918 grossed more than $1 million and Tarzan become an icon for mass-market merchandise - Tarzan bathing suits, Tarzan ice cream, even Tarzan bread. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors

Novelist William Saroyan (1908-81) 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒅𝒚 et. al. The writer is a spiritual anarchist. He is discontented with everything and everybody...The writer who is a writer is a rebel who never stops. The role of art is to make a world which can be inhabited. #booksky #writingcommunity #authors