Nov. 30: Mark Twain, American writer and humorist

BORN NOVEMBER 30:

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910) American author of novels such as Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, as well as short stories like "The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyberg" and "The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." Thought by the uninitiated to be "merely" a writer of "boys' novels," he was also a scathing social critic and entertaining travel writer. An American original.

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Nov. 29: C. S. Lewis, British writer and lay theologian

BORN NOVEMBER 29:

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) British novelist, poet, essayist, and lay theologian, as well as a professor at both Oxford and Cambridge, and a chum of Tolkien. Though best known for his series like The Chronicles of Narnia and The Space Trilogy, his explicitly theological works (Mere Christianity; The Screwtape Letters) were also popular. The Allegory of Love reflects his work as a medievalist.

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Nov. 28: William Blake, English poet, artist, and mystic

BORN NOVEMBER 28:

William Blake (1757-1827) English poet and artist; also something of a mystic, as reflected in both his writings and his illustrations. He wrote Songs of Innocence and of Experience; The Marriage of Heaven and Hell; "Jerusalem" ("And did these feet...?"); Milton; and much more.

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Nov. 27: James Agee, American writer

BORN NOVEMBER 27:

James Agee (1909-1955) American author, poet, and critic; wrote the autobiographical A Death in the Family earning him a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1958; and the text for a book of Walker Evans's Depression-era photos, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.

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Nov. 26: Eugene Ionesco, Romanian-French writer

BORN NOVEMBER 26:

Eugene Ionesco (1909-1994) Romanian-French playwright; The Bald Soprano; The Killer; Rhinoceros. Born in Romania but spending much of his life in France, he wrote mostly in French. The Bald Soprano has been called an "anti play" (as have others), an absurdist work which avoids such unnecessary details of drama as coherent plot and resolution.

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Nov. 25: Joseph Wood Krutch, American writer

BORN NOVEMBER 25:

Joseph Wood Krutch (1893-1970) American writer, critic, and naturalist whose nature books on the American Southwest include The Desert Year; he also wrote The Twelve Seasons and The Measure of Man.

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Nov. 24: Scott Joplin, American musician and composer

BORN NOVEMBER 24:

Scott Joplin (1868-1917) African-American composer and pianist known as the "King of Ragtime" for writing over 100 ragtime pieces. He was brought out of relative obscurity by new recordings of his work in the early 1970s, and also partially due to the use of his "The Entertainer" and other pieces by composer Marvin Hamlisch for the 1973 film The Sting. His opera Treemonisha was produced in full for the first time in 1972, leading to a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1976.

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Nov. 23: Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Bengali writer

BORN NOVEMBER 23:

Nirad C. Chaudhuri (1897-1999) Indian Bengali-English writer decorated by Queen Elizabeth II; works include The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian, an intimate view of his life: born under the British Raj and written when he was 50 years old, four years after independence; and The Continent of Circe has essays on Hindu society from Prehistory to modern times.

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Nov. 22: George Eliot, English novelist

BORN NOVEMBER 22:

George Eliot (1819-1880) English novelist born Mary Ann Evans who used a pen name to avoid gender stereotyping. She wrote Adam Bede; The Mill on the Floss; Silas Marner; Middlemarch; Daniel Deronda; and two others, as well as poetry and articles.

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Nov. 21: Voltaire, French philosopher and satirist

BORN NOVEMBER 21:

Voltaire (1694-1778) French philosopher and satirist born François-Marie Arouet; his pen name may be based on an anagram of his surname. He was famed for his wit, his criticism of the Church, and his advocacy of such Enlightenment values as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state. Known especially for Candide, as well as Micromégas, Zadig, and others.

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Nov. 20: Nadine Gordimer, South African writer and political activist

BORN NOVEMBER 20:

Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014) South African writer and anti-apartheid political activist remembered for The Conservationist; Burger's Daughter; and July's People; Nobel Prize in Literature (1991). The Nobel Committee stated that "her magnificent epic writing has ... been of very great benefit to humanity."

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Nov. 19: Allen Tate, American writer

BORN NOVEMBER 19:

Allen Tate (1899-1979) American poet, essayist, and social commentator of questionable sensitivities who wrote "Ode to the Confederate Dead." Tate's works represent conflicted views on race in America, yet he was U.S. Poet Laureate from 1943 to 1944. His record of racist remarks is sometimes offset by early support for Black and other forward-thinking moves.

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Nov. 18: Margaret Atwood, Canadian writer and activist

BORN NOVEMBER 18:

Margaret Atwood (1939 - ) Prolific Canadian poet, novelist, essayist, and activist best known these days for The Handmaid's Tale (four seasons on TV and counting). It's the standout among her 18 novels, 18 books of poetry, 11 books of non-fiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, and two graphic novels.

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Nov. 17: Martin Scorsese, American filmmaker

BORN NOVEMBER 17:

Martin Scorsese (1942 - ) American filmmaker; who has directed over 25 features and numerous documentaries and shorts. Taxi Driver; Raging Bull; The Last Temptation of Christ; Goodfellas; Gangs of New York; The Aviator; The Departed; Hugo; The Wolf of Wall Street; numerous Academy Award nominations, one win (The Departed)

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Nov. 16: Chinua Achebe, Nigerian writer

BORN NOVEMBER 16:

Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic--the dominant figure in modern African literature, best known for his first novel, Things Fall Apart (his magnum opus, and the start of a trilogy with No Longer at Ease and Arrow of God). Walking the line between traditional Igbo culture and Christianity, he wrote--in English--of African things with a European education. He also wrote A Man of the People and Anthills of the Savannah.

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Nov. 15: Georgia O'Keeffe, American artist

BORN NOVEMBER 15:

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) American artist called the "Mother of American modernism," who captured America from the skyscrapers of Manhattan to the deserts of New Mexico. Born in Wisconsin, she studied in Chicago and moved around a lot before settling in New York, where in her late 30s she married photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz. A few years later she began spending part of the year in the Southwest, and moved there permanently after Stieglitz's death, for the last four decades of her life.

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Nov. 14: Claude Monet, French Impressionist painter

BORN NOVEMBER 14:

Claude Monet (1840-1926) French founding Impressionist painter (the movement was named for his painting, "Impression, Sunrise"); and series such as Rouen Cathedral; London Parliament; Water Lilies; Poplars; Haystacks; and many more attempts to capture changes in light and the passing of seasons.

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Nov. 13: Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish writer

BORN NOVEMBER 13:

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. He was a prolific writer and traveled widely, despite lifelong poor health. He died at his home in Samoa at age 44. He wrote Treasure Island; Kidnapped; A Child's Garden of Verses; and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

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Nov. 12: Auguste Rodin, French sculptor

BORN NOVEMBER 12:

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) French sculptor best known for his massive nude Thinker (which was cast full-sized at least 28 times). Criticized in his lifetime for the gritty realism of his work, he is a forerunner of modern representative sculpture. Other famed works include The Age of Bronze; The Burghers of Calais; and The Kiss.

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Nov. 11: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian writer and philosopher

BORN NOVEMBER 11:

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. Though something of a radical, the experience of being arrested and standing in front of a firing squad when his pardon arrived from the czar (plus four years at hard labor) cured him of extreme acts. The literary world is the better for it, as he wrote Crime and Punishment; The Idiot; The Brothers Karamazov; and Notes from Underground. Joseph Stalin said, "Nobody understands human psychology like Dostoyevsky, and that's why I've banned him."

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