On this day
August 15 in literary history
Literary history for August 15: 31 writers born, 11 writers who died and 1 literary events from 1432 to 2013. Born on this day: Waleed Aly, Robert Macfarlane (writer), Rob Thomas (writer).
31writers born
11writers died
1literary events
Writers born on August 15
| Born | Writer | Known as |
|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Waleed Aly | Australian television presenter, author and academic (born 1978) |
| 1976 | Robert Macfarlane (writer) | British nature writer (born 1976) |
| 1965 | Rob Thomas (writer) | Young adult novel author, television program writer |
| 1962 | Inês Pedrosa | Portuguese journalist, novelist, short story (born 1962) |
| 1961 | Suhasini Maniratnam | Indian actress, director, producer, writer (born 1961) |
| 1958 | Simon Baron-Cohen | British psychologist and author (born 1958) |
| 1958 | Viktor Shenderovich | Russian satirist, writer, scriptwriter and radio host (born 1958) |
| 1954 | Stieg Larsson | Swedish writer, journalist, and activist (1954–2004) |
| 1953 | Wolfgang Hohlbein | German writer (born 1953) |
| 1951 | Ann Biderman | American film and television writer |
| 1938 | Pran Kumar Sharma | Indian cartoonist (1938-2014) |
| 1938 | Janusz Zajdel | Polish author (1938–1985) |
| 1935 | Régine Deforges | French film director and writer |
| 1934 | Darrell K. Sweet | American illustrator (1934–2011) |
| 1932 | Robert L. Forward | American physicist and writer (1932–2002) |
| 1926 | Sami Michael | Iraqi-born Israeli author and human rights activist (1926–2024) |
| 1925 | Erik Schmidt (painter) | Estonian painter and writer |
| 1924 | Robert Bolt | English playwright (1924–1995) |
| 1919 | Benedict Kiely | Irish writer and broadcaster (1919–2007) |
| 1916 | Aleks Çaçi | Albanian author (1916–1989) |
| 1902 | Jan Campert | Dutch journalist, theater critic and writer |
| 1898 | Jan Brzechwa | Polish poet, author, and lawyer (1898–1966) |
| 1885 | Edna Ferber | American novelist and playwright (1885–1968) |
| 1858 | E. Nesbit | English author and poet (1858–1924) |
| 1845 | Walter Crane | British artist and book illustrator (1845–1915) |
| 1810 | Louise Colet | French poet and writer |
| 1787 | Eliza Lee Cabot Follen | American writer, editor, and abolitionist |
| 1785 | Thomas De Quincey | English essayist, translator and political economist (1785–1859) |
| 1771 | Walter Scott | Scottish novelist (1771–1832) |
| 1740 | Matthias Claudius | German poet and journalist (1740–1815) |
| 1432 | Luigi Pulci | Italian diplomat and poet (1432–1484) |
Writers who died on August 15
| Died | Writer | Known as |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Sławomir Mrożek | Polish playwright (1930–2013) |
| 2012 | Harry Harrison (writer) | American science fiction author (1925–2012) |
| 1997 | Ida Gerhardt | Dutch poet and classicist |
| 1982 | Ernie Bushmiller | American cartoonist (1905–1982) |
| 1981 | Carol Ryrie Brink | American novelist (1895-1981) |
| 1977 | Raymond A. Palmer | American editor and novelist (1910–1977) |
| 1975 | Harun Karadeniz | Turkish social reformer and writer (1942–1975) |
| 1936 | Grazia Deledda | Italian writer (1871–1936) |
| 1799 | Giuseppe Parini | Italian poet (1729–1799) |
| 1621 | John Barclay (poet) | Scottish writer (1582-1621) |
| 1594 | Thomas Kyd | English dramatist (1558-1594) |
Literary events on August 15
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1915 | A story in the New York World newspaper reveals that the Imperial German government had purchased excess phenol from Thomas Edison that could be used to make explosives for the war effort and diverted it to Bayer for aspirin production. |
Featured
Waleed Aly (1978) — Waleed Aly is an Australian television presenter, journalist, academic, and lawyer.
Robert Macfarlane (writer) (1976) — Robert Macfarlane is a British non-fiction writer, and a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Rob Thomas (writer) (1965) — Robert James Thomas is an American author, producer, director and screenwriter. He created the television series Veronica Mars, co-developed 90210 (2008–2013), and co-created Party Down and iZombie (2015–2019).
Sources & data
- Compiled from Wikipedia’s “On this day” selections (CC BY-SA 4.0), filtered for writers and literary events.