On this day
December 4 in literary history
Literary history for December 4: 16 writers born, 13 writers who died and 2 literary events from 1131 to 2016. Born on this day: Reality Winner, Plum Sykes, Eric S. Raymond.
16writers born
13writers died
2literary events
Writers born on December 4
| Born | Writer | Known as |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Reality Winner | American intelligence translator (born 1991) |
| 1969 | Plum Sykes | British fashion writer |
| 1957 | Eric S. Raymond | US programmer, author, and open-source advocate |
| 1939 | Joan Brady (American-British writer) | American-British writer (1939–2024) |
| 1936 | John Giorno | American poet and performance artist (1936–2019) |
| 1923 | John Krish | British film director and screenwriter (1923–2016) |
| 1916 | Ely Jacques Kahn Jr. | American writer (1916–1994) |
| 1903 | Cornell Woolrich | American novelist (1903–1968) |
| 1893 | Herbert Read | English anarchist and writer (1893–1968) |
| 1883 | Katharine Susannah Prichard | Australian fiction writer and dramatist |
| 1875 | Rainer Maria Rilke | Austrian poet and writer (1875–1926) |
| 1835 | Samuel Butler (novelist) | English novelist and critic (1835–1902) |
| 1817 | Nikoloz Baratashvili | Georgian poet (1817–1845) |
| 1795 | Thomas Carlyle | Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher (1795–1881) |
| 1595 | Jean Chapelain | French poet and critic (1595–1674) |
| 1555 | Heinrich Meibom (poet) | German historian and poet |
Writers who died on December 4
| Died | Writer | Known as |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Patricia Robins | British author of short stories and novels (1921-2016) |
| 2014 | Claudia Emerson | American academic, writer and poet |
| 2013 | Joana Raspall i Juanola | Catalan writer and librarian |
| 2012 | Vasily Belov | Soviet-Russian writer, poet, and dramatist |
| 2005 | Errol Brathwaite | New Zealand writer |
| 1993 | Margaret Landon | American writer known for 'Anna and the King of Siam' (1903–1993) |
| 1987 | Arnold Lobel | American illustrator and writer (1933–1987) |
| 1942 | Fritz Löhner-Beda | Austrian writer and librettist (1883–1942) |
| 1933 | Stefan George | German symbolist poet and translator |
| 1732 | John Gay | English poet and playwright (1685–1732) |
| 1649 | William Drummond of Hawthornden | 16th/17th-century Scottish poet |
| 1609 | Alexander Hume | Scottish poet |
| 1131 | Omar Khayyam | Persian polymath and poet (1048–1131) |
Literary events on December 4
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1881 | The first edition of the Los Angeles Times is published. |
| 1791 | The first edition of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, is published. |
Featured
Reality Winner (1991) — Reality Leigh Winner is a United States Air Force veteran, and a former National Security Agency (NSA) translator.
Plum Sykes (1969) — Victoria Rowland, known as Plum Sykes, is an English fashion journalist and novelist.
Eric S. Raymond (1957) — Eric Steven Raymond, often referred to as ESR, is an American software developer, open-source software advocate, and author of the 1997 essay and 1999 book The Cathedral and the Bazaar. He wrote a guidebook for the Roguelike game NetHack.
Sources & data
- Compiled from Wikipedia’s “On this day” selections (CC BY-SA 4.0), filtered for writers and literary events.