On this day
June 11 in literary history
Literary history for June 11: 11 writers born and 8 writers who died from 1540 to 2020. Born on this day: Athol Fugard, William Styron, Irving Howe.
Writers born on June 11
| Born | Writer | Known as |
|---|---|---|
| 1932 | Athol Fugard | South African playwright (1932–2025) |
| 1925 | William Styron | American writer (1925–2006) |
| 1920 | Irving Howe | American writer, literary critic, socialist activist (1920–1993) |
| 1910 | Jacques Cousteau | French oceanographer and author (1910–1997) |
| 1899 | Yasunari Kawabata | Japanese novelist (1899–1972) |
| 1897 | Ram Prasad Bismil | Indian revolutionary, poet & writer (1897–1927) |
| 1877 | Renée Vivien | British poet who wrote in the French language |
| 1847 | Millicent Fawcett | English politician, writer, and activist (1847–1929) |
| 1588 | George Wither | English poet, pamphleteer, satirist and writer (1588-1667) |
| 1572 | Ben Jonson | English playwright, poet, and actor (1572–1637) |
| 1540 | Barnabe Googe | 16th-century English poet and politician |
Writers who died on June 11
| Died | Writer | Known as |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Stella Pevsner | American children's writer (1921–2020) |
| 2005 | Anne-Marie Alonzo | Canadian playwright, poet, novelist, critic and publisher |
| 1998 | Catherine Cookson | British novelist (1906–1998) |
| 1986 | Chesley Bonestell | American science fiction and space illustrator (1888–1986) |
| 1979 | Alice Dalgliesh | American writer |
| 1941 | Daniel Carter Beard | American artist and writer (1850–1941) |
| 1936 | Robert E. Howard | American pulp fiction writer (1906–1936) |
| 1695 | André Félibien | French architecture writer (1619–1695) |
Featured
Athol Fugard (1932) — Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard was a South African playwright, novelist, actor and director. Widely regarded as South Africa's greatest playwright and acclaimed as "the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world" by Time magazine in 1985, he published more than thirty plays.
William Styron (1925) — William Clark Styron Jr. was an American novelist and essayist who won major literary awards for his work, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1968 for The Confessions of Nat Turner.
Irving Howe (1920) — Irving Howe was an American author, literary and social critic, and a key figure in the democratic socialist movement in the U.S. He co-founded and served as longtime editor of Dissent magazine.
Sources & data
- Compiled from Wikipedia’s “On this day” selections (CC BY-SA 4.0), filtered for writers and literary events.