Patrick Dennis wrote Auntie Mame

It is the birthday of writer Patrick Dennis (1921), who wrote the bestselling novel Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade (1955) and its sequel, Around the World with Auntie Mame (1958). Patrick Dennis was a pseudonym for Edward Everett Tanner III, who also wrote under the name Virginia Rowans. By far his most successful book was Auntie Mame, which told the story of a boy raised by his eccentric aunt. The book was inspired by Patrick Dennis' Aunt Marion. The book spawned a Broadway play, Auntie Mame (1957), starring Rosalind Russell, a movie based on the play (1958), a Broadway musical, Mame (1966), starring Angela Landsbury and Beatrice Arthur, and a movie based on the musical (1974) starring Lucille Ball, Beatrice Arthur, and Robert Preston. In later years, the author worked as a butler using his real name. His employers never knew their butler, Tanner, was actually the famous writer Patrick Dennis.

Happy birthday, Dorothy Richardson

It is the birthday of English author Dorothy Richardson (1873), who is credited with writing the first stream of consciousness novel published in English, predating James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. The complete work is called Pilgrimmage. it is 12 volumes, the first of which is Pointed Roofs (1915). The autobiographical work chronicles the development of a young woman coming into her own as an adult. She married Bohemian illustrator Alan Odle, and supported him with her writing. She was associated with the Bloombury Group and she watched W.B. Yeats writing by candlelight across the alley from her flat. She died alone in obscurity and poverty in 1957, largely forgotten by the literary world.

Happy birthday, Studs Terkel

It is the birthday of writer Studs Terkel (1912), who wrote The Good War (1985), an oral history of World War II through people in battle, on the home front and survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The book won a Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. Terkel specialized in what he called guerrilla journalism, oral histories of ordinary Americans. He wrote more than 18 books, including Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression (1970), and Working, People Talk About What They Do All Day and How they Feel About What They Do (1974) Here is an appearance Terkel made on The Daily Show in 2006.

Happy birthday, L. Frank Baum

It is the birthday of author L. Frank Baum (1856), whose children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) was an immediate success and has since become a classic of American literature, with Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion taking their place in American popular culture. Because of the demand of his youthful readers, Baum wrote 19 sequels. Although he wrote other children's stories under pseudonyms, the Oz books were by far his most successful efforts. A 1902 Broadway musical helped spread the success of the Wizard of Oz franchise as did the popular 1939 Judy Garland film. The story has been translated into many foreign languages and there are millions of copies and numerous editions in English. Baum wrote sequels until his death in 1919. Ruth Plumly Thompson wrote 21 authorized sequels after that. Baum was initially reluctant to continue with the Oz series but finally gave in to requests of youthful readers. In a note to his sister, Baum explained why: "To please a child is a sweet and a lovely thing that warms one's heart and brings its own reward."