This year, we're honoring the classic literature of our favorite authors. What better way to do that than by celebrating each of their birthdays? Every month on the Prestwick House Blog, you'll find free literary resources — including crossword puzzles, posters, lesson plans, eBooks, How to Teach resource guides, and more — to commemorate the dates of birth for our famous authors. Share the never-to-be-forgotten works of iconic writers with your students and make use of these resources in your classroom this (and every) October.
October 1, 1946
Tim O'Brien
Tim O'Brien was born and raised in Minnesota. After college, he served with the US Army in the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1970. His experiences during this time shaped his emotional, critically acclaimed book, The Things They Carried (1990). This collection of linked short stories illustrates the physical, mental, and emotional burdens of war and bends the line between reality and fiction. It sold over 2 million copies worldwide and won France's Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger Award and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize.
October 7, 1966
Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie is a Native American poet, filmmaker, novelist, and performer. He grew up in Wellpinit, Washington on a Spokane Indian Reservation; however, for eighth grade, he decided to attend a public school located about twenty miles away from his home. His poetry collections and prose are filled with dark humor and irony. His short story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, published in 1993, was adapted to film as Smoke Signals (1998), for which he also wrote the screenplay. His 2007 novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is semi-autobiographical; it features a teenaged boy named Arnold who, like Alexie, decides to study at a wealthy school miles from home. This work won the US National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2007.
October 12, 1950
Edward Bloor
Author Edward Bloor, who concentrates on Y/A literature, has said that he started writing because in his childhood, he "had nothing better to do" than to pick up a book and read; he soon became gripped by the alluring power of literature. He was born in Trenton, NJ, and received a Bachelor of Arts from Fordham University in 1973. Bloor is best known for Tangerine (1997), which follows the complex middle school years of Paul Fisher when he moves schools, and for London Calling (2006), about a boy named Martin who, with the help of his strange new friend Jimmy, finds himself time-traveling.
This year, we're honoring the classic literature of our favorite authors. What better way to do that than by celebrating each of their birthdays? Every month on the Prestwick House Blog, you'll find free literary resources — including crossword puzzles, posters, lesson plans, eBooks, How to Teach resource guides, and more — to commemorate the dates of birth for our famous authors. Share the never-to-be-forgotten works of iconic writers with your students and make use of these resources in your classroom this (and every) October.
October 1, 1946
Tim O'Brien
Tim O'Brien was born and raised in Minnesota. After college, he served with the US Army in the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1970. His experiences during this time shaped his emotional, critically acclaimed book, The Things They Carried (1990). This collection of linked short stories illustrates the physical, mental, and emotional burdens of war and bends the line between reality and fiction. It sold over 2 million copies worldwide and won France's Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger Award and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize.
October 7, 1966
Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie is a Native American poet, filmmaker, novelist, and performer. He grew up in Wellpinit, Washington on a Spokane Indian Reservation; however, for eighth grade, he decided to attend a public school located about twenty miles away from his home. His poetry collections and prose are filled with dark humor and irony. His short story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, published in 1993, was adapted to film as Smoke Signals (1998), for which he also wrote the screenplay. His 2007 novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is semi-autobiographical; it features a teenaged boy named Arnold who, like Alexie, decides to study at a wealthy school miles from home. This work won the US National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2007.
October 12, 1950
Edward Bloor
Author Edward Bloor, who concentrates on Y/A literature, has said that he started writing because in his childhood, he "had nothing better to do" than to pick up a book and read; he soon became gripped by the alluring power of literature. He was born in Trenton, NJ, and received a Bachelor of Arts from Fordham University in 1973. Bloor is best known for Tangerine (1997), which follows the complex middle school years of Paul Fisher when he moves schools, and for London Calling (2006), about a boy named Martin who, with the help of his strange new friend Jimmy, finds himself time-traveling.
October 15, 1978
Wes Moore
Wes Moore was born in Baltimore in 1978. He is the founder and CEO of BridgeEDU, a social enterprise committed to helping students entering their first year of college transition smoothly. He wrote the book The Other Wes Moore about two young men from Baltimore—himself, and another person named Wes Moore—who had similar upbringings but who lived very different lives. Both The New York Times and Wall Street Journal featured Moore's book on the bestseller list.
October 16, 1854
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde is a famous literary figure from Victorian England, known for his lively personality and vibrant style of writing, as well for as his brutal two-year imprisonment. He was born in Dublin and graduated from Oxford University. Victorian critics condemned Wilde's first publication and only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), as immoral, but it is now considered one of his most notable works, along with his play The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). He died from meningitis at the age of 46 after years of poverty.
October 17, 1915
Arthur Miller
One of the greatest American playwrights of the 20th century, Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, NY. His 1944 Broadway debut, The Man Who Had All the Luck, closed after only four performances due to poor reviews; however, Miller persevered, and his next play, All My Sons (1947), was a hit. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning Death of a Salesman, which opened in 1949. He is also well known for his play The Crucible (1953), an allegory about McCarthyism.
October 23, 1960
Randy Pausch
Born and raised in Maryland, Randy Pausch was a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction, and design at Carnegie Mellon University. He died from pancreatic cancer at age 43. Months before his death, he gave his "last lecture" that greatly affected the audience. The lecture was humorous, emotionally intense, and inspirational. He co-wrote the book The Last Lecture (2008) with Jeffrey Zaslow; in this book, Pausch fleshes out stories and life lessons he wants his children to understand. The book was a New York Times bestseller for three straight years.
October 23, 1961
Laurie Halse Anderson
Laurie Halse Anderson is an author from New York who writes children's and young adult literature. At age 16, she moved out of her parents' house and studied as an exchange student on a pig farm in Denmark for over a year. Her 1999 novel Speak, about a high school student coping with the aftermath of a sexual assault, was her first big break; it was a New York Times bestseller and a National Book Award finalist. She also wrote, among other works, a historical novel called Fever 1793, which takes place in Philadelphia during the yellow fever epidemic. Anderson is known for handling sensitive topics with humor and compassion.
October 30, 1937
Rudolfo Anaya
Educator-turned-author Rudolfo Anaya was born in New Mexico. He wrote his novels while teaching high school and college classes. His most famous work, Bless Me, Ultima (1992), is a coming-of-age novel that outlines changes in the culture of the American Southwest and shows how these changes affect the life of Antonio, the protagonist. Bless Me, Ultima was one of the first books to bring acclaim to the Chicano literary genre.