Great Literary Birthdays Today

From The Writer’s Almanac

It's the birthday of writer Alice B. Toklas, (books by this author) born in San Francisco (1877). In 1907, she went to Paris where she met Gertrude Stein, and the two women became lovers. They moved into 27 rue de Fleurs, where they began a salon that became a social hub for artists and writers, including Picasso, Hemingway, Matisse, and Fitzgerald. In 1933, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas was published, which was actually written by Gertrude Stein and not Toklas. But after Stein died, Toklas wrote her own memoir, called What Is Remembered (1963). She said, "Gertrude Stein … held my complete attention, as she did for all the many years I knew her until her death, and all these empty ones since then."
It's the birthday of Annie Dillard, (books by this author) born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1945). She wrote Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974), and it won a Pulitzer Prize. She was 29 years old.