Notable Authors Born in October

From a plethora of playwrights to iconic horror authors to poets galore, October is the birth month of many notable and acclaimed wordsmiths. We're delighted to celebrate them and their beloved works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, theater, and more.

Literary legends born in October

October 1

• Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004), Atlanta-born historian who won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize, The Discoverers
• Tim O'Brien (1946– ), American author known for his stories about wartime Vietnam, The Things They Carried

October 2

• Wallace Stevens (1879–1955), Connecticut-born modernist poet, insurance salesman, and Pulitzer Prize-winner, Harmonium
• Graham Greene (1904–1991), Prolific English novelist, The End of the Affair

October 3

• Mikhail Lermontov (1814–1841), Russian Romantic poet and novelist, A Hero of Our Time
• James Herriot (1916–1995), Scottish writer and veterinarian, All Creatures Great and Small
• Gore Vidal (1925–2012), NY native writer and playwright, Burr

October 4

• Jackie Collins (1941–2015), English-American romance novelist and actress, Chances
• Anne Rice (1941–2021), prolific New Orleans-born author best known for her Gothic paranormal novels, Interview with a Vampire

October 5

• Clive Barker (1952– ), English horror writer, filmmaker, and visual artist, The Hellbound Heart
• Rupi Kaur (1992– ), Indian-Canadian author, poet, and artist, Milk and Honey

October 6

• Caroline Gordon (1895–1891), Kentucky writer, The Women on the Porch
• Thor Heyerdahl (1914–2002), Norwegian explorer and adventure writer, Kon-Tiki

October 7

• Anita Shreve (1946–2018), American novelist, The Weight of Water
• Paula McLain (1965– ), California-born author, The Paris Wife

October 8

• Frank Herbert (1920–1986), Sci-fi writer, Dune
• L. Stine (1943– ), American author known for kids' and YA horror fiction, Goosebumps: Welcome to Dead House

October 9

• Katherine Applegate, aka A. Applegate, (1956– ), Michigan-born author of children's and YA fiction, Odder
• Guillermo del Toro (1964– ), Mexican filmmaker, author, and artist, The Strain

October 10

• Harold Pinter (1930–2008), English playwright and Nobel laureate, Betrayal
• Nora Roberts, aka D. Robb, (1950– ), prolific American novelist, Dark Witch

October 11

• Elmore Leonard (1925–2013), American crime writer, Pronto
• Anne Enright (1962– ), Award-winning Irish author, The Gathering

October 12

• Ann Petry, (1908–1997), Connecticut-native and the first Black woman author in America with book sales of more than one million copies, The Street
• Charles Gordonne, (1925–1995), Cleveland-born playwright, actor, and director and the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, No Place to Be Somebody

October 13

• Conrad Richter, (1890–1968), Pennsylvania-born novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner, The Light in the Forest
• Frank Gilroy (1925–2015), Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright, screenwriter, and filmmaker, The Subject was Roses

October 14

• Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902), Japanese haiku and tanka poet and diarist, Selected Poems
• Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923), New Zealand short story writer, The Garden Party and Other Stories
• E. Cummings (1894–1962), Massachusetts-born poet, playwright, and painter, Selected Poems

October 15

• Virgil (70 B.C.–19 B.C.), Roman poet, The Aeneid
• G. Wodehouse (1881–1975), Comedic British novelist, My Man Jeeves
• Mario Puzo (1921–1999), NYC-born author, The Godfather
• Roxane Gay (1974– ), Black American author, Bad Feminist

October 16

• Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), Irish wit and author, The Picture of Dorian Gray
• Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953), American playwright, Long Day's Journey Into Night
• Günter Grass (1927–2015), Nobel Prize-winning German novelist and playwright, The Tin Drum

October 17

• Arthur Miller (1915–2005), Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright who was married to actress Marilyn Monroe, The Crucible 
• Wally Lamb (1950– ), Connecticut-born novelist, The River is Waiting

October 18

• Terry McMillan (1951– ), Michigan-born author, Waiting to Exhale

October 19

• Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1741–1803), French writer, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, the basis for the Oscar-winning 1988 film, Dangerous Liaisons
• John le Carré (1931–2020), English spy novelist, Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy
• Philip Pullman (1946– ), English fantasy author, The Golden Compass

October 20

• Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891), French poet, Illuminations
• Robert Pinsky (1940– ), American poet who was the first to serve three terms as U.S. Poet Laureate, Selected Poems
• Elfriede Jelinek (1946– ), Austrian playwright, novelist, and Nobel laureate The Piano Teacher

October 21

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), English Romantic poet and critic, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• Ursula K. LeGuin (1929–2018), California-born sci-fi and fantasy author, A Wizard of Earthsea

October 22

• Doris Lessing (1919–2013), Persian-born Nobel Prize-winning British novelist, The Golden Notebook

October 23

• Michael Crichton (1942–2008), Chicago-born novelist, Jurassic Park
• Gordon Korman (1963– ), Canadian author of children's and YA books, Snoop

October 24

• Amor Towles (1964– ), American novelist, A Gentleman in Moscow
• Emma Donoghue (1969– ), Irish novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and literary historian, Room
• Gabrielle Zevin (1977– ), American author and screenwriter, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

October 25

• Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859), English poet and historian, Lays of Ancient Rome
• John Berryman (1914–1972), Oklahoma-born Minnesotan poet, The Dream Songs
• Anne Tyler (1941– ), Pulitzer Prize-winning Baltimore-based novelist, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
• Elif Shafak (1971– ), Turkish-British novelist, essayist, and activist, There Are Rivers in the Sky

October 26

• Beryl Markham (1902–1986), British aviatrix and memoirist, West with the Night
• Pat Conroy (1945–2016), American writer, The Prince of Tides

October 27

• Dylan Thomas (1914–1953), Welsh poet, A Child's Christmas in Wales
• Sylvia Plath (1932–1963), American poet and novelist married to British poet laureate Ted Hughes, Ariel
• Anthony Doerr (1973– ), Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, All The Light We Cannot See
• Zadie Smith (1975– ), English novelist, essayist, and short story writer, White Teeth

October 28

• Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966), British novelist, Brideshead Revisited
• Ayad Akhtar (1970– ), Pakistani-American Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning novelist, playwright, and screenwriter, Homeland Elegies

October 29

• Lee Child (1954– ), British thriller novelist best known for his Jack Reacher series, Killing Floor
• Ann-Marie MacDonald (1958– ), Canadian playwright, author, and actress, Fall On Your Knees

October 30

• Paul Valéry (1871–1945), French poet and essayist, Monsieur Teste
• Ezra Pound (1885–1972), Idaho-born poet and critic, Selected Poems

October 31

• John Keats (1795–1821), British Romantic poet, The Complete Poems
• Katherine Paterson (1932– ), Newbery Medal-winning China-born American author, Bridge to Terabithia
• Neal Stephenson (1959– ), Hugo Award-winning author of speculative fiction, Snow Crash

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