On this day

August 4 in literary history

Literary history for August 4: 13 writers born, 11 writers who died and 1 literary events from 1470 to 2009. Born on this day: John August, Dennis Lehane, Tim Winton.

13writers born
11writers died
1literary events

Writers born on August 4

BornWriterKnown as
1970John AugustAmerican film director and screenwriter (born 1970)
1965Dennis LehaneAmerican novelist (born 1965)
1960Tim WintonAustralian writer (born 1960)
1958Allison Hedge CokeAmerican poet and editor (born 1958)
1919Michel DéonFrench novelist and literary columnist
1913Robert HaydenAmerican poet and academic (1913–1980)
1904Witold GombrowiczPolish writer (1904–1969)
1884Béla BalázsHungarian film critic, aesthetician, writer and poet
1859Knut HamsunNorwegian novelist (1859–1952)
1839Walter PaterEnglish writer, critic and essayist (1839–1894)
1792Percy Bysshe ShelleyEnglish poet (1792–1822)
1725John NewtonAnglican cleric, hymn-writer, and abolitionist (1725–1807)
1470Bernardo DoviziItalian Catholic cardinal and playwright (1470–1520)

Writers who died on August 4

DiedWriterKnown as
2009Blake SnyderAmerican screenwriter and author
2004Hossein PanahiIranian actor and poet (1956–2004)
1992Seichō MatsumotoJapanese detective fiction writer (1909–1992)
1958Ethel AndersonAustralian poet (1883–1958)
1944Krzysztof Kamil BaczyńskiPolish poet and Home Army soldier
1941Mihály BabitsHungarian poet, writer and translator
1914Jules LemaîtreFrench critic and dramatist (1853–1914)
1875Hans Christian AndersenDanish writer (1805–1875)
1822Kristjan Jaak PetersonEstonian writer
1792John BurgoyneBritish Army officer, playwright and politician (1722–1792)
1639Juan Ruiz de Alarcón16th-century Spanish writer (died 1639)

Literary events on August 4

YearEvent
1821The Saturday Evening Post is published for the first time as a weekly newspaper.

Featured

John August (1970) — John August is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist.

Dennis Lehane (1965) — Dennis Lehane is an American author and screenwriter. He has published more than a dozen novels; the first several were a series of mysteries featuring recurring characters, including A Drink Before the War (1994).

Tim Winton (1960) — Timothy John Winton is an Australian writer and environmental activist. He has written novels, children's books, non-fiction books and short stories.

Sources & data

  • Compiled from Wikipedia’s “On this day” selections (CC BY-SA 4.0), filtered for writers and literary events.