Born: November 27, 1874 Died: December 25, 1950 Ohio connection: Birth Xenia Frederic Ridgely Torrence, son of Findley David and Mary (Ridgely) Torrence, was born in 1874 in Xenia, Ohio. He attended Miami University of Ohio, 1893-95, and Princeton University, 1895-96. He worked as a librarian at the Astor Library and the Lenox Library, both …
Read More Frederic Ridgely TorrenceBorn: June 13, 1940Died: September 25, 2016 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland David Budbill was born in Cleveland in 1940 to a streetcar driver and a minister’s daughter. He is the author of ten poetry collections, eight plays, a novel, a collection of short stories, a picture book for children, dozens of essays, introductions, speeches and …
Read More David BudbillBorn: November 28, 1896Died: November 14, 1965 Ohio connection: Birth Mount Gilead Novelist and playwright Dawn Powell, daughter of Roy K. and Hattie B. (Sherman) Powell, was born in 1896 in Mount Gilead, Ohio. Because her father was a traveling salesman and her mother died when Dawn was only six years old, the young Dawn was …
Read More Dawn PowellBorn: September 20, 1896 Dead: August 9, 1980 Ohio connection: Birth Dover Elliott John Nugent was born in 1899 in Dover, Ohio. He was the son of playwright/producer/actor, John C. Nugent, and Grace Mary (Fertig) Nugent. At the age of four, he began a long career in film, theater, and television. He first appeared in vaudeville …
Read More Elliott John NugentBorn: November 25, 1899Died: April 25, 1982 Ohio connection: Birth Springfield Although an author of Westerns and a successful screenwriter, William Riley Burnett is best known as the originator of the gangster novel. The underworld icons of sleek cars, flashy clothes, bootleg liquor, and tommy guns find their origins in Burnett’s first novel, Little Caesar (1929). The …
Read More William Riley BurnettBorn: September 17, 1922Died: August 31, 2010 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Vance Nye Bourjaily, the son of Monte Ferris Bourjaily (journalist) and Barbara Webb (writer), was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1922. His parents separated when he was eleven years old, and Bourjaily spent his childhood growing up in Connecticut, New York, and Virginia. In 1939, he …
Read More Vance Nye BourjailyBorn: July 20, 1924Died: July 13, 2014 Ohio connection: Birth Cincinnati Thomas Louis Berger was born on July 20, 1924, in Cincinnati, Ohio. The son of Thomas Charles Berger and Mildred (née Bubbe) Berger received a B.A. degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1948. He then pursued graduate study at Columbia University, but left to …
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