Born: February 15, 1926 Died: February 24, 2023 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Hazard Adams was born on February 15, 1926 in Cleveland. Adams and his family moved to Seattle, Washington when he was eight years old. Adams received an A.B. from Princeton University in 1948 and received an M.A. and a PhD. from the University …
Read More Hazard AdamsBorn: July 22, 1900 Died: April 25, 1994 Ohio connection: Birth Cincinnati John R. Adams was born July 22, 1900, in Cincinnati, son of Thomas (an engraver) and Margaret (Morse) Adams. Adams graduated from high school at age 15. He earned a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Michigan in 1920 and 1922 respectively. While attending …
Read More John R. AdamsBorn: 1940 Ohio connection: Resident Columbus Born in Dallas, Texas, William Allen attended North Texas State University with famous classmates such as journalist Bill Moyers. After he received a BA in English from California State University at Long Beach in 1968, Allen was invited to be part of the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. In …
Read More William AllenBorn: July 16, 1935 Died: May 7, 2021 Ohio connection: Resident Yellow Springs Poet, anthologist, and biographer, Arnold Adoff was born July 16, 1935, in New York City. He was the son of immigrants from a town near the Polish-Russian border whose family had been decimated by the Holocaust. Growing up in New York City, Adoff …
Read More Arnold AdoffBorn: 1944 Ohio connection: Birth Gallipolis Born in Gallipolis and raised across the river in Wheeling, West Virginia, author, designer and illustrator Jan Adkins describes himself as “an explainer, a storyteller with words and images, an advocate for young minds, a resource for images, and a dinosaur holdout for simplicity and grace in illustration, design …
Read More Jan AdkinsBorn: 1952 Ohio connection: Birth Akron The first African American and the youngest individual to be awarded the post of United States Poet Laureate (1993-95), Rita Dove desires to make poetry more appealing to the general reader. Dove was born in Akron, Ohio, into a highly-educated family whose house was full of books. An avid reader …
Read More Dove, RitaBorn: 1924 Died: 2023 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Herbert Gold was born in 1924, the eldest of the four sons of Samuel S. Gold and Frieda (Frankel) Gold. When he was in grade school, a teacher, Ruth Collins, told him that he would be a writer, and this impressed the boy so much that he …
Read More Herbert GoldBorn: 1945 Ohio connection: Birth Mt. Gilead Son of the late conservationist and author Merrill C. Gilfillan, Merrill Daniel Gilfillan was born in 1945 in rural Ohio, along the borders of the Appalachian Mountains. Growing up in that region greatly affected his writing which often included descriptions of the landscape. Following his graduation from the …
Read More Merrill D. GilfillanBorn: May 10, 1910Died: July 12, 1996 Ohio connection: Birth Castine Born on a farm near Castine, Ohio, Merrill C. Gilfillan was the son of the late Clarence and Bertha (Pierce) Gilfillan. He attended Castine School and graduated from Monroe School in Preble County in 1928. Gilfillan graduated with a degree in zoology from Ohio State University in …
Read More Merrill C. GilfillanBorn: July 8, 1933Died: April 10, 2016 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Editor, publisher, and award-winning children’s book author James Cross Giblin was born in Cleveland, but was raised in Painesville, Ohio. After receiving his B.A. in 1954 from Case Western Reserve University, he settled in New York City, earning his MFA in creative writing at Columbia in …
Read More James Cross Giblin