Born: November 9, 1872Died: May 13, 1962 Ohio connection: Birth Chillicothe Author, anthologist, and librarian Burton Egbert Stevenson was born in 1872 in Chillicothe, Ohio. He attended Princeton University, 1890-93, during which time he also worked as a correspondent for United Press and the New York Tribune, 1891-93. He was a reporter for the Chillicothe Leader, Chillicothe, Ohio, …
Read More Burton Egbert StevensonBorn: 1934 Ohio connection: Birth Toledo Gloria Steinem, writer and feminist icon, was born in Toledo, Ohio. After a difficult childhood that included her parent’s divorce and her mother’s mental illness, Steinem won a scholarship to Smith College, where she studied government and politics, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1956. She soon broke off …
Read More Steinem, GloriaBorn: June 15, 1931Died: August 15, 1996 Ohio connection: Birth Columbus George Edwin Starbuck, son of George W. and Anna Margaret Polaski (born Starbuck) Beiswanger, was born June 15, 1931, in Columbus, Ohio. George Edwin’s surname was legally changed from Beiswanger to Starbuck after his parents’ divorce. Starbuck grew up in Illinois and California. At age 16, …
Read More George Edwin StarbuckBorn: 1950 Ohio connection: Resident Cleveland Heights Tricia Springstubb has published over a dozen books for young readers. What Happened on Fox Street was published by HarperCollins in August 2010. Her adult fiction and essays have appeared in numerous literary journals, including The Iowa Review, Hunger Mountain, and Brain, Child, and she’s a frequent book critic for The Plain Dealer. She is …
Read More Springstubb, TriciaLancaster Born: 1952 Ohio connection: Birth Elizabeth Spires, daughter of Richard C. and Sue (Wagner) Spires, was born in 1952 in Lancaster, Ohio. She received a B.A. in English from Vassar College in 1974, and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University in 1979. She married novelist Madison Smartt Bell in 1985, and they have a daughter, …
Read More Spires, ElizabethBorn: 1960 Ohio connection: Resident Columbus Jeffrey Alan Smith was born in 1960 to William Earl and Barbara Smith in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. He grew up near Columbus. As a child, Smith read and was inspired by Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge, Peanuts, and adventure comics like Batman and Superman. Some of his favorite comics are George Herriman’s Krazy Kat and E.C. Segar’s Thimble …
Read More Jeff SmithBorn: November 30, 1904Died: March 11, 1967 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Charles Allen Smart, son of George and Lucy (Allen) Smart, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1904. He received an A.B. degree from Harvard University in 1926. He worked for Doubleday, Page & Co. and Doubleday Doran (publishers) as an editorial assistant from 1927 until 1930. …
Read More Charles Allen SmartBorn: July 30, 1929 Died: May 9, 2011 Ohio connection: Birth Belden Robert Elwayne Skimin, son of Ellwyn W. and Mildred L. (Summerton) Skimin, was born in 1929 in Belden, Ohio. He attended Monmouth Junior College, 1948-49; University of Georgia, 1957-58; South Dakota School of Technology, 1959-60; and Cornish School of Allied Arts, 1967-68. He served with …
Read More Skimin, Robert ElwayneBorn: 1975 Ohio connection: Birth Cincinnati Curtis Sittenfeld was born in Cincinnati. The second child of four, she is the daughter of Paul G. Sittenfeld (an investment banker) and Elizabeth Curtis (an art history teacher). She attended Seven Hills School in Cincinnati through 8th Grade and then moved to the Groton School, a boarding school in Massachusetts …
Read More Sittenfeld, CurtisBorn: October 17, 1914 Died: January 28, 1996 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Born in Cleveland to Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, Jerry Siegel, along with boyhood friend Joe Shuster, created Superman, one of the most recognizable fictional characters of the 20th century. Siegel created the character of Superman, his background story and superpowers, while Joe Shuster worked as the artist, rendering Superman in his now familiar tights …
Read More Siegel, Jerry