Born: 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: 1951 Ohio connection: Resident Cleveland Poet and educator George Bilgere grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and Riverside, California. He received a B. A. from the University of California, Riverside, and an M.A. in English Literature from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, before earning a Ph.D. in contemporary British and American poetry at the …
Read More George BilgereBorn: August 26, 1884 Died: April 5, 1933 Ohio connection: Birth Warren Earl Derr Biggers was born and raised in Warren, Ohio, the son of Robert J. Biggers and Emma Derr Biggers. He received a B.A. from Harvard University in 1907. He was a columnist and drama critic for the Traveler newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1908 until …
Read More Earl Derr BiggersBorn: 1967 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Brian Michael Bendis is an award-winning artist and writer of comics/graphic novels. A prolific writer, Bendis was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in a Jewish-American family. Bendis always aspired to make comic books, reportedly declaring at age five that he would be the artist for Spider-Man. Later, he attended classes …
Read More Brian Michael BendisBorn: 1947 Ohio connection: Birth Akron As the creator of both “Funky Winkerbean” and “Crankshaft,” Tom Batiuk (rhymes with “attic”) has been able to critique, in comic form, the vagaries of both young adulthood and the golden years. Born in Akron in 1947, Batiuk’s natural talent for illustration first bore fruit in the cartoons that he …
Read More Thomas Martin BatiukBorn: February 25, 1926 Died: August 15, 2024 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Poet, playwright, editor, and composer Russell Atkins was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Perry Kelly and Mamie Bell Atkins. Admired for his “brilliant, idiosyncratic poetry and wide-ranging intellect,” Atkins’ writings challenged conventions of both form and content in poetry, drama, and literary theory. A …
Read More Russell AtkinsBorn: December 25, 1900Died: May 11, 1975 Ohio connection: Birth Mansfield Author and historian Paul McClelland Angle was born on December 25, 1900, in Mansfield, Ohio. Angle graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1922 with a degree in history and earned a master’s degree from the University of Illinois in 1924. In order to …
Read More Paul M. AngleBorn: 1952 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland Tony Abbott was born in Cleveland, Ohio. The son of teachers, when he was eight, his family relocated to Fairfield, Connecticut, where his father became a university professor of American history. Abbott graduated from the University of Connecticut with a degree in English Literature. Reading bedtime stories to his …
Read More Tony Abbott