Eminent Births
My mom idly glanced at a friend's wall calendar one time, and observed that Joan Baez and Nixon were born the same day, remarking, "Well that pretty effectively throws astrology out the window." Catalogues of famous birthdays are always connecting great artists with vile celebrities, and then go on to disconnect them from all the more obscure but essential icons. They'll have Richard Nixon & Hitler and leave out Elena Guro and Taban Lo Liyong. And so mask the mysterious threads of commonality...
January
1 radical, rhythm, heartstrings
Haiti 1804
James Frazer 1854
Emancipation 1863
E.M. Forster 1879
J.D. Salinger '19
Milt Jackson '23
Camara Laye '28
Joe Orton '33
Country Joe McDonald '42
Jaco Pastorius '51
Grandmaster Flash '58
2 explicit, informative, self-conscious
John Hope Franklin '15
Isaac Asimov '20
ai '47
Lynda Barry '49
Christopher Durang '49
Cuba Gooding, Jr. '68
3 accurate, delicate, deadly
Marcus Tullius Cicero 103 b.c.
Lucretia Mott 1793
Henry Handel Richardson 1870
J.R.R.Tolkein 1892
Ray Milland '08
Victor Borge '09
Steve Stills '45
4 a gift
Jacob Grimm 1785
Louis Braille 1809
Augustus John 1878
C.L.R. James '01
Sterling Holloway '05
Floyd Patterson '35
John McLaughlin '42
5 stirring, disturbing, gratifying
Nicolas de Staël '14
George Reeves '14
Friedrich Dürrenmatt '21
Alvin Ailey '31
Robert Duvall '31
Ngugi wa Thiong'o '38
6 soul extremity
Jeanne d'Arc 1412
Gustave Doré 1832
Jacobo Timerman '23
Syd Barrett '45
7 a certain touch
Zora Neal Hurston 1891
Charles Addams '12
Jean-Pierre Rampal '22
8 seriously subversive & subversively beautiful
Wilkie Collins 1824
Butterfly McQueen '11
Soupy Sales '26
Elvis Presley '35
Shirley Bassey '37
Yvette Mimieux '39 ('41)
Stephen Hawking '42
David Bowie '47
9 the penetrating solo
Karel Capek 1890
Simone de Beauvoir '08
Kenny Clarke '14
Joan Baez '41
Jimmy Page '44
10 sweetness & strength
George Washington Carver 1864
Maurice Collis 1889
Barbara Hepworth '03
Ray Bolger '04
Yang Xianye '15
Jerry Wexler '17
Max Roach '24
Sal Mineo '39
George Foreman '49
Pat Benatar '53
11 talk about serious
William James 1842
Alice Paul 1885
Alan Paton '03
Slim Harpo '24
Eva Hesse '36
12 in yore face
Edmund Burke 1729 (see ramanujan)
Jack London 1876
Alice Miller '23
Dominique Wilkins '60
Cynthia Robinson '46
Howard Stern '54
13 a wicked pleasure
Charles Perrault 1628
Miriam Likelike 1851
G.I. Gurdjieff 1872
Gwen Verdon '25
Joe Pass '29
14 no laughing matter
Alexander Griboyedov 1795
Berthe Morisot 1841
Hal Roach 1892
John Dos Passos 1896
Dimitri Tsafendas '18
Yukio Mishima '25
Alan Toussaint '38
Faye Dunaway '41
15 no stopping them
Molière 1622
Osip Mandelstam 1891
Martin Luther King '29
Queen Ida '29
Ernest Gaines '33
Captain Beefheart '41
16 will eat you alive, but you don't mind
Eleanor Marx 1855
Robert W. Service 1874
Ethel Merman '08
Allard Lowenstein '29
Sade '59
Kate Moss '74
17 irrepressable, sadly
Ben Franklin 1706
Anne Bronte 1820
Anton Chekov 1860
Eartha Kitt '27
Bobby Bland '30
James Earl Jones '31
Cedar Walton '34
Françoise Hardy '41
Muhammad Ali '42
Andy Kaufman '49
Jim Carrey '62
18 a stitch
Oliver Hardy 1892
Cary Grant '04
Danny Kaye '13
David Ruffin '41
Al Foster '44
19 happily broken-hearted
Edgar Allan Poe 1809
Paul Cezanne 1839
Richard Lester '32
George MacBeth '32
Phil Everly '39
Janis Joplin '42
Dolly Parton '46
20 you talkin to me
Leadbelly 1889
Federico Fellini '20
Patricia Neal '26
21 generous, unstoppable
John Donne 1572
Roger Baldwin 1884
Paul Scofield '22
Steve Paxton '39
Wolfman Jack '39
Richie Havens '41
Edwin Starr '42
Hakeem Olajuwon '59
22 straight to the heart
Lord Byron 1788
August Strindberg 1849
J.J. Johnson '24
Sam Cooke '35
John Hurt '40
Jim Jarmusch '53
Steve Perry '53
23 brutally exact
Stendahl 1783
Antonio Gramsci 1891
Randolph Scott 1898
Humphrey Bogart 1899
Django Reinhardt '10
Ernie Kovacs '19
Jeanne Moreau '28
Derek Walcott '30
Hakeem Olajuwan '63
24 enveloping, provocative
Edith Wharton 1862
Robert Motherwell '15
Ava Gardner '22
Maria Tallchief '25
Doug Kershaw '36
Aaron Neville '41
John Belushi '49
Nastassia Kinski '60
25 sassy, huge
Robert Burns 1759
Virginia Woolf 1882
William C. Bullitt 1891
Antonio Carlos Jobim '27
Corazon Aquino '33
Etta James '38
Joe Strummer '55
26 handsome behavior
Bessie Coleman 1893
Paul Newman '25
Eartha Kitt '38
Jules Feiffer '29
Scott Glenn '42
27 an angel
W.A.Mozart 1756
Elmore James '18
Mordecai Richler '31
Bobby Hutcherson '41
Mikhail Baryshnikov '48
28 relentless, with laughter
Colette 1873
Vsevolod Meyerhold 1874
Jackson Pollock '12
Claes Oldenburg '29
Susan Sontag '33
29 attentive and encyclopedic
Emmanuel Swedenborg 1688
Thomas Paine 1737
Anton Chekhov 1860
Leadbelly 1885
Germaine Greer '39
Oprah Winfrey '54
30 large-souled
Gelett Burgess 1866
Franklin Roosevelt 1882
Roy Eldridge '11
Barbara Tuchman '12
Richard Braughtigan '33
Vanessa Redgrave '37
Marty Balin '42
31 gotcha
Tallulah Bankhead '03
John O'Hara '05
Thomas Merton '15
Jackie Robinson '19
Norman Mailer '23
Charlie Musselwhite '44
Minnie Driver '71
February
1 liberation
Yevgeny Zamyatin 1884
Langston Hughes '02
Muriel Spark '18
Sadao Watanabe '33
Roger Price '33
Joe Sample '39
Joshua Redman '69
2 you jest
Marie Laveau 1794
James Joyce 1882
James Stephens 1882
Sonny Stitt '24
Stan Getz '27
James Blood Ulmer '42
3 hermetic and personal
Gertrude Stein 1874
Simone Weil '09
Shelley Berman '26
John Handy '33
4 unassuming radical ladies
MacKinlay Kantor '04
Rosa Parks '13
Betty Friedan '21
Alice Cooper '48
5 gratefully capable, killer
William S. Burroughs '14
Hank Aaron '34
Al Kooper '44
Charlotte Rampling '45
John Callahan '51
Jennifer Jason Leigh '62
6 subversive, persuasive
Christopher Marlowe 1564
Pramoedya Toer '25
Rip Torn '31
François Truffaut '32
Bob Marley '45
7 discursive, sly
Thomas More 1478
Ann Radcliffe 1764
Charles Dickens 1812
Frederick Douglass 1817
James Murray 1837
Laura Ingalls Wilder 1867
Eubie Blake 1883
Sinclair Lewis '07
Chris Rock '66
8 subtle, conclusive
John Ruskin 1819
Jules Verne 1828
Kate Chopin 1851
Martin Buber 1878
Elizabeth Bishop '11
Audrey Meadows '24
Tom Rush '41
9 no fucking around
Brendan Behan '23
Carol King '42
Alice Walker '44
10 delicate iron
Charles Lamb 1775
Boris Pasternak 1890
Berthold Brecht 1898
Leontyne Price '27
Roberta Flack '39
Donovan '46
11 tell me
Flo Kennedy '16
Kim Stanley '25
12 a contained riot
Abe Lincoln 1809
Charles Darwin 1809
Eugene Atget 1857
Max Beckmann 1884
Alice Roosevelt Longworth 1884
Kim Stanley '25
Bill Russell '34
Judy Blume '38
Arsenio Hall '55
Christina Ricci '80
13 sharp, soft
Kate Roberts 1891
Kim Novak '33
Carol Lynley '42
14 mercilessly merciful
Frederic Douglass 1817
Jack Benny 1894
Maceo Parker '43
Tim Buckley '47
Meg Tilly '60
15 seriously insightful
Galileo Gallilei 1564
Jeremy Bentham 1748
Susan B. Anthony 1820
Sam Rodia 1875
Claire Bloom '31
Susan Brownmiller '35
John Trudell '46
Matt Groening '54
16 incisive contrarian
Nikolai Leskov 1831
Henry Adams 1838
Ice-T '58
John McEnroe '59
17 harmony, liberation
Arcangelo Corelli 1653
Fyodor Sologub 1863
Chaim Potok '29
Ruth Rendell '30
Alan Bates '34
Jim Brown '36
Fred Frith '49
18 where true value lies
John Ruskin 1819
Sholom Aleichem 1859
Nikos Kazantzakis 1883
Andre Breton 1896
Toni Morrison '31
Audre Lorde '34
19 compulsive, beguiling, shocking
Nicolaus Copernicus 1473
Kay Boyle '03
Carson McCullers '17
Lee Marvin '24
Smokey Robinson '40
Seal '63
20 forthright, gorgeous
Ansel Adams '20
Sydney Poitier '24
Nancy Wilson '37
Buffy Sainte-Marie '41
Randy California '51
Charles Barkley '63
Kurt Cobain '67
21 counterintuitive
Raymond Queneau '03
Anais Nin '03
W.H. Auden '07
Sam Peckinpah '25
The New Yorker '25
Nina Simone '33
22 improbable
George Washington 1732
Arthur Schopenhauer 1788
Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892
Luis Buñuel 1900
Jane Bowles '17
Edward Gorey '25
Ishmael Reed '38
Julius Erving '63
Drew Barrymore '75
23 powerful, exhaustive, sublime
Samuel Pepys 1633
George Frederic Handel 1685
W.E.B. DuBois 1868
Johnny Winter '44
24 perfection of style
Wilhelm Grimm 1786
George Moore 1852
Enrico Caruso 1873
Michel Legrand '32
Nicky Hopkins '44
Edward James Olmos '47
Steve Jobs '55
25 a touching melancholy
Auguste Rodin 1840
Pierre Auguste Renoir 1841
Elma Farnsworth '08
Anthony Burgess '17
Tom Courtenay '37
George Harrison '43
Rodger McFarlane '55
26 daring heart
Victor Hugo 1802
Buffalo Bill Cody 1846
Theodore Sturgeon '18
Henry Molaison '26
Fats Domino '28
Johnny Cash '32
Godfrey Cambridge '33
Mitch Ryder '45
27 intensely intelligent & humane
Henry Longfellow 1807
Marian Anderson 1897
John Steinbeck '02
Peter DeVries '10
Lawrence Durrell '12
Dexter Gordon '23
Joanne Woodward '30
Ralph Nader '34
28 smart, seductive
Michel de Montaigne 1533
Vaslav Nijinsky 1890
Ben Hecht 1894
Zero Mostel '15
John Fahey '39
Brian Jones '42
Bernadette Peters '48
29 tenderness and power
Antonio Rossini 1792
George Seferis 1900
Dee Brown '08
Gretchen Christopher '40
March
1 thorough, sweet
Frederic Chopin 1810
William Dean Howells 1837
David Niven '10
Ralph Ellison '14
Robert Lowell '17
Harry Belefonte '27
Roger Daltry '45
2 mordant, compassionate
Multatuli 1820
Sholem Aleichem 1859
Dr. Seuss '04
Doc Watson '23
Doug Watkins '34
Lou Reed '44
3 getting personal
Francisco Goya 1746
William Godwin 1756
Alain 1868
Jean Harlow '11
James Merrill '26
Alan Sillitoe '28
John Astin '30
4 supernatural rhythm
Antonio Vivaldi 1678
Alan Sillitoe '28
Miriam Makeba '32
Ryszard Kapucinski '32
cookie mueller '49
5 prophet, martyr
Frank Norris 1870
Rosa Luxemburg 1871
Pier Paolo Pasolini '22
J.B. Lenoir '29
Leslie Silko '48
6 ornate simplicity
Michelangelo 1475
Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806
Ring Lardner 1885
Bob Wills '05
Stanislaw Lec '06
Donald Davidson '17
Wes Montgomery '23
Gabriel Garcia Marquez '28
Flora Purim '42
Bobby Fischer '43
Mary Wilson '44
7 dream architect
Tomas Masaryk 1850
Piet Mondrian 1872
Peter Wolf '46
8 angels with no fear to tread
Harriet Tubman 1828
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. 1841
Gene Fowler 1890
John McPhee '31
Gabor Szabo '36
Lynn Redgrave '43
9 smouldering silk
Samuel Barber 1910
Irene Papas '26
Marty Ingalls '36
Raul Julia '40
John Cale '42
Robin Trower '45
10 pioneer
Michel de Montaigne 1533
Bix Beiderbecke '03
11 sublime romance
Torquato Tasso 1544
Bobby McFerrin '50
Nina Hagen '55
12 androgynous silk & power
Gabriele D'Annunzio 1863
Vaslav Nijinsky 1889
Edward Albee '28
Buckwheat (William Thomas) '31
Al Jarreau '40
13 darkness & delicacy
Janet Flanner 1892
George Seferis '16
Roy Haynes '25
William H. Macy '50
14 light amidst darkness
Georg Philipp Telemann 1681
Albert Einstein 1879
Sylvia Beach 1887
Jacques Lacan '01
Adolph Gottlieb '03
Akira Yoshizawa '11
Diane Arbus '23
John Wain '25
Michael Caine '33
15 slick, fast, funky, soulful
Lightnin Hopkins '12
Philippe de Broca '33
Sly Stone '44
Ry Cooder '47
16 focused & engaged
Michelangelo 1475
Marie de La Fayette 1634
Bernardo Bertolucci '41
Jerry Jeff Walker '42
17 warm steel
Bayard Rustin '10
Nat King Cole '19
Rudy Ray Moore '27
Paul Horn '30
Rudolph Nureyev '38
John Sebastian '44
Mia Hamm '72
18 passion, witness
Tobias Smollett 1721
Stephane Mallarme 1842
Wilfred Owen 1893
Frank Capra 1897
Wilson Pickett '41
Tret Fure '51
Irene Cara '59
Queen Latifah '70
19 exquisitely pointed
Richard Burton 1821
Albert Pinkham Ryder 1847
Moms Mabley 1894
Lennie Tristano '19
Patrick McGoohan '28
Ornette Coleman '30
Philip Roth '33
Glenn Close '47
20 staging small conflicts
Ovid 43 b.c.
Nikolai Gogol 1809
Henrik Ibsen 1828
Marian McPartland '20
Spike Lee '57
21 radical perfectionist
Johann Sebastian Bach 1685
Hans Hofmann 1880
Peter Brook '25
Matthew Broderick '63
22 a serious mask
Aphra Behn 1640
Chico Marx 1887
Agnes Martin '12
Marcel Marceau '23
George Benson '43
23 violently sublime
Juan Gris 1887
Akira Kurasawa '10
Ama Ata Aidoo '42
Chaka Khan '53
Moses Malone '54
24 implicitly explicit
Olive Schreiner 1855
Harry Houdini 1874
Ernst Junger 1885
Edward Weston 1886
Wilhelm Reich 1897
Lidia Chukovskaya '07
Lawrence Ferlinghetti '19
Dario Fo '26
Steve McQueen '30
25 convolute simplicity
Anne Bronte 1820
Bela Bartok 1881
Simone Signoret '21
Flannery O'Conner '25
Cecil Taylor '33
Hoyt Axton '38
Toni Cade Bambara '39
Aretha Franklin '42
Elton John '47
Susie Bright '58
26 trailblazer
A.E. Housman 1859
Robert Frost 1874
John W. Campbell '04
Tennessee Williams '11
Rufus Thomas '17
Sandra Day O'Connor '30
Diana Ross '44
Teddy Pendergrass '50
27 cool, incisive, emotional
Ben Webster '09
Budd Schulberg '14
Louis Simpson '23
Sarah Vaughan '24
David Jansson '31
Quentin Tarantino '63
28 sharp, down-to-earth
Nelson Algren '09
Bohumil Hrabal '14
Dirk Bogarde '21
Thad Jones '23
Diane Wiest '48
29 sneaky grandstander
Olive Schreiner 1895
Gene McCarthy '16
Pearl Bailey '18
Eric Idle '43
Earl Campbell '55
30 control, color, improvisation
Paul Verlaine 1844
Vincent Van Gogh 1853
John Astin '30
Astrud Gilberto '40
Eric Clapton '45
31 open the gates
Rene Descartes 1596
Andrew Marvell 1621
Franz Josef Haydn 1732
Nikolai Gogol 1809
Andrew Lang 1844
Jack Johnson 1878
Kornei Chukovsky 1882
Sean O'Casey 1884
Saint-John Perse 1887
Red Norvo '08
Octavio Paz '14
Zoe Oldenbourg '16
Cesar Chavez '27
Pat Leahy '40
Christopher Walken '43
April
1 commanding, charming
Agnes Repplier 1855
Edmond Rostand 1868
Alberta Hunter 1895
Toshiro Mifune '20
Wangari Muta Maathai '40
Jimmy Cliff '48
2 cool, direct, touching
Hans Anderson 1805
Emile Zola 1840
Max Ernst 1891
Honi Coles '11
Alec Guinness '14
Marvin Gaye '39
Leon Russell '41
Larry Coryell '43
Linda Hunt '45
Camille Paglia '47
3 jazzy virtuoso
Washington Irving 1783
Herb Caen '16
Marlon Brando '24
Richard Manuel '45
Eddie Murphy '61
Charlotte Coleman '68
4 outrageous, melodic
Marguerite Duras '14
Muddy Waters '15
Maya Angelou '28
Hugh Masekela '39
Robert Downey, Jr. '65
5 conveying a love of justice
Pasquale Paoli 1725
Algernon Swinburne 1837
Robert Smalls 1839
Booker T. Washington 1856
Concha Espina 1869
Spencer Tracy 1900
Gregory Peck '16
Hugo Claus '29
Stanley Turrentine '34
6 magic, daring
Raphael 1483
Lincoln Steffins 1866
Harry Houdini 1874
Leonora Carrington '17
Gerry Mulligan '27
Ivan Dixon '31
7 melancholy, liberation
William Wordsworth 1770
Marie Equi 1872
Gabriela Mistral 1889
Billie Holiday '15
Mongo Santamaria '22
Babatunde Olatunji '27
Donald Barthelme '31
Freddie Hubbard '38
Jackie Chan '54
8 specialist & generalist, orthodox & unorthodox
Buddha 568 b.c.
Edmund Husserl 1859
Carmen McRae '22
Kofi Annan '38
9 screaming & laughing (note the pauls)
Charles Baudelaire 1821
Paul Robeson 1898
Ernst Neizvestny '25
Paule Marshall '29
Carl Perkins '32
Jean-Paul Belmondo '33
Tom Lehrer '38
Paul Krassner '42
10 break the mold
Anna Kavan '01
Max Von Sydow '29
Denny Zeitlin '38
Paul Theroux '41
11 heart-breaker, iconoclast
Christopher Smart 1722
Attila József '05
Louise Lasser '39
12 lucid, meticulous
Imogen Cunningham 1883
Lionel Hampton '13
Beverly Cleary '16
Mwandishi Herbie Hancock '40
Claire Danes '79
13 a towering original
Thomas Jefferson 1743
James Ensor 1860
Nella Larson 1891
Samuel Beckett '06
Eudora Welty '09
Madalyn Murray O'Hair '19
Howard Keel '19
Charles Burnett '44
Lowell George '45
Al Green '46
14 shrimpy majesty
John Gielgud '04
Iggy Pop '47
15 compromise/no compromise
Leonardo Da Vinci 1452
Henry James 1843
A. Philip Randolph 1889
Bessie Smith 1894
Thomas Szasz '20
Claudia Cardinale '38
Emma Thompson '59
16 disciplined, revolutionary
Anatole France 1844
John Synge 1871
Charlie Chaplin 1889
Tristan Tzara 1896
Merce Cunningham '19
Peter Ustinov '21
Herbie Mann '30
Dusty Springfield '39
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar '47
17 storyteller, deceptively simple
Isak Dinesen 1884
Thorton Wilder 1897
William Holden '18
Lindsay Anderson '23
Cynthia Ozick '28
Jan Hammer '48
18 smartass
Clarence Darrow 1857
László Németh '01
Catfish Hunter '46
James Woods '47
Rick Moranis '53
Conan O'Brien '63
19 rebel witness
Richard Hughes 1900
Etheridge Knight '31
Genya Ravan '40
Mark Volman '47
20 fine & certain lines
Joan Miro 1893
Lionel Hampton '08
Jessica Lange '49
21 sharp, with a sad edge
Charlotte Bronte 1816
Anthony Quinn '15
Elaine May '32
Iggy Pop '47
Andie McDowell '58
22 kaleidoscopic tour de force
Henry Fielding1707
Madame De Staël 1766
Ellen Glasgow 1874
Vladimir Nabokov 1899
Charles Mingus '22
Richard Diebenkorn '22
Paul Chambers '35
Jack Nitzsche '37
John Waters '46
23 enter another world
William Shakespeare 1564
J.M.W. Turner 1775
Serge Prokoviev 1891
J.P. Donleavy '26
Guillermo Cabrera Infante '29
Roy Orbison '36
24 stirring, sophisticated insight
Anthony Trollope 1815
Willem De Kooning '04
Robert Penn Warren '05
Joe Henderson '37
25 wit, art, chops
Ella Fitzgerald '18
Albert King '23
Meadowlark Lemon '32
Al Pacino '39
Hank Azaria '64
26 reality
David Hume 1711
James Audubon 1785
Ma Rainey 1886
Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889
Bernard Malamud '14
Jimmy Giuffre '21
South Africa '94
27 fleeting, steady
Edward Gibbon 1737
Mary Wollstonecraft 1759
C. Day Lewis '04
Connie Kay '27
Coretta Scott King '27
Sandy Dennis '37
28 influential, truth-telling
Karl Krauss 1874
Kurt Gödel '06
Harper Lee '26
29 smooth, syncopated
Duke Ellington 1894
Klaus Voorman '42
John Waters '46
Yusef Komunyakaa '47
Michelle Pfeiffer '55
30 intuitive, sneaky, soulful
Alice Toklas 1877
Jaroslav Hasek 1883
John Crowe Ransom 1888
Percy Heath '23
Willie Nelson '33
Annie Dillard '45
Isiah Thomas '61
May
1 bright & wrenching yarnspinning
Joseph Addison 1672
Mother Jones 1830
Calamity Jane Canary 1852
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 1881
Aleksander Wat 1900
Ignazio Silone 1900
Joseph Heller '23
Terry Southern '24
Little Walter '30
Judy Collins '39
Rita Coolidge '45
2 exacting, emotional
Benjamin Spock '03
Satyijat Ray '21
Roscoe Lee Browne '25
Link Wray '35
Leslie Gore '46
3 testify
Niccolo Machiavelli 1469
Mikhail Bulgakov 1891
May Sarton '12
Pete Seeger '19
John Lewis '20
Sugar Ray Robinson '21
James Brown '33
Frankie Valli '37
4 little messages
Jane Jacobs '16
Audrey Hepburn '29
Ron Carter '37
Keith Haring '58
5 bright questioning
Søren Kierkegaard 1813
Karl Marx 1818
Olaf Stapledon 1886
Charis Wilson '14
Michael Palin '43
Ian McCulloch '59
6 versatile, pyrotechnic teacher
Sigmund Freud 1856
Rabindranath Tagore1861
Andre Weil '06
Randall Jarrell '14
Willie Mays '31
Dave Friesen '42
7 classical, perfectionist
Robert Browning 1812
Johannes Brahms 1833
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala '27
Teresa Brewer '31
Angela Carter '40
8 serious humanist & gatherer
Edmund Wilson 1895
Mary Lou Williams '10
Robert Johnson '11
Gary Snyder '30
Thomas Pynchon '38
9 unsparing sympathy
John Brown 1800
Ortega y Gasset 1883
Pancho Gonzalez '28
Albert Finney '36
Glenda Jackson '37
Dave Prater '37
10 makes it look simple
Ivan Cankar 1876
Fred Astaire 1891
Donovan '46
Sid Vicious '57
Bono '60
11 eureka
King Oliver 1885
Margaret Rutherford 1892
Martha Graham 1894
Salvador Dali '04
Phil Silvers '12
Richard Feynman '18
Mort Sahl '27
Edward Braithwaite '30
Stanley Elkin '30
Carla Bley '38
Eric Burden '41
12 rare wit
Dante 1265
Edward Lear 1812
Dante Rossetti 1828
Farley Mowat '21
George Carlin '37
Andre Amalrik '38
Ian Dury '42
13 string of triumphs
Alphonse Daudet 1840
Georges Braque 1882
Daphne Du Maurier '07
Joe Louis '14
Red Garland '23
Bruce Chatwin '40
Mary Wells '43
Stevie Wonder '50
Dennis Rodman '61
14 riffer, pioneer
Sidney Bechet 1897
Jack Bruce '43
David Byrne '52
Tim Roth '61
15 unreal?
L. Frank Baum 1856
Arthur Schnitzler 1862
Katherine Ann Porter 1890
Richard Avedon '23
Ralph Steadman '36
Brian Eno '48
16 direct/indirect
Studs Terkel '12
Adrienne Rich '29
Betty Carter '30
Billy Cobham '44
Debra Winger '55
Janet Jackson '66
17 say it all
Dorothy Richardson 1882
Jill Johnston '29
Jackie McLean '32
Taj Mahal '42
18 very deadpan, mercurial
Mikhail Bakunin 1814
Bertrand Russell 1872
Frank Capra 1897
Margot Fonteyn '19
Kai Winding '22
Chow Yun-Fat '55
19 the mighty
Malik El Hajj Shabazz (Malcolm X) '25
Lorraine Hansberry '30
Pete Townsend '45
Joey Ramone '52
Grace Jones '52
20 life and death
Honoré De Balzac 1799
John Stuart Mill 1806
Sigrid Undset 1882
21 create & reform
Albrecht Dürer 1471
Alexander Pope 1688
Henri Rousseau 1844
Fats Waller '04
Andre Sakharov '21
Robert Creely '26
22 earnest & nuanced simplicity
Mary Cassatt 1844
Arthur Conan Doyle 1859
Lawrence Olivier '07
Sun Ra '14
Jean Tinguely '25
Morrissey '59
23 a lifter-upper
Carolus Linnaeus 1707
Thomas Hood 1799
Margaret Fuller 1810
Scatman Crothers '10
Barbara Ward '14
24 get out
Archie Shepp '37
Tommy Chong '38
Joseph Brodsky '40
Bob Dylan '41
Patti LaBelle '44
Larry Blackmon '56
Joe Dumars '63
25 felicity, facility, hermetic insight
Alexander Pope 1688
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803
Bill Bojangles Robinson '78
Dorothea Lange 1895
Theodore Roethke '08
Miles Davis '26
Lauryn Hill '75
26 gentle but audacious authority
Isadora Duncan 1878
Robert Morley '08
Jay Silverheels '19
Peggy Lee '20
Miles Davis '26
Lawson Fusao Inada '38
Levon Helm '42
27 subversive excitement
Julia Ward Howe 1819
Dashiel Hammett 1894
Rachel Carson '07
John Cheever '12
John Barth '30
Ramsey Lewis '35
Lou Gossett, Jr. '36
Dee Dee Bridgewater '50
Siouxie '57
28 give it everything
Edvard Benes 1884
Jim Thorpe 1888
Patrick White '12
Walker Percy '16
Gladys Knight '44
John Fogarty '45
29 wishful thinkers
Patrick Henry 1736
Oswald Spengler 1880
T.H. White '06
Jack Kennedy '17
Gary Brooker '45
30 otherworldly poet
Paul Verlaine 1844
Countee Cullen '03
Mel Blanc '08
Keir Dullea '36
31 lyrical, peripatetic
Walt Whitman 1819
St.-John Perse 1887
Julian Beck '25
Tootie Heath '35
June
1 say no more
Murray Jarvik '23
Marilyn Monroe '26
Morgan Freeman '37
2 won't let go
Thomas Hardy 1840
Barbara Pym '13
Stacy Keach '41
Charlie Watts '41
ferron '52
3 lyrical cartoons
Raul Dufy 1877
Josephine Baker '06
Allen Ginsberg '26
Curtis Mayfield '42
Suzi Quatro '50
4 you won't know what hit you
Marguerite Power 1849
Judith Malina '26
Dr. Ruth Westheimer '28
Bruce Dern '36
Angelina Jolie '75
5 overwhelming
Pancho Villa 1878
John Maynard Keynes 1883
Federico Garcia Lorca 1899
Bill Moyers '34
Margaret Drabble '39
Laurie Anderson '50
6 no compromise, awfully human
Pierre Cornielle 1606
Aleksandr Pushkin 1799
Robert Falcon Scott 1868
Thomas Mann 1875
Levi Stubbs '36
Gary U.S. Bonds '39
Harvey Fierstein '54
Sandra Bernhard '55
Bjorn Borg '56
7 will save you & slay you
Paul Gaugin 1848
Imre Nagy 1896
Elizabeth Bowen 1899
Gwendolyn Brooks '17
Harry Crews '35
Nikki Giovanni '43
Prince '58
8 consummate, courtly
Marguerite Yourcenar '03
George Kirby '23
Boz Scaggs '44
9 consummate
Cole Porter 1892
Jackie Wilson '34
Kenny Barron '43
10 courtly
Louis Couperus 1863
Hattie McDaniel 1895
Howlin Wolf '10
Judy Garland '22
Shirley Alston '41
11 guarded, revealing
Ben Jonson 1572
Julia Cameron 1815
Gerard Manly Hopkins 1844
Jeanette Rankin 1880
Elizabeth Cotton 1892
Yasunari Kawabata 1899
Erving Goffman '22
William Styron '25
George Garrett '29
Athol Fugard '32
Gene Wilder '35
12 brave, indelible
Djuna Barnes 1892
Milovan Djilas '11
Anne Frank '29
Brigid Brophy '29
Chick Corea '41
13 all-enveloping, brilliant
Fanny Burney 1752
William Butler Yeats 1865
Lois Weber 1879
Fernando Pessoa 1888
Dorothy Sayers 1893
Doc Cheatham '05
Christo '35
14 violently intimate
Harriet Beecher Stowe 1811
Burl Ives '09
Jerzy Kosinski '33
Boy George '61
15 a view from a great height
Saul Steinberg '14
Errol Garner '21
Mario Cuomo '32
Waylon Jennings '37
Boy George '61
Ice Cube '69
16 chameleon, mercurial
Geronimo 1829
Stan Laurel 1890
Stim Bullitt '19
Lucky Thompson '24
Joyce Carol Oates '38
Lamont Dozier '42
Tupac Shakur '71
17 go their own way
James Weldon Johnson 1871
M.C. Escher 1898
Gwendolyn Brooks '17
Galina Ustvolskaya '19
Venus Williams '80
18 incisive, indefatigable
E.G. Marshall '10
Richard Boone '17
Aida Portalatin '18
Donald Keene '22
Gail Godwin '37
Jim Pepper '41
Isabella Rossellini '52
Carol Kane '52
19 transformer
Blaise Pascal 1623
Pauline Kael '19
Amos Tutuola '20
Gena Rowlands '30
20 killer fun
Charles Chesnutt 1858
Lillian Hellman '05
Errol Flynn '09
Audie Murphy '24
Eric Dolphy '28
Olympia Dukakis '31
Stephen Frears '41
Brian Wilson '42
John Goodman '52
Cyndi Lauper '53
21 feisty, unrelenting, savory
Machado de Assis 1839
Mary McCarthy '12
Judy Holliday '22
Francoise Sagan '35
Ray Davies '44
Benezir Bhutto '53
Berke Breathed '57
Juliette Lewis '73
22 perfectionist, collaborative
Rider Haggard 1856
Erich Remarque 1898
Billy Wilder '06
Katherine Dunham '10
Octavia Butler '47
Meryl Streep '49
Clyde Drexler '62
23 weep, see
Anna Akhmatova 1889
Jean Anouilh '10
Milt Hinton '10
Bob Fosse '27
Wilma Rudolph '40
Frances McDormand '57
24 look
Rebecca Harding Davis 1831
Ambrose Bierce 1842
Chief Dan George 1899
Fred Hoyle '15
Julia Kristeva '41
25 mess with your heart
George Orwell '03
Aime Cesaire '13
Clifton Chenier '25
Joe Chambers '42
26 haunting vitality
Big Bill Broonzy 1898
Peter Lorre '04
Mick Jones '55
27 delicate touch, impossible odds
Lafcadio Hearn 1850
Emma Goldman 1869
Paul Lawrence Dunbar 1872
Helen Keller 1880
Lucille Clifton '36
28 don't look
Peter Paul Rubens 1577
Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712
Luigi Pirandello 1867
Ashley Montague '05
Mel Brooks '26
Pat Morita '33
John Cusack '66
29 yee hah
Slim Pickens '19
Vladimir Tarasov '47
Little Eva '45
30 will get you
Czeslaw Milosz '11
Lena Horne '17
Florence Ballard '43
Stanley Clarke '51
July
1 deep reserves
George Sand 1804
Ignaz Semmelweis 1818
Walter White 1893
Charles Laughton 1899
Isaac Babel '04
Varlam Shalamov '07
Jean Stafford '15
Willie Dixon '15
Twyla Tharp '41
Genevieve Bujold '42
Debbie Harry '45
Dan Ackroyd '52
2 stand up
Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1778
Thurgood Marshall '08
Medger Evers '25
Ahmad Jamal '30
3 dark wit
Franz Kafka 1883
Tom Stoppard '37
Fontella Bass '40
4 helpful
U.S.A. 1776
Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804
Rube Goldberg 1883
Louis Armstrong 1900
Ann Landers '18
Abigail Van Buren '18
Eva Marie Saint '24
Neil Simon '27
5 vitality & fascination
P.T. Barnum 1810
Wanda Landowska 1879
Jean Cocteau 1889
Bessie Head '37
Robbie Robertson '44
6 serenity & sass
Beatrix Potter 1866
Eleanor Clark '13
Della Reese '32
Dalai Lama '35
7 ideosyncratic, emotional, direct
Gustav Mahler 1860
Marc Chagall 1887
Vittorio De Sica '01
Satchel Paige '06
Margaret Walker '15
Ahmed Jamal '30
Joe Zawinul '32
Ringo Starr '40
Jane Gaskell '41
Shelley Duvall '49
(interesting rhyme: Chagall, Jamal, Duvall, Mahl-er)
8 empathetic
Artemisia Gentileschi 1593
Jean de La Fontaine 1621
Käthe Kollwitz 1867
Billy Eckstine '14
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross '26
Angelica Huston '51
9 groundbreaker
Ann Radcliffe 1764
Nikola Tesla 1856
Franz Boas 1858
Mark Almond '59
10 infinite pains, sensitivity
Camille Pissarro 1830
Marcel Proust 1871
Mary McLeod Bethune 1875
Saul Bellow '15
Lee Morgan '38
Arthur Ashe '43
Sue Lyon '46
Chiwetel Ejiofor '74
11 painstaking, sense of proportion
Robert Bruce 1274
John Quincy Adams 1767
E.B. White 1899
Terry Garthwaite '38
Suzanne Vega '59
12 border-crossing
Henry David Thoreau 1817
Amedeo Modigliani 1884
Buckminster Fuller 1895
Pablo Neruda '04
Milton Berle '08
Bill Cosby '37
13 lucid & pointed protest
John Clare 1793
Leroy Vinegar '28
Wole Soyinka '34
Albert Ayler '36
Cheech Marin '46
14 sensuous, soulful, prolific
Gustav Klimt 1862
Isaac Bashevis Singer '04
Ingmar Bergman '08
Terry-Thomas '11
Woody Guthrie '12
Kenneth Clark '14
Harry Dean Stanton '26
Rosie Grier '32
Wim Wenders '45
15 mystic synthesizer with a fleeting smile
Rembrandt 1606
Thomas Bullfinch 1796
Walter Benjamin 1892
Hammond Innes '13
Robert Conquest '17
Iris Murdoch '19
Philly Jo Jones '23
Jacques Derrida '30
Roky Erickson '47
Forest Whittaker '61
16 earth-lover
Jean Baptiste Corot 1796
Ida Wells 1862
Cal Tjader '25
Desmond Dekker '42
17 incisive & candid
S.Y. Agnon 1888
Christina Stead '02
Donald Sutherland '35
18 liberate
William Thackeray 1811
Clifford Odets '06
Nelson Mandela '18
Screamin Jay Hawkins '29
Hunter S. Thompson '37
Dion '39
Martha Reeves '41
Louis Owens '48
19 sensitive, generous, serious
Edgar Degas 1834
George McGovern '22
20 advocate of passion
Petrarch 1304
Theda Bara 1890
Ken Ogata (Ogata Akinobu) '37
Natalie Wood '38
Judy Chicago '39
Carlos Santana '47
21 quirky, beloved
Hart Crane 1899
Ernest Hemingway 1899
Marshall McLuhan '11
Don Knotts '24
John Gardner '33
Cat Stevens '48
Robin Williams '52
Jon Lovitz '57
22 warm, dry, sharp
Emma Lazarus 1819
Edward Hopper 1882
Terence Stamp '39
George Clinton '40
Vaughn Bodé '41
Danny Glover '47
Al DiMeola '54
Willem Dafoe '55
23 intense compassion & wit
Raymond Chandler 1880
Barbara Deming '17
Nancy Mairs '43
24 on a mission
Alexandre Dumas, pere 1802
Ira Aldridge 1804
Amelia Earhart 1897
John D. MacDonald '16
Bella Abzug '20
25 magician
Maxfield Parrish 1870
Elias Canetti '05
Annie Ross '30
Walter Payton '54
26 masterful, mercurial
George Bernard Shaw 1856
C.G. Jung 1875
Aldous Huxley 1894
Robert Graves 1895
Gracie Allen '02
Stanley Kubrick '28
Mick Jagger '44
Helen Mirren '46
Mike Beemer '49
Kevin Spacey '59
27 light, sober, concerned
Charlotte Corday 1768
Alexandre Dumas, fils 1824
Hillaire Belloc 1870
Bugs Bunny '40
Norman Lear '22
28 intimate, reserved, allusive
Gerard Hopkins 1844
Marcel Duchamp 1887
Kenneth Fearing '02
Malcolm Lowry '09
Woody Strode '14
Mike Bloomfield '44
Sarah Schulman '58
29 enlightenment
Alexis de Tocqueville 1805
Stanley Kunitz 1905
Chester Himes '09
Charlie Christian '16
Peter Jennings '38
30 solidity, precision
Emily Bronte 1818
Henry Moore 1898
Buddy Guy '36
Kate Bush '58
31 connection
Primo Levi '19
Kenny Burrell '31
Geraldine Chaplin '44
Stanley Jordan '59
August
1 prodigious seer
Herman Melville 1819
Jerry Garcia '42
Robert Cray '53
Chuck D '60
2 meticulous harmony
Elizabeth Bishop '11
James Baldwin '24
Peter O'Toole '33
Ree Morton '36
Garth Hudson '43
3 a mournful arrangement
Rupert Brooke 1887
P.D. James '20
4 deceptive confidence
Percy Shelley 1792
Knut Hamsun 1859
Louis Armstrong '01
Witold Gombrowicz '04
Virgilio Pinera '12
Billy Bob Thornton '55
Barack Obama '61
5 sharp eye, powerful manipulator
Guy de Maupassant 1850
John Huston '06
Airto '41
Wendell Berry '43
Pat Ewing '62
6 candid, explicit
Paul Claudel 1868
Clara Bow '05
Robert Mitchum '17
George Lamming '27
Andy Warhol '28
Aminata Moseka (Abby Lincoln) '30
Diane DiPrima '34
Charlie Haden '37
Isaac Hayes '38
Elliott Smith '69
7 pioneer, crowd-pleaser
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn 1890
Alfalfa (Carl Switzer) '27
Rahsaan Roland Kirk '36
8 sincere, candid, good
Sara Teasdale 1884
Nina Berberova '01
Dustin Hoffman '37
Keith Carradine '50
9 painstaking empathy
Izaak Walton 1593
John Dryden 1631
Jean Piaget 1896
Philip Larkin '22
Jack DeJohnette '42
10 sincere, ironic, iconic
Jack Haley '10
Jorge Amado '12
Ronnie Spector '43
Ian Anderson '47
Rosanna Arquette '59
11 dig deep
James Rosamund Johnson 1873
Louise Bogan 1897
August Wilson '13
Alex Haley '21
Jerzy Grotowski '33
Jan Palach '48
12 supernatural rhythm
Edith Hamilton 1867
Mark Knopfler '49
Pete Sampras '71
Pat Metheny '54
13 deadly wit
Lucy Stone 1818
Annie Oakley 1860
Bert Lahr 1895
Alfred Hitchcock 1899
Phillipe Petit '49
14 sassy
Stuff Smith '09
Russell Baker '25
Wim Wenders '45
Steve Martin '45
Larry Graham '46
Gary Larsen '50
Magic Johnson '59
15 gentle determination
Walter Scott 1771
E. Nesbit 1858
T.E. Lawrence 1888
Julia Child '12
Oscar Peterson '25
Jane Rule '31
Adam Yauch '67
16 the anguished truth
Charles Bukowski '20
Mal Waldron '26
Carl Perkins '28
Bill Evans '29
Ted Hughes '30
Alix Dobkin '40
Ruben Blades '48
17 committed
Oliver St. John Gogarty 1878
Marcus Garvey 1887
Mae West 1892
Ted Hughes '30
V.S.Naipaul '32
Ed Sanders '39
Robert DeNiro '43
18 out of left field
Shelley Winters '22
Alain Robbe-Grillet '22
Brian Aldis '25
Roman Polanski '33
Rafer Johnson '35
Martin Mull '43
Nona Hendryx '45
19 a bounteous gift
Charles Doughty 1843
Arthur Waley 1889
Ogden Nash '02
Johnny Nash '40
Bill Clinton '46
20 a dark gift
H.P. Lovecraft 1890
Jacob Glatshteyn 1896
Andrei Konchalovsky '37
Isaac Hayes '42
Robert Plant '48
21 string of hits
Aubrey Beardsley 1872
Count Basie '04
Art Farmer '28
Christiane LeGrand '30
Wilt Chamberlain '36
Jackie DeShannon '44
22 a light in the darkness, and vice-versa
Dorothy Parker 1893
Ray Bradbury '20
Dave Dellinger '22
Karlheinz Stockhausen '28
Vernon Reid '58
Regina Taylor '60
23 a light, engaging touch
Edgar Lee Masters 1869
Gene Kelly '12
Keith Moon '47
River Phoenix '70
24 perfection
Max Beerbohm 1872
Jean Rhys 1890
Jorge Luis Borges 1889
James Tiptree, Jr. '15
Solidarnosc '80
25 sass & irony
Bret Harte 1836
Clara Bow '05
Walt Kelly '13
Althea Gibson '27
Sean Connery '30
Wayne Shorter '33
Elvis Costello '54
26 look out
Guillaume Apollinaire 1880
Jimmy Rushing '02
Christopher Isherwood '04
Julio Cortázar '14
Barbara Ehrenreich '41
27 a new perspective
Confucius 551
Man Ray 1890
Lyndon Johnson '08
Lester Young '09
Alice Coltrane '37
Pee Wee Herman '52
28 light, authenticity
Johann Von Goethe 1749
James Wong Howe 1899
Morris Graves '10
Janet Frame '24
Kenny Drew '28
Ben Gazzera '30
phranc '57
29 classic, shaper
Jean Auguste Ingres 1780
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. 1809
Jack Teagarden '05
Ingrid Bergman '15
Charlie Parker '20
Dinah Washington '24
Eliot Gould '38
Diamanda Galas '55
30 zap
Mary Shelley 1797
Maggie Kuhn '05
R. Crumb '43
Jean-Claude Killy '43
Molly Ivins '44
31 engage
Maria Montesorri 1870
William Saroyan '08
James Coburn '28
Van Morrison '45
September
1 hel-lo
Yvonne DeCarlo '22
Art Pepper '25
Lily Tomlin '39
2 caring
Henry George 1839
Laurindo Almeida '17
Cleveland Amory '17
John Zorn '53
Keanu Reeves '64
3 smouldering
Sarah Orne Jewett 1849
Irene Papas '26
Sergei Dovlatov '41
Patrice Rushen '54
4 artist, world-beater
Antonin Artaud 1896
Mary Renault '05
Richard Wright '08
5 illuminator
Rene Grousset 1885
Arthur Koestler '05
John Cage '12
6 defender
Marquis de Lafayette 1757
Jane Addams 1860
Buddy Bolden 1877
7 gripping individualist
Queen Elizabeth I 1533
Eleanor Wylie 1885
Edith Sitwell 1887
Jacob Lawrence '17
Ronnie Gilbert '26
Sonny Rollins '29
Buddy Holly '36
Brenda Bufalino '39
Chrissie Hynde '51
8 to the limit
Ludovico Ariosto 1474
Anton Dvorak 1841
Alfred Jarry 1873
Siegfried Sassoon 1886
Sid Caesar '22
Peter Sellers '25
Patsy Cline '32
Pigpen '45
Freddie Mercury '46
Ann Beattie '47
9 indefatigable
Lev Tolstoy 1828
Paul Goodman '11
Elvin Jones '27
Sonny Rollins '30
Otis Redding '41
10 impossible
H.D. 1886
Georges Bataille 1897
Cyril Connolly '03
Yma Sumac '28
Jose Feliciano '45
11 human nature
O. Henry 1862
D.H. Lawrence 1885
Theodor Adorno '03
Ted Draper '12
Leo Kottke '45
12 intricate, acute, nuanced
H.L. Mencken 1880
Margaret Hamilton '02
Jesse Owens '13
Maria Muldaur '43
Rachel Ward '57
13 dark & bright
Sherwood Anderson 1876
J. B. Priestley 1894
Claudette Colbert '05
Leonard Feather '14
Roald Dahl '16
Judith Martin '38
14 devotion to enlightenment
Margaret Sanger 1879
Jan Masaryk 1886
Jack Hawkins '10
Kate Millet '34
15 scary
Robert Benchley 1889
Agatha Christie 1891
Margaret Lockwood '16
Cannonball Adderly '28
Oliver Stone '46
Tommy Lee Jones '47
16 natural style
Mexico 1810
T.E. Hulme 1883
Jean Arp 1887
Lauren Bacall '24
B.B. King '25
Charlie Byrd '25
John Knowles '26
Peter Falk '27
Elgin Baylor '34
17 speak up
William Carlos Williams 1883
Frank O'Connor '03
Mary Stewart '16
Hank Williams '23
Ken Kesey '35
18 straight shooter
Samuel Johnson 1709
Greta Garbo '05
Lance Armstrong '71
19 fantasy meets reality
Arthur Rackham 1867
William Golding '11
Francis Farmer '13
Marek Edelman '19
Mike Royko '32
David McCallum '33
Cass Eliot '41
Crystal Bullitt '70
20 mercurial, committed, witty
Upton Sinclair 1878
Jelly Roll Morton 1890
Stevie Smith '02
Donald Hall '28
Sophia Loren '34
21 dedicated
H.G. Wells 1866
Chico Hamilton '21
Leonard Cohen '34
Marsha Norman '47
Stephen King '47
Artis Gilmore '49
Bill Murray '50
22 contrary
Fay Weldon '33
Joan Jett '60
Eric Stolz '61
23 workhorse, friend
Walter Lippman 1889
Mickey Rooney '20
John Coltrane '26
Ray Charles '30
Jeremy Steig '43
Bruce Springsteen '49
24 fantasies of success
Horace Walpole 1717
F. Scott Fitzgerald 1896
Fats Navarro '23
Jim Henson '36
Phil Hartman '48
25 spirit
William Faulkner 1897
Mark Rothko '03
Red Smith '05
Dmitri Shostakovich '06
John Berryman '14
Glenn Gould '33
Bell Hooks '52
Scottie Pippen '65
26 covers all the bases
T.S. Eliot 1888
Marina Tsvetayeva 1892
George Gershwin 1898
Cyprian Ekwensi '21
Mihajlo Mihajlov '34
Andrea Dworkin '46
Serena Williams '81
27 devise the method
Thomas Nast 1840
William Empson '06
Bud Powell '24
28 a beauty
Caravaggio 1569
Prosper Merimee 1803
Marcello Mastroianni '24
Brigitte Bardot '34
Koko Taylor '35
Ben E. King '38
Janeane Garofalo '64
29 expose the truth
Cervantes 1547
Elizabeth Gaskell 1810
Boris Pilnyak 1894
Michelangelo Antonioni '12
Jean-Luc Ponty '42
Madeline Kahn '42
Lech Walesa '43
30 a careful touch
Deborah Kerr '21
Oscar Pettiford '22
Truman Capote '24
Elie Wiesel '28
Cissy Houston '33
Johnny Mathis '35
October
1 soft
Walter Matthau '20
Jimmy Carter '24
Lawrence Harvey '28
Richard Harris '32
2 simplicity: liberation
Nat Turner 1800
Mahatma Gandhi 1869
Wallace Stevens 1879
Groucho Marx 1898
Graham Greene '04
Crockett Johnson '06
Jan Morris '26
Richard Hell '49
3 so right
Sergei Esenin 1865
Pierre Bonnard 1867
Thomas Wolfe 1900
Gore Vidal '25
Steve Reich '36
Chubby Checker '41
4 dry mischief
Damon Runyon 1884
Buster Keaton 1895
Leon Thomas '37
Susan Sarandon '46
Alicia Silverstone '76
5 wry power
Denis Diderot 1713
Flann O'Brian '11
Donald Pleasence '19
Glynis Johns '23
Václav Havel '36
Steve Miller '43
Grant Hill '72
6 blatantly subtle
Le Corbusier 1887
Caroline Gordon 1895
Carole Lombard '08
7 breakthrough
Niels Bohr 1885
Andy Devine '05
Helen MacInnes '07
R.D. Laing '27
Desmond Tutu '31
Leroi Jones Amiri Baraka '34
Yo-Yo Ma '55
Dan Savage '64
8 the remedy
John Cowper Powys 1872
John Gardner '12
Jesse Jackson '41
Johnny Ramone '48
Sigourney Weaver '49
9 master of time
Miguel de Cervantes 1547
Léopold Senghor '06
Jacques Tati '08
Yusef Lateef '20
Tadeusz Rozewicz '21
John Lennon '40
Peter Tosh '44
10 take on all comers
Giuseppe Verdi 1813
Ivan Bunin 1870
Helen Hayes 1900
Thelonius Monk '17
Junior Mance '28
Harold Pinter '30
Ben Vereen '46
11 perfectionism, wit, gravitas
Eleanor Roosevelt 1884
François Mauriac 1885
Roman Jakobson 1896
Jerome Robbins '18
Art Blakey '19
Elmore Leonard '25
12 the way of the world
Sappho 612 b.c.
George Washington Cable 1844
Ann Petry '12
Stanislaw Lem '21
Dick Gregory '32
Sam Moore '35
13 contrapunctual
Allan Ramsay 1686
Arna Bontemps '02
Art Tatum '09
Yves Montand '21
Nipsy Russell '24
Lenny Bruce '25
Ray Brown '26
Pharoah Sanders '40
Paul Simon '41
14 all in the details
Helen Hunt Jackson 1830
Katherine Mansfield 1888
e.e. cummings 1894
Lillian Gish 1896
Hannah Arendt '06
John Wooden '10
15 liberate us
Virgil 70 b.c.
Friedrich Nietzsche 1844
P.G. Wodehouse 1881
John Kenneth Galbraith '08
Italo Calvino '23
Michel Foucault '26
Fela Anikolapu Kuti '38
16 power & illusion
Oscar Wilde 1854
Eugene O'Neill 1888
Gunter Grass '27
Anne Francis '30
Nico '38
Tim Robbins '58
17 uneasy, compelling
John Wilkes 1727
Isak Dinesen 1885
Arthur Miller '15
Montgomery Clift '20
Jimmy Breslin '30
Evel Knievel '38
Margot Kidder '48
Susan Marshall '58
18 hard-edged, very particular, and nice
Thomas Love Peacock 1785
Henri Bergson 1859
Anita O'Day '19
Melina Mercouri '23
Chuck Berry '26
Klaus Kinski '26
George C. Scott '27
Peter Boyle '35
Martina Navratilova '56
19 appreciative critic
Leigh Hunt 1784
Lewis Mumford 1895
John LeCarré '31
Divine '45
20 jaunty nightmares
Odilon Redon 1840
Arthur Rimbaud 1854
Charles Ives 1874
Bela Lugosi 1882
Jean Pierre Melville '17
Frank Herbert '20
Philip Whalen '23
Art Buchwald '25
Eddie Harris '36
21 syncopated, uplifting
Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772
Dizzy Gillespie '17
Ursula K. LeGuin '29
Manfred Mann '40
Steve Cropper '41
Elvin Bishop '42
Bill Russell '48
22 light, action
Franz Liszt 1811
Sarah Bernhardt 1844
N.C. Wyeth 1882
Doris Lessing '19
Robert Rauschenberg '25
Bobby Seale '36
Catherine Deneuve '43
23 no mercy
Pierre Larousse 1817
Louis Riel 1844
Pele '40
Weird Al Yankovic '59
24 cheerful heart-surgery
Moss Hart '04
Sonny Terry '13
Denise Levertov '23
Katherine Dunn '45
Kevin Kline '47
25 thorough
Georges Bizet 1838
Pablo Picasso 1881
Leo G. Carroll 1892
Jimmy Heath '26
Anne Tyler '41
26 a higher reality
Andrey Bely 1880
Mahalia Jackson '11
Jackie Coogan '14
Eddie Henderson '40
Bob Hoskins '42
Divine '45
Bootsy Collins '51
27 freedom ain't easy
Nestor Makhno 1889
Enid Bagnold 1889
Dylan Thomas '14
Ruby Dee '24
Sylvia Plath '32
John Cleese '39
Maxine Hong Kingston '40
Fran Lebowitz '50
28 equalizer
Desiderius Erasmus 1466
Evelyn Waugh '03
Francis Bacon '09
Jonas Salk '14
Charlie Daniels '36
Dennis Franz '44
Julia Roberts '67
29 laugh at yourself
James Boswell 1740
Leigh Whipper 1876
Fanny Brice 1891
Bill Mauldin '21
Zbigniew Herbert '24
Zoot Sims '25
Niki de Saint Phalle '30
Richard Dreyfuss '47
Winona Ryder '71
30 pure sensation
Richard Sheridan 1751
Fyodor Dostoevsky 1821
Alfred Sisley 1839
Paul Valery 1871
Ezra Pound 1885
Ruth Gordon 1896
Gordon Parks '12
Clifford Brown '30
Louis Malle '32
Henry Winkler '45
31 whose name was writ in water
John Evelyn 1620
Jan Vermeer 1632
John Keats 1795
Nadezhda Mandelstam 1899
Ethel Waters 1900
Illinois Jacquet '22
Booker Ervin '30
Sally Kirkland '44
Arnaud Desplechin '60
November
1 clear & right
Stephen Crane 1871
Sholem Asch 1880
Hermann Broch 1886
Naomi Mitcheson 1897
Sippie Wallace 1898
Lyle Lovett '57
2 defy gravity
Groucho Marx 1890
Luchino Visconti '06
Burt Lancaster '13
Ray Walston '14
k.d. lang '61
3 committed
Andre Malraux '01
Charles Bronson '31
Abbie Hoffman '36
Roseanne Barr '52
4 simple clarity
Will Rogers 1879
Walter Cronkite '16
Art Carney '18
Robert Mapplethorpe '46
Obama elected '08
5 shabby nobility
Ida Tarbell 1857
Joel McCrea '05
Art Garfunkle '41
Sam Shepard '43
Gram Parsons '46
Bill Walton '52
6 effective, affective
Thomas Kyd 1558
Adolphe Sax 1814
Robert Musil 1880
James Jones '21
Mike Nichols '31
Sally Field '46
7 lift us up
Marie Curie 1867
Albert Camus '13
R.A. Lafferty '14
Joni Mitchell '43
8 a wild ride home
Bram Stoker 1847
Dorothy Day 1897
Katherine Hepburn '09
Esther Rolle '20
Bonnie Bramlett '44
Minnie Riperton '48
Bonnie Raitt '49
Parker Posey '68
9 the brutal truth, gently put
Benjamin Banneker 1731
Ivan Turgenev 1818
Velimir Khlebnikov 1885
Mezz Mezzrow 1899
Rachel Rosenthal '26
Anne Sexton '28
Mary Travers '36
ti-grace atkinson '38
10 wide-ranging wit
William Hogarth 1697
Oliver Goldsmith 1728
Friedrich von Schiller 1759
Vachel Lindsay 1879
Claude Rains 1889
Richard Burton '25
Paul Bley '32
Hubert Laws '39
Sinbad '56
11 mesmerizing
Fyodor Dostoevsky 1821
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. '22
Shelly Winters '25
Ernestine Anderson '28
LaVern Baker '29
Bibi Andersson '35
Leonardo DiCaprio '74
12 push the envelope
Elizabeth Cady Stanton 1815
Auguste Rodin 1840
Roland Barthes '15
Grace Kelly '29
Wallace Shawn '43
Neil Young '45
Vic Chesnutt '64
Sammy Sosa '68
Tonya Harding '70
13 sensitive, devoted, singular
Edwin Booth 1833
Louis Brandeis 1856
Eugene Ionesco '12
Oskar Werner '22
Hampton Hawes '28
Richard Mulligan '32
Jean Seberg '38
John Hammond '42
Whoopi Goldberg '49
14 beautiful
Claude Monet 1840
Jawaharlal Nehru 1889
Aaron Copeland 1900
Marya Mannes '04
William Steig '07
Veronica Lake '19
15 poetic justice
Gerhart Hauptmann 1862
Charlotte Mew 1869
Georgia O'Keefe 1887
Marianne Moore 1887
Ed Asner '29
J.G. Ballard '30
Petula Clark '32
Clyde McPhatter '33
Sam Waterston '40
16 tough, sharp-eyed, visionary
W.C. Handy 1873
Aleksandr Blok 1880
George S. Kaufman 1889
Paul Hindemith 1895
Burgess Meredith '08
Chinua Achebe '30
Lisa Bonet '67
Oksana Baiul '77
17 uncompromising
Auguste Möbius 1790
Lee Strasberg '01
Peter Cook '37
Gordon Lightfoot '38
Martin Scorsese '42
Danny DeVito '44
RuPaul '60
18 revelator
Sojourner Truth 1787
Wyndham Lewis 1882
Imogene Coca '08
Hank Ballard '36
James Welch '40
Margaret Atwood '38
Graham Parker '50
19 friendly, incisive
Dick Cavett '36
Jodie Foster '62
20 incisive, thorough
Thomas Chatterton 1752
Selma Lagerlöf 1858
Alistair Cooke '08
Nadine Gordimer '23
Robert Kennedy '25
21 relaxed & witty technician
Jean François Voltaire 1694
Alexander Berkman 1870
Veza Canetti 1897
Rene Magritte 1898
Coleman Hawkins '04
Dr. John '40
Goldie Hawn '44
Ken Griffey, Jr. '69
22 intuitive
George Eliot 1819
Andre Gide 1869
Endre Ady 1877
Hoagy Carmichael 1899
Gunter Schuller '25
Robert Vaughn '32
Billy Jean King '43
Jamie Lee Curtis '58
Mariel Hemingway '61
23 mad hilarity
Boris Karloff 1887
Harpo Marx 1888
Paul Celan '20
Shel Silverstein '32
24 enlightenment
Benedictus Spinoza 1632
Laurence Sterne 1713
Scott Joplin 1868
Lee Michaels '45
25 go for broke
Carrie Nation 1846
Leonard Woolf 1880
Isaac Rosenberg 1890
Joseph Wood Krutch 1893
Joe DiMaggio '14
Paul Desmond '24
Nat Adderly '31
Lenny Wilkins '37
Shelegh Delaney '39
Percy Sledge '40
John Larroquette '47
26 the heart of the matter
William Cowper 1731
Eugène Ionesco '12
Charles Schulz '22
Tina Turner '38
Marilyn Hacker '42
27 tear up the script
James Agee '09
Buffalo Bob Smith '17
Alexander Dubcek '21
Al Jackson '35
Bruce Lee '40
Jimi Hendrix '42
Randy Brecker '45
28 set me straight
William Blake 1757
Dawn Powell '97
Claude Lévi-Strauss '08
Gato Barbieri '34
Randy Newman '43
Rita Mae Brown '44
Emmet Grogan '44
Ed Harris '50
29 stirring spirit
Wendell Phillips 1811
Louisa May Alcott 1832
C.S. Lewis 1898
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. '08
Madeline L'Engle '18
Pearl Primus '19
John Mayall '33
Gary Shandling '49
Cathy Moriarty '60
30 pointed wit
Jonathan Swift 1767
Mark Twain 1835
Abbie Hoffman '36
David Mamet '47
December
1 a self-revealing hoot
Woody Allen '35
Lou Rawls '36
Richard Pryor '40
Bette Midler '45
Jaco Pastorius '51
2 infinite pains
Georges Seurat 1859
Nikos Kazantzakis 1885
Peter Goldmark '06
Maria Callas '23
Julie Harris '25
Wynton Kelly '31
Monica Seles '73
3 unchained melody
Padre Soler 1729
Joseph Conrad 1857
Jean-Luc Goddard '30
Del Shannon '39
John Cale '40
4 foe of conformity
Thomas Carlyle 1795
Samuel Butler 1835
Crazy Horse 1842
Wassily Kandinsky 1866
Rainer Maria Rilke 1875
Jim Hall '30
Jeff Bridges '49
Jesse Bernstein '50
Cassandra Wilson '55
5 serenity = hysteria
Christina Rossetti 1830
Wassily Kandinsky 1866
Werner Heisenberg '01
Little Richard '32
Joan Didion '34
J.J. Cale '38
6 self-effacing, but not subtle
Kahlil Gibran 1886
Agnes Moorhead '06
Mary Barnard '09
Dave Brubeck '20
Wally Cox '24
Miroslav Vitous '47
Steven Wright '55
7 sensitive
Willa Cather 1873
Eli Wallach '15
Ellen Burstyn '32
Tom Waits '49
Larry Bird '56
C. Thomas Howell '66
8 panoramic
Horace 65 b.c.
Jean Sibelius 1865
Norman Douglas 1868
Padraic Colum 1881
Diego Rivera 1886
James Thurber 1894
Lee J. Cobb '11
Delmore Schwartz '13
Jimmy Smith '25
Jim Morrison '43
Mary Gordon '49
Sinead O'Connor '66
9 heretical, commanding affection
John Milton 1608
Joel Chandler Harris 1848
Emmett Kelly 1898
Margaret Hamilton '02
Kirk Douglas '16
Redd Foxx '22
Sarah Wright '28
John Osborne '29
Donald Byrd '32
Joan Armatrading '50
John Malkovich '53
10 love against death
Emily Dickinson 1830
Gertrude Kolmar 1894
Rumer Godden '07
Olivier Messiaen '08
Reginald Rose '20
Carolyn Kizer '23
Clarice Lispector '24
11 broad strokes, heart
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn '18
Elizaveta Voronskaya '18
Big Mama Thornton '26
Rita Moreno '31
McCoy Tyner '38
Booker T. Jones '44
12 beauty, reality, tenderness
Gustave Flaubert 1821
Edvard Munch 1863
Vasily Grossman '05
Richard Hugo '23
Helen Frankenthaler '28
Toshiko Akiyoshi '29
Connie Francis '38
Dionne Warwick '40
Grover Washington Jr. '43
Tony Williams '45
13 nervous irony
Nostradamus 1503
Heinrich Heine 1797
Mary Butts 1890
Kenneth Patchen '11
Archie Moore '13
14 dark, audacious
Paul Elouard 1895
Shirley Jackson '19
Clark Terry '20
Lee Remick '35
Stanley Crouch '45
Lester Bangs '48
15 so close to greatness
Maxwell Anderson 1888
Betty Smith '04
Stan Kenton '11
Friedensreich Hundertwasser '28
Tim Conway '33
Cindy Birdsong '39
Dave Clark '42
Surya Bonaly '73
16 enhanced reality
Ludwig Van Beethoven 1770
Jane Austen 1775
George Santayana 1863
Vladimir Tatlin 1885
Noel Coward 1899
Margaret Mead '01
Philip K. Dick '28
Joe Farrell '37
Liv Ullmann '39
17 critic, dreamer
Ford Maddox Ford 1873
Erskine Caldwell '03
Ezekiel Mphalele '19
Paul Butterfield '42
18 make the invisible visible
Saki 1870
Paul Klee 1879
Eddie Vinson '17
Ossie Davis '17
Keith Richards '43
Steve Biko '46
19 naked heart
Lezama Lima '10
Jean Genet '10
Edith Piaf '15
Bob Brookmeyer '29
Cicily Tyson '33
Phil Ochs '40
Darryl Hannah '60
20 intense, deft, complex
George MacDonald 1824
Eugenia Ginzburg '06
Hortense Calisher '11
Alex Chilton '50
Billy Bragg '57
Anita Baker '57
21 conscience, verve & an even keel
Masaccio 1401
Benjamin Disraeli 1804
Peter Kropotkin 1842
Heinrich Böll '17
Frank Zappa '40
Samuel L. Jackson '48
22 uncertain fate
Jean-Baptiste Racine 1639
Edwin Arlington Robinson 1869
Kenneth Rexroth '05
Nathaniel West '40
Robin & Maurice Gibb '49
23 world-weary earth-shaker
Madame C.J. Walker 1867
Giuseppe di Lampedusa 1896
José Greco '18
Robert Bly '26
Chet Baker '29
Esther Phillips '35
Tim Hardin '41
24 righteous
Michael Curtiz 1888
I.F. Stone '07
Ava Gardner '22
25 smart, comprehensive, truthful
Isaac Newton 1642
Maurice Utrillo 1883
Kid Ory 1886
Rebecca West '92
Humphrey Bogart '99
Cab Calloway '07
Quentin Crisp '08
Anwar Sadat '18
Rod Serling '24
Little Richard '32
Sissy Spacek '49
Annie Lennox '54
26 indelible craftsmanship
Thomas Gray 1816
Jean Toomer 1894
Henry Miller 1891
Richard Widmark '14
Steve Allen '21
Phil Spector '40
27 knowledge
Johannes Kepler 1571
Louis Pasteur 1822
Mina Loy 1882
Marlene Dietrich '04
Charles Olson '10
John Amos '39
Gerard Depardieu '48
28 sure-handed, joy & beauty
Pio Baroja 1872
Earl Fatha Hines '03
Pop Staples '15
Johnny Otis '21
Ed Thigpen '30
Guy Debord '31
Manuel Puig '32
Maggie Smith '34
Edgar Winter '46
Denzel Washington '54
29 light & melancholy
Andrew Johnson 1808
Pablo Casals 1876
Mary Tyler Moore '36
Jon Voight '38
Marianne Faithfull '46
30 determined, funny
Stephen Leacock 1869
Paul Bowles '10
Jack Lord '20
Bo Diddley '28
Russ Tamblyn '34
Paul Stookey '37
Del Shannon '39
Patti Smith '46
Tracy Ullman '59
Tiger Woods '75
31 colorful, sensual, dedicated
John Wycliffe 1320
Henri Matisse 1869
Odetta '30
Sarah Miles '41
Cecelia Holland '43
Ben Kingsley '43
Patti Smith '46
Val Kilmer '59
references:
twentieth-century culture - bullock & woodings, ed. 1983
(omits lots of women - dorothy day, emma goldman, nadine gordimer, eva hesse, zora hurston, jane jacobs, doris lessing, flannery o'connor, dorothy parker, edith piaf, dorothy richardson, margaret sanger, anne sexton, susan sontag; and african-americans - ralph ellison, thurgood marshall, richard wright; but lists mediocrities like larry adler, wladyslaw gomulka, alger hiss, vidkun quisling, aleksey tolstoy. except for the obvious bias in selection, a very useful biographical dictionary)
penguin encyclopedia of pop music - clarke, ed. 1989
(comprehensive, generous, mostly accurate. missing: paul & paula, the sonics, the cyrkle, rufus harley, lothar & the hand people, cris williamson, linda tillery, ferron, phranc, butthole surfers, husker dü)
required writing - philip larkin 1983
1999 sheroes calendar - ho & genetti, eds.
cyclopedia of world authors - magill, ed. 1958
encyclopedia brittanica 1911
quotidian - gudrun cable 1978
famousbirthdays.com
can't find birthdays for:
(in the '90s it was frustrating trying to find certain individuals, search engines usurped the poet ai with artificial intelligence and the poet alta with software companies. mary barnard yielded reams and reams of geneological sites, and kim stanley was eclipsed by the science fiction writer kim stanley robinson. wikipedia has suddenly let me wipe out 50 names here)
alta '36?
teo savory
? (rudy martinez) '45
nell dunn '36
linda tillery
willie tyson
cris williamson '47
meg christian '46
margie adam '47
sharon doubiago '46
gibby haynes '57
intentionally omitted (i don't like them, or consider them minor, overrated, unworthy. or else I don't know enough about them to judge, irrational reasons, or they spoil the pattern so drastically that I doubt that's really their birthday):
lewis carroll 1/27
al kooper 2/5
mircea eliade 3/8
florence nightengale 5/12
louis-ferdinand celine 5/27
t-bone walker 5/28
alanis morrissette 6/1
de sade 6/2
phylicia rashad 6/19
eric dickerson 9/2
clayton moore 9/14
victoria woodhull 9/23
meat loaf 9/27
spanky mcfarland 10/2
cornell wilde 10/13
ike turner 11/5
al hirt 11/7
hedy lamar 11/9
dick powell 11/14
donn byrne 11/20
benjamin britten 11/22
shuggie otis 11/30
agnes moorehead 12/6
flip wilson 12/8
maximilian schell 12/8
mary queen of scots 12/8
john hammond, sr. 12/10
kenneth branagh 12/10
brenda lee 12/11
paul eluard 12/14
noel coward 12/16
arthur c. clarke 12/16
paul winchell 12/21
lew ayres 12/28
rudyard kipling 12/30
britt eklund
richard wagner
lindsay wagner
jack dempsey
william wellman
A menology was a medieval catalogue of Saint's days.
1:
j - radical, rhythm, heartstrings
f - liberation
m - thorough, sweet
a - commanding, charming
etc - bright & wrenching yarnspinning
say no more
deep reserves
prodigious seer
hel-lo
soft
clear & right
a self-revealing hoot