This Week in Reading April 26 - May 2

Authors born this week:

Nobel Prize Winners
Poet Vicente Aleixandre (1977)

Novelists and Story Writers

Jose de Alencar, Rafael Sabatini, Jaroslav Hasek, Antal Szerb, Morris West, Harper Lee, Joseph Heller, Bernard Malamud, Terry Southern, Annie Dillard, John Boyne

Poets and Playwrights
Poets: Roberto Bolano, Rod McKuen Playwrights: Jerome K. Jerome, Clyde Fitch, Anita Loos, August Wilson

Thinkers, Believers, Scientists, Historians, Biographers
Thinkers: David Hume, Herbert Spencer, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Ludwig Wittgenstein Scientists: Benjamin Spock Historians: Edward Gibbon, Aviva Chomsky

Humorists, Essayists, Editors, Journalists, Officials, and Others
Humorists: John Arbuthnot Essayists: Joseph Addison, Mary Wollstonecraft, Coretta Scott King Journalists: Karl Kraus, Hedda Hopper, Maury Allen, Rowland Evans Officials: Marcus Aurelius Media and others: Alice B. Toklas, Lorenz Hart, Jack Paar, Alice Waters, Jay Leno, Larry Elder, Jerry Seinfeld

Mystery / Crime / Suspense Writers
Mystery: Jill Paton Walsh, Ian Rankin Suspense: Alistair MacLean

Fantasy / Science Fiction Writers
Fantasy: Terry Pratchett, Joel Rosenburg Science Fiction: E. E. Smith, Jack Williamson, A. E. van Vogt, Larry Niven, Robert J. Sawyer

Visual Artists
Illustrators: John James Audubon

Young People’s Writers
Teen Authors: Lois Duncan


Events to read about, as always.

This Week’s Questions:

Science fiction is strongly represented this week. In fact, there is someone known as the "Dean of Science Fiction." There is also the "Father of Space Operas." Another created some "Laws of Science Fiction." More than one credit libraries for inspiring their imaginations. Who are they?

Answer to Last Week’s Questions:

Most Shakespeare companies and festivals perform on stages named after donors or founders. Two were named the Globe, such as the Old Globe in San Diego and the newly built London replica called Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on the site of the original. Although there may be smaller ones somewhere, the only prominent performance stage named the Royal Shakespeare Theatre are the ones used by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England. It is currently closed for reconstruction until next year and performances are in the Courtyard Theatre and at other stages in London and Newcastle.

Classic mystery novelist Ngaio Marsh, known as one of the four "Queens of Crime" of the Golden Age of English detective novels, wrote over thirty mysteries set around the stage in the first half of the twentieth century. Marsh was a theatrical director herself in New Zealand. The University of Canterbury, in Christchurch, named the Ngaio Marsh Theatre to honor her endeavors there. Marsh's novels were set in England, primarily in London's West End. Marsh's genttlemanly detective, Roderick Alleyn, was not an actor (like Simon Brett's amateur detective Charles Paris) but he loved theatre and the actresses he met there.