Harry Potter liked owls. So did Merlin.
Literary Names of Note This Week
Richard Steele wrote about reading as mental exercise, and how one continues to learn as one ages. Steele and Joseph Addison, created one of the first must read daily magazines in England, The Spectator, in 1711, They intended their daily 2500 word ‘talking points’ "to enliven morality with wit … to bring philosophy out of the closets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and coffeehouses.” In other words, to be just like many a good blog today. Will today’s better, wittier blogs be studied by literary graduate students three hundred years from now as well? Probably. Social literary motive doesn’t change, the media we use do.
Many question whether he really did get any better at writing with age, but the salacious detective writer was only interested in being a better Mickey Spillane. At the other end of the spectrum, the very literary playwright who felt a responsibility to instruct, and did, was Edward Albee. The brilliant humorist who understood, and was likely in awe of, both of them was Douglas Adams whose Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy also had room for Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.. What is literature after all but people talking to others in diverse ways?
The youngest author born this week surely sold more copies than any other writer born this week and the next youngest after that one put out works that sold in the millions, too. But several of the other authors who share the week had a much larger impact upon the world beyond reading, from theatre, film, and popular music to philosophy, religion and sociological research that affected many millions. Some the events affected many millions, too. 
Answer to Last Week's Question: Sorry, this trick question tricked even me. None of last week's authors said it. I thought it was argued that Ben Jonson actually wrote it but it was penned by the little known Robert Greene, who wrote in 1592 "For there is an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with a tiger's heart wrapped in a player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as is the best of you; and being an absolute Johannes fac totum is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country." Jonson, on the other hand, eulogized Shakepeare with "He was not of an age but for all time." I used Bartlett's Familiar Quotations to find these out.
This week's authors start with Dashiell Hammett, whose mysteries hinted at some of modern society's distrust of its own formulaic expectations, and end with Thomas Hardy, whose writings' veneer of middle class respectability in the post-Victorian era hid deep narratives that led the way into more modern writing, including the Twentieth Century stories of John Cheever and the novels of Walker Percy. There are wonderful discursions along the way as well, from T.H. White's King Arthur and G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown mysteries, Ian Fleming's James Bond adventures, and authors of other genres for other tastes. Enjoy.
Big doings around here this week. It is not only the birthdate of one of Glendale's most famous former residents but, just like the Glendale Public Library, it is the one hundreth anniversary of movie legend John Wayne's birthday. 
What kind of society is it to be, not just this one, but any one? And how are we all going to get along as we figure that out? Are the answers sometimes absurd, reasonable, or poltically necessary? Those questions were on a few minds of this week's authors and event participants, from social philosophy to personal behavior, but at least there is some foolery, follies, and food, too.
Shakespeare, Sue Grafton, O Henry, the Library of Congress, Earth Day, Michael Moore, Shirley McLaine, and one of the most disturbing events ever to occur. There's plenty of big name book choices in the library from the lists of events to read about and authors to read this week. We hope our new two column format makes it easier to scan. Click on the event description or author name to see what the library has and click on a book image to see where that book is in the library and then place a request to put it in your hands.
We just had Passover last week and this week not only Easter is celebrated in both Christian and Orthodox societies but so is the birthday of Buddha. There are more events to read about this week than authors. Don't risk fate; stay home and read on Friday the Thirteenth.
April is national Poetry Month. Read a poem, or two, or three this month and keep reading poems as long as you can. If not, there are plenty of other types of reading to select from authors born this week, more so than from any other week yet.
