Reynolds Price (1933-) was born in Macon, NC on February 1, 1933

John Ford (1895-) was born in Cape Elizabeth, ME on February 1, 1895. He was recently named one of Brothers Judd Ten Greatest Cultural Figures of the 20th Century.

Langston Hughes (1902-67) was born in Joplin, MO on February 1, 1902. Read Orrin's review of The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (Grade: B+)

Muriel Spark (1918-) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on February 1, 1918. Read Orrin's review of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961)(Grade: D)

Thomas M. Disch (1940-) was born in Des Moines, IA on February 2, 1940. Read Orrin's review of The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World (1998)

James Joyce (1882-1941) was born in Dublin, IRE on February 2, 1882. Read Orrin's reviews of:A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)(Grade: F), Ulysses (1918)(F x Googleplex), Finnegan's Wake (1939)(Grade: G) and The Death of a Joyce Scholar: A Peter McGarr Mystery (1989)(Bartholomew Gill 1943-)

James Dickey (1925-97) was born on February 2, 1925. Read Orrin's review of Deliverance (1970) (Grade: A+)

Ayn Rand (1905-82) was born on February 2, 1905. Read Orrin's review of Anthem (1946)(Grade: A)

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) was born in New York, NY on February 3, 1894.

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) was born in Allegheny, PA on February 3, 1874.

Felix Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, GER on February 3, 1809.

James A. Michener was born on February 3, 1907.

Paul Auster (1947-) was born in Newark, NJ on February 3, 1947. Read Orrin's reviews of The Music of Chance (1990) (Grade: A-) and Paul Auster's City of Glass: A Graphic Mystery (1994) (adapted by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli) (Grade: A)

Robert Coover (1932-) was born in Charles City, IA on February 4, 1932. Read Orrin's review of The Universal Baseball Association, Inc. : J. Henry Waugh, Prop. (Grade: A-)

Russell Hoban was born in Lansdale, PA on February 4, 1925

Charles A. Lindbergh (1902-74) was born in Detroit, MI on February 4, 1902. Read Orrin's reviews ofThe Spirit of St. Louis (1953) (Grade: A+) andLindbergh (1998)(A. Scott Berg) (Grade: A+)

John Guare (1938-) was born in New York, NY on February 5, 1938. Read our review of Six Degrees of Separation (1990).

Bob Marley (1945-81) was born in Rhoden Hall, Jamaica on February 5, 1945. Brothers Judd recommends Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley (Timothy White)

Hank Aaron (1934-) was born in Mobile, AL on February 5, 1934. Read Orrin's review of I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Story (1991)(Henry Aaron (1935-) with Lonnie Wheeler)(Grade: A)

Tom Brokaw (1940-) was born in Yankton, SD on February 6, 1940. Read Orrin's review of The Greatest Generation (1999)(Grade: D+)

Ronald Reagan (1911-) was born in Tampico, IL on February 6, 1911. Read Orrin's reviews of: Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan (1999)(Edmund Morris)(Grade: A/F),What I Saw At the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era (1990)(Peggy Noonan 1950-) (Grade: A-)and On the Brink; The Dramatic Saga of How the Reagan Administration Changed the Course of History and Won the Cold War (1996)(Jay Winik) (Grade: A+)

George Herman "Babe" Ruth (1895-) was born in Baltimore, MD on February 6, 1895. Brothers Judd recommends Robert Creamer's great biography: Babe: The Legend Comes to Life

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was born in Landport, ENG on February 7, 1812. Read Orrin's reviews of A Christmas Carol (1843)(Grade: A+), A Tale of Two Cities (1859)(Grade: A+) and Great Expectations (1860-61)(Grade: A+)

Sir James Murray (1837-) was born in Denholm, Scotland on February 7, 1837. Read Orrin's review of The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (1998)(Simon Winchester) (Grade: B+)

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) was born in Sauk Centre, MN on February 7, 1885. Read Orrin's review of Main Street (1920)(Grade: C)

Sir Thomas More (1477-1535) was born in London, ENG on February 7, 1477. Read Orrin's review of A Man for All Seasons (1960)(Robert Bolt) (Grade: A+)

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-) was born in Pepin, WI on February 7, 1867.

Gay Talese (1932-) in Ocean City, NJ on February 7, 1932. Read Orrin's review of Honor Thy Father (1971) (Grade: A)

John Grisham (1955-) was born in Jonesboro, AR on February 8, 1955. Read our review of The Firm (1991).

Jules Verne (1828-1905) was born on February 8, 1828. Read Orrin's review of Around the World in Eighty Days (1873) (Grade: A+)

Kate Chopin (1851-1904) was born in St. Louis, MO on February 8, 1851. Read Orrin's review of The Awakening (1899)(Grade: B+)

Alban Berg was born in Vienna, Austria on February 9, 1885

Alice Walker (1944-) was born in Eatonton, GA on February 9, 1944. Read Orrin's review of The Color Purple (1982)(Grade: B+)

Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) was born in Moscow, Russia on February 10, 1890. Read Orrin's review of Doctor Zhivago (1956)(Boris Pasternak 1890-1960) (Grade: B-)

Berthold Brecht(1898-1956), German playwright, was born in Augsburg, Bavaria on February 10, 1898.

Darren Aronofsky was born in Brooklyn, NY on February 12, 1969. Read Orrin's review of the movie Pi (1988) (directed by Darren Aronofsky 1969-)

Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) was born in Hodgenville, KY on February 12, 1809. Brothers Judd recommends Lincoln (1995)(David Herbert Donald)

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in New York, NY on February 12, 1909.

Charles Darwin (1809-82) was born in Shrewsbury, ENG on February 12, 1809. Brothers Judd recommends the excellent critical analysis Darwin on Trial (1993) (Phillip E. Johnson)

Grant Wood (1892-1942) was born near Anamosa, IA on February 13, 1892. He is best, perhaps only, remembered for American Gothic

Georges Simenon (1903-89), creator of the immortal French detective Maigret, was born in Lieges, BELG on February 13, 1903. Brothers Judd recommends the whole series, try A Maigret Trio.

Sax Rohmer (1886-1959) was born in Birmingham, ENG on February 15, 1883. Read Orrin's review of The Insidious Fu Manchu (1911)(Sax Rohmer [Arthur Sarsfield Ward]1886-1959)(Grade: B)

Douglas R. Hofstadter (1945-) was born on February 15, 1945. Brothers Judd recommends Godel, Escher, Bach : An Eternal Golden Braid (1979)

Henry Brook Adams (1838-1919) was born in Boston, MA on February 16, 1838. Read Orrin's review of Democracy: An American Novel (1880)

Richard Ford (1944-) was born in Jackson, MS on February 16, 1944. Read Orrin's review of The Sportswriter (1986)(Grade: C)

Chaim Potok (1929-) was born in New York, NY on February 17, 1929. Read Orrin's review of The Chosen (1967)

Wallace Stegner (1909-93) was born on February 18, 1909. Read Orrin's review of Angle of Repose (1971)(Grade: C)

Toni Morrison [Chloe Anthony Woodford] (1931-) was born in Lorain, OH on February 18, 1931. Read Orrin's review of Beloved (1987)(Grade: F)

Carson McCullers (1917-67) was born in Columbus, GA on February 19, 1917. Read Orrin's review of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940)(Grade: D)(#17 on the Modern Library List of the Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century)

Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) was born in Torun, Poland on February 19, 1473

Richard Matheson (1926-) was born in Allendale, NJ on February 20, 1926. Read Orrin's review of I Am Legend (1954) (Richard Matheson 1926-).

Pierre Boulle (1912-1994) was born in Avignon, France on February 20, 1912. Read Orrin's review of The Bridge over the River Kwai (1952)(Grade: A+) and Planet of the Apes (1963)(Pierre Boulle 1912-1994)(translated by Xan Fielding)(Grade: A)

Ansel Adams (1902-84) was born in San Francisco, CA on February 20, 1902.

Anais Nin (1903-77) was born in Neuilly, France on February 20, 1903.

W.H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden (1907-73) was born in Yorkshire, ENG on February 21, 1907.

George Washington (1732-99) was born in Bridge's Creek, Westmoreland County, VA on February 22, 1732. Read Orrin's review of Rules of Civility: The 110 Precepts That Guided Our First President in War and Peace (1997)(George Washington 1732-1799)(edited and with notes by Richard Brookhiser) (Grade: A)

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) was born in Halle, Germany on February 23, 1685.

W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois (1868-1963) was born in Barrington, MA on February 23, 1868. Brothers Judd recommends The Souls of Black Folk (1903)

Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) was born in in Chicago, IL on February 23, 1875. Read Orrin's review of Tarzan of the Apes (1912)(Grade: A+)

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), famed Diarist, was born in London, ENG on February 23, 1633.

Wilhelm Karl Grimm (1786-) was born in Hanau, Germany on February 24, 1786.

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was born in Boston, MA on February 24, 1836.

John Peter "Honus" Wagner (1874-1955) was born in Mansfield (Carnegie), PA on February 24, 1874.

Enrico Caruso (1873-1921) was born in Naples, Italy on February 25, 1873.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) was born in Limoges, France on February 25, 1841.

Anthony Burgess (1917-1993) Manchester, ENG on February 25, 1917. Read Orrin's review of A Clockwork Orange (1962)(Grade: A+)

Victor Hugo (1802-85) was born in Besancon, France on February 26, 1802. Read Orrin's review of Les Miserables (1862)(Victor Hugo 1802-85) (Grade: A/B+)

Robert D. Novak was born February 26, 1931 in Joliet, Illinois. Brothers Judd recommends Completing the Revolution: A Vision for Victory in 2000 (2000) (Robert D. Novak 1931)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was born in Portland, ME on February 27, 1807.

John Steinbeck (1902-68), 1962 Nobel Laureate, was born in Salinas, CA on February 27, 1902. Read Orrin's reviews of Of Mice and Men (1937)(Grade: A+), The Grapes of Wrath (1939)(Grade: A-)(#10 on the Modern Library Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century) and The Winter of Our Discontent (1961)(Grade: B)

James Thomas Farrell (1904-79) was born in Chicago, IL on February 27, 1912. Read Orrin's review of Studs Lonigan (1932-35) (Grade: D) (#29 on the Modern Library Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century)

Lawrence Durrell (1912-90) was born in Jullundur, India on February 27, 1912. Read Orrin's review of The Alexandria Quartet (1957-60) (Grade: F)(#70 on the Modern Library Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century)

Irwin Shaw [IRWIN GILBERT SHAMFOROFF] (1913-1984) was born in The Bronx, NY on February 27, 1913. Brothers Judd recommends The Young Lions (1948) and Rich Man, Poor Man (1970)

Michel de Montaigne (1533-92), famous for his essays, was born at Château de Montaigne, near Bordeaux, France on February 28, 1533.

Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) was born in Pesaro, Papal States [Italy] on February 29, 1792. Brothers Judd recommends Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville, 1816)