Al Jolson (Asa Yoelson)(1888-1950) was born in Russia on October 23, 1888. Brothers Judd recommends the movie The Jolson Story (1946) and the album On Broadway

Doris Lessing (1919-) was born in Iran on October 22, 1919. Read Orrin's review of The Golden Notebook (1962)(Grade: F).

Benjamin Netanyahu (1949 - ). Born in Tel Aviv on October 21, 1949. Read Orrin's review of Fighting Terrorism : How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists.

Ursula K. LeGuin (1929-) was born in Berkeley, CA on October 21, 1929. Read Orrin's review of The Lathe of Heaven (1971)(Grade: A)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was born in Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire, England on October 21, 1722. Check out an online version of his Lyrical Ballads (1798)

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (1917-93) was born in Cheraw, S.C. on October 21, 1917. Glenn Dryfoos recommends Sonny Side Up (great bop, featuring the 2 tenor titans, Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt); Things to Come (showing off Dizzy's great Big Band); Jazz at Massey Hall (with Charlie Parker, Max Roach, Charles Mingus and Bud Powell...the greatest collection of bebop talent ever on one stage)

Robert Pinsky (1940-) was born in Long Branch, NJ on October 20, 1940. As Poet Laureate, he has worked on the Favorite Poem Project, visit the site and add yours. Read Orrin's review of his translation ofThe Inferno (1314)(translation 1994)(Dante Alighieri 1265-1321) (translated by Robert Pinsky 1940-) (Grade: A+)

Daniel Nathan (1905-?) was born in Brooklyn, NY on October 20, 1905. Together with his cousin, Manford Lepofsky, he wrote the Ellery Queen mystery series. Read Orrin's review of There Was an Old Woman (1943)(Grade: B)

David John Moore Cornwell Born in Poole, Dorset, October 19, 1931. Read Orrin's review of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1963)(John LeCarré [David Cornwell] 1931-)

Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) was born in Flushing, NY on October 19, 1895. Read Orrin's review of The City in History (1961)(#76 on the Modern Library Top 100 Nonfiction Books of the 20th Century)

H.L. Davis, born in Yoncalla, Oregon, October 18, 1896. Davis worked as a cowboy, typesetter, and surveyor before his poems started getting published. H.L. Mencken was one of his early fans and encouraged him to try his hand at fiction. Davis went to Mexico in the early '30s and wrote his novel Honey in the Horn there, which won the 1936 Pulitzer Prize.

Wynton Marsalis (1961-) was born in New Orleans, LA on October 18, 1961.

Nathanael West (1902-40) was born in New York, NY on October 17, 1902. Read Orrin's reviews of The Day of the Locust (1939)(Grade: C-)(#73 on the Modern Library Top 100) & Miss Lonelyhearts (1933)(Grade: B)

Jean Arthur (Gladys Georgianna Greene), was born in Plattsburg, New York on October 17, 1900

Arthur Miller (1915-) was born in New York, NY on October 17, 1915. Read Orrin's review of Death of a Salesman (1949)

October 16 is the anniversary of JOHN BROWN's 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia, where he and 22 men seized the Wagner House Hotel, the federal arsenal, the town firehouse, and about 30 citizens. Brown was 60 years old and a white man; his aim: to free the slaves and create an independent Negro republic. The whole thing was a disaster. Two days later a squad of Marines under Robert E. Lee battered down the firehouse door and captured Brown and his men, six of whom, including Brown, were hanged a few weeks later.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-) was born in Iona Station, Ontario on October 15, 1908. Read Orrin's review of The Affluent Society (1958)

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was born in Prussia on October 15, 1844. Read Orrin's review of The Birth of Tragedy (1872)(Grade: C)

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-) was born in Denison, TX on October 14, 1890. Read Orrin's review of Mayday: Eisenhower, Khrushchev and the U-2 Affair (1986)(Michael R. Beschloss 1955-) (Grade: A)

E(dward) E(stlin) Cummings (1894-1962) was born in Cambridge, MA on October 14, 1894.

Chuck Yeager broke the Sound Barrier on October 14, 1947, flying 670 miles per hour in a Bell X-1 rocket plane. Read Orrin's review of The Right Stuff (1979)(Tom Wolfe 1931-) (Grade: A+)

Albert Jay Nock (1872-1945) was born in Scranton, PA on October 13, 1870. Read Orrin's review of Memoirs of a Superfluous Man (1943) (Grade : A+)

The blessed Margaret Thatcher (1925-) was born in Grantham, ENG on October 13, 1925. Read Orrin's review of Thatcher For Beginners (1997)(Peter Pugh and Carl Flint)

Conrad Richter (1890-1968) was born in Pine Grove, PA on October 13, 1890. Read Orrin's review of The Light in the Forest (1953)(Grade: C)

Virgil (70 B.C.?-19 B.C.) was born in Mantua, in Cisalpine Gaul on October 13, 70 BC. Read Orrin's review of The Aeneid (19 B.C.)(Grade: A)

Elmore Leonard (1925-) was born in New Orleans, LA on October 11, 1925. Read Orrin's review of Swag (1976)(Grade: A)

Jill Ker Conway (1934-) was born in New South Wales, Australia on October 9, 1934. Read Orrin's review of her memoir, The Road from Coorain (1989)(Grade: C)

Walter Lord (1917-) was born in Baltimore, MD on October 8, 1917. Read Orrin's review of Day of Infamy (1957) (Grade: A)

Thomas Keneally (1935-) was born in Sydney, Australia on October 7, 1935. Read Orrin's review of Schindler's List (1982)(Grade: A)

Caroline Ferguson Gordon (1895-1981) was born in Merry Mont, KY on October 6, 1895. Read Orrin's review of Aleck Maury, Sportsman (1934)

Chester Alan Arthur (1830-86) was born in Fairfield, VT on October 5, 1830. The Internet Public Library is good source for info on Presidents.

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822-1893) was born in Delaware, OH on October 4, 1822. You can find his Diary & Letters online.

Hugh Brody (1943-) was born on October 4, 1943. Read Orrin's review of The Other Side of Eden : Hunters, Farmers and the Shaping of the World (2001)

Alain-Fournier [Henri Alban Fournier] (1886-1914) was born in La Chapelle-d'Angillon, FR on October 3, 1886. Read Orrin's review of The Wanderer or The End of Youth (1912).

James Herriot, author of the All Creatures Great and Small Series, born in Glasgow, Scotland, October 3, 1916.