Events on February 07, 2007:

Author Birthdays: More, Dickens & Lewis

Today is the birthday of Sir Thomas More (1478), the chancellor of England and author of the satire Utopia.

Today is also the birthday of Charles Dickens (1812).  At the age of 24, Dickens started the weekly serial publication of The Pickwick Papers, which quickly made him a literary phenomenon. All his major novels were published in the serial format, and throughout his life Dickens missed only two deadlines: when his sister-in-law died during Oliver Twist, and his own death while writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Today is also the birthday of author Sinclair Lewis (1885), self-described "dull fellow" who chronicled and satirized middle-American values in such books as Babbitt and Main Street.