• Sir Arthur Wing Pinero died on 11/23/1934. “Where there’s tea there’s hope.” (The Second Mrs. Tanqueray; The Enchanted Cottage; The Amazons)
• Andre Malraux died on 11/23/1976. “Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.” (Man’s Fate)
• Roald Dahl died on 11/23/1990. “Two hours of writing fiction leaves this writer completely drained. For those two hours he has been in a different place with totally different people.” (James and the Giant Peach; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Matilda; The Witches; Fantastic Mr. Fox)
• Laurence Sterne was born on 11/24/1713. “I take a simple view of life. It is keep your eyes open and get on with it.” (The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman)
• Dodie Smith died on 11/24/1990. “Contemplation seems to be about the only luxury that costs nothing.” (The Hundred and One Dalmatians; I Capture the Castle)
• Upton Sinclair died on 11/25/1968. “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” (The Jungle; King Coal; Dragon’s Teeth)
• Eugene Ionesco was born on 11/26/1909. “A work of art is above all an adventure of the mind.” (The Killer; The Hermit)
• Cyril Connolly died on 11/26/1974. “It is only in the country that we can get to know a person or a book.” (The Rock Pool; Enemies of Promise; The Unquiet Grave)
• Alexandre Dumas Fils died on 11/27/1895. “I prefer rogues to imbeciles, because they sometimes take a rest.” (The Lady of the Camellia’s)
• James Agee was born on 11/27/1909. “This continent, an open palm spread frank before the sky.” (A Death in the Family; Let Us Now Praise Famous Men)
• Eugene O’Neill died on 11/27/1953. “Obsessed by a fairy tale, we spend our lives searching for a magic door and a lost kingdom of peace.” (Anna Christie; Desire Under the Elms; Mourning Becomes Electra; Ah, Wilderness!; The Iceman Cometh; Long Day’s Journey Into Night)

Sir Arthur Wing Pinero

Andre Malraux, center

Upton Sinclair

Eugene Ionesco

Alexandre Dumas Fils

Eugene O’Neill, 1892-1894

[All images are in the Public Domain and are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]