- Colley Cibber died on 12/11/1757. “You know, one had as good be out of the world, as out of the fashion.” (An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber)
- Gustave Flaubert was born on 12/12/1821. “Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry.” (Madame Bovary)
- Robert Browning died on 12/12/1889. “Take away love and our earth is a tomb.” (Paracelsus; Sordello; Love Among the Ruins)
- Samuel Johnson died on 12/13/1784. “Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.” (A Dictionary of the English Language; A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland; London)
- Heinrich Heine was born on 12/13/1797. “Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.” (The North Sea; The Salon)
- Shirley Jackson was born on 12/14/1916 (or 1919). “I delight in what I fear.” (The Haunting of Hill House)
- Maxwell Anderson was born on 12/15/1888. “This liberty will look easy by and by when nobody dies to get it.” (What Price Glory; Saturday’s Children; Both Your Houses; Winterset; Knickerbocker Holiday; Key Largo; Anne of the Thousand Days)
- Betty Smith was born on 12/15/1896. “I wrote about people who liked fake fireplaces in their parlor, who thought a brass horse with a clock imbedded in its flank was wonderful.” (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn)
- Jane Austen was born on 12/16/1775. “There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.” (Sense and Sensibility; Pride and Prejudice; Mansfield Park; Emma; Northanger Abbey; Persuasion)
- George Santayana was born on 12/16/1863. “An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world.” (The Sense of Beauty; The Life of Reason; The Realms of Being)
- Sir Noël Coward was born on 12/16/1899. “I love criticism just so long as it’s unqualified praise.” (Hay Fever; Private Lives; Cavalcade; Design for Living; Tonight at 8:30; Blithe Spirit)
- W. Somerset Maugham died on 12/16/1965. “Only a mediocre person is always at his best.” (Of Human Bondage; The Moon and Sixpence; The Painted Veil; Cakes and Ale; The Razor’s Edge)
[All images are in the Public Domain and are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 
Excellent post!
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Thank you! It’s a regular feature on the blog.
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“Poetry is as precise as geometry.” This resonates with me today… In the kids’ writing group I facilitate on Tuesdays, we’re working on poetry. One tiny girl in enormous blue glasses wrote a 6-word poem about her lunch and it was brilliant. Precision, indeed.
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You must have so much fun with your kids’ writing group! I’m sure her poem was wonderful, as kids certainly have a beautiful, direct way of breaking things down to the basics.
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The Dead Writers Roundup has become one of my very favorite posts on WordPress. I look forward to reading all of them. The quotes are always fabulous. The one that really grabbed me this time was Shirley Jackson’s quote. I can relate to it, lol.
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Aw, sweet! That is a huge compliment. I love doing this series. I have been doing a variation of it for 8 years. The current form is definitely my favourite of them all, though. I have been obsessed with people’s birth and death dates since I was a kid, so it only makes sense to do this. 🙂
Yeah, I think the Shirley Jackson quote is wonderful and powerful.
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This is so interesting! I’m glad I stumbled upon your blog.
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Aw, thanks for your kind words!
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