• Henry Miller was born on 12/26/1891. “Back of every creation, supporting it like an arch, is faith. Enthusiasm is nothing: it comes and goes. But if one believes, then miracles occur.” (Tropic of Cancer; Black Spring; Tropic of Capricorn)
• Charles Lamb died on 12/27/1834. “Anything awful makes me laugh. I misbehaved once at a funeral.” (Tales from Shakespeare; Essays of Elia)
• Theodore Dreiser died on 12/28/1945. “In order to have wisdom we must have ignorance.” (Sister Carrie; An American Tragedy)
• Christina Rossetti died on 12/29/1894. “Hope is like a harebell trembling from its birth.” (Goblin Market; In the Bleak Midwinter)
• Rainer Maria Rilke died on 12/29/1926. “I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone.” (Letters to a Young Poet; Sonnets to Orpheus)
• Rudyard Kipling was born on 12/30/1865. “All the people like us are we, and everyone else is They.” (The Jungle Book; Kim; Just So Stories)
• Paul Bowles was born on 12/30/1910. “The sky hides the night behind it, and shelters the people beneath from the horror that lies above.” (The Sheltering Sky; Let it Come Down; The Delicate Prey and Other Stories)
• Romain Rolland died on 12/30/1944. “It is the artist’s business to create sunshine when the sun fails.” (Georges Danton; Jean-Christophe; Handel; Life of Tolstoy)

Charles Lamb, 1798

Theodore Dreiser, 1917

Christina Rossetti, 1866

Rainer Maria Rilke, 1900

Rudyard Kipling

Romain Rolland, 1915

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