LitBirthdays author calendar January 9

Philippa Gregory (born January 9, 1954) – UK historical novelist – The Other Boleyn Girl (2001)

Read about xxx here

Watch xxx
here

Simone de Beauvoir (born January 9, 1908) – French philosopher, essayist, novelist – The Ethics of Ambiguity (French title: Pour une morale de l’ambiguïté)

Read about Simone de Beauvoir here

Hayim Nahman Bialik (born January 9, 1873) - Israeli poet

Read about Hayim Nahman Bialik here

I Didn’t Win Light in a Windfall

I didn’t win light in a windfall,

nor by deed of a father’s will.

I hewed my light from granite.

I quarried my heart.

In the mine of my heart

a spark hides – not large, but wholly my own.

Neither hired, nor borrowed,

nor stolen – my very own.

Sorrow wields huge hammer blows,

the rock of endurance cracks

blinding my eye with flashes I catch in verse.

They fly from my lines to your breast

to vanish in kindled flame.

While I, with heart’s blood and marrow

pay the price of the blaze.

Read the Authors Calendar biography of Bialik

http://web.archive.org/web/20130104014908/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/bialik.htm

Read Bialik's poem On the Threshold of the House of Prayer/Al Saf Beis HaMidrash in Hebrew

http://www.benyehuda.org/bialik/bia012.html

Read commentary on this poem

http://bit.ly/8yQTaW

Thorvald Steen (born January 9, 1954) - Norwegian novelist - Camel Clouds / Kamelskyer

Thorvald Steen's books are listed here

Watch an interview with Thorvald Steen (Norwegian language) talking about the story of Saladin, featured in Steen's 2004 novel Camel Clouds