Mark Twain at 15.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, later known as Mark Twain,
was born in Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835.

Clemens was apprenticed to a printer at age 13 and later
worked for his older brother, who established the Hannibal
Journal. In 1857, the Keokuk Daily Post commissioned him
to write a series of comic travel letters, but after writing five
he decided to become a steamboat captain instead.

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak
(29 January] 1890 – 30 May 1960)

On October 23, 1958, Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Literature for Doctor Zhivago, his romantic novel set
against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution.

The book was banned in the Soviet Union, and the Soviet
government forced the author to renounce the honor.

On July 14th, 1946, at the dawn of the post-World War II baby
boom, Dr. Benjamin Spock published The Common Sense
Book of Baby and Child Care. It would become a foundational
work on the topic of parenting, transforming how generations
of children were raised.

The book, which has sold more than 50 million copies and
been translated into more than 50 languages, stands as one
of the best-selling nonfiction works of the 20th century.

The book’s premise told mothers, "You know more than you
think you do."

Benjamin McLane Spock (May 2, 1903 – March 15, 1998)

Moby-Dick is now considered a great classic of American
literature and contains one of the most famous opening
lines in fiction: “Call me Ishmael.” Initially, though, the
book about Captain Ahab and his quest to catch a giant
white whale was a flop.

Its author, Herman Melville was born in New York City in
1819. As a young man, he spent time in the merchant
marines, the U.S. Navy and on a whaling ship in the
South Seas.

Herman Melville
(August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891)

CAMMILE
BOHANNON