1 / Alex Haley / Working as a journalist
2 / Alice Walker / Blinded in one eye after being shot by her brother with a BB gun / Kelly Preston
3 / Ambrose Bierce / Disappearance after following Pancho Villa
4 / Amiri Baraka / Effect of the assassination of Malcolm X / Bailey Nolfe
5 / Amy Tan / Publication of The Joy Luck Club / Vera Wei
6 / Anne Bradstreet / Publication of The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, by a Gentlewoman of Those Parts.
7 / Anne Lamont / Subject of a 1999 documentary
8 / Anne Sexton / Collaboration with Maxine Kumin
9 / Anne Tyler / Childhood in Quaker communities
10 / Annie Dillard / Receiving the Pulitzer Prize at 29
11 / Arna Bontemps / Move to New York
12 / Arthur Miller / Marriage to Marilyn Monroe / Frances Del Cid
13 / Avi (Edward Irving Wortis) / Struggle with dysgraphia / Chloe Elias
14 / Barbara Kingsolver / War Protests
15 / Benjamin Franklin / Kite experiment / Adam Zane
16 / Bernard Malamud / Teaching at Oregon State University
17 / Brandon Sanderson / Finishing a series for Robert Jordan / Chad Basical
19 / Bret Harte / Move to California
20 / Carl Sandburg / Receiving his first Pulitzer Prize
21 / Chaim Potok / Publication of The Chosen
22 / Chris Kyle / Publication of American Sniper / Naomi Allsman
23 / Christopher Paolini / Publication of Eragon / Hunter Lazar
24 / Claude McKay / Conversion to Catholicism
25 / Countee Cullen / Schooling at Harvard
26 / Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) / Struggle to publish The Basic Eight / Jackie Queja
27 / E. B. White / Working for The New Yorker / Aimee Oliverio
28 / E. E. Cummings / Time as a political prisoner / Kevin Bartolome
29 / Edgar Allan Poe / The death of his wife Virginia / Zachary Byrd Crawley
30 / Edna St. Vincent Millay / Education at Vassar College
31 / Edwin Arlington Robinson / Rejected marriage proposals to his brother’s wife / Jaclyn A.
32 / Elizabeth Bishop / Friendship with Robert Lowell
33 / Emily Dickinson / Sends four poems to Thomas Wentworth Higginson / James Duke
34 / Emma Lazarus / Donation of a sonnet for the Statue of Liberty
35 / Ernest Hemingway / Experiences in WWI / Scott Simus
36 / Eudora Welty / Mentoring of Katherine Anne Porter
37 / Eugene O’Neill / Time spent in a sanatorium because of tuberculosis
38 / Ezra Pound / Indicted for treason / Claire Hesseltine
39 / F. Scott Fitzgerald / Broken engagement to Zelda Sayre / Valeria Juarez
40 / Flannery O’Connor / Return to her family home after diagnosed with lupus
41 / Frank Baum / Publication of The Wizard of Oz / Julia Rigsby
42 / Frank Norris / Attendance at UC, Berkeley
43 / Frederick Douglass / The publication of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass / Coda Hernandez
44 / Gary Soto / Studying poetry under Phillip Levine
45 / George Martin / Death of his friend Tom Reamy / Angelo Simorangkir
46 / Gertrude Stein / Move to Paris
47 / Gwendolyn Brooks / Education in Chicago-area schools
48 / Harper Lee / Writing To Kill a Mockingbird / Lindsay Purpura
49 / Harriet Beecher Stowe / Publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin / Lucina Mangoba
50 / Henry David Thoreau / The night he spent in jail / Jurell Dial
51 / Henry James / Travels to Europe
52 / Henry Wadsworth Longfellow / Death of his first wife / Jim Yang
53 / Herman Melville / Friendship with Hawthorne
54 / J. D. Salinger / Publication of Catcher in the Rye / Shan Xu
55 / Jack Kirby / Split with DC Comics / Bella Nelson
56 / Jack London / Accusations of Plagiarism of Chapter 7 of The Iron Heel / Jose Rivas
57 / James Baldwin / Influence of Beauford Delaney
58 / James Fenimore Cooper / Publication of The Pioneers
59 / James Michener / World War II service
60 / James Thurber / Blinding from a game of William Tell
61 / Jimmy Santiago Baca / Time spent in prison
62 / Joan Didion / Deaths of her husband and daughter / Sarah Davari
63 / John Dos Passos / Service in World War I / Chris Choi
64 / John Green / Working in a cancer unit / Cameryn Baker
65 / John Hersey / Interviewing survivors from Hiroshima
66 / John Steinbeck / Publication of Tortilla Flat / Grant Ratana
67 / John Updike / Working at The New Yorker
68 / Jonathan Franzan / Publication of The Corrections
69 / Joyce Carol Oates / The death of her husband
70 / Judy Blume / Publication of Are You There Go?, It’s Me, Margaret / Marisa Sugiono
71 / Julia Alvarez / Move to the United States
72 / Kate Chopin / The publication of The Awakening
73 / Katherine Anne Porter / 1918 flu pandemic
74 / Langston Hughes / Education at Columbia University / Cole Castelo
75 / Laura Hillenbrand / Publication of Seabiscuit / Yssa Fernando
76 / Laura Ingalls Wilder / Collaboration with her daughter, Rose / Micah Puni
77 / Lois Lowry / Freelance writer for Redbook magazine / Austin Klein
78 / Louis Sachar / Receiving the 1999 Newbery Medal
79 / Louisa May Alcott / Childhood in a Transcendentalist community / Victoria Likens
80 / Madeleine L’Engle / Move to New York City in 1941
81 / Marianne Moore / Editor of The Dial magazine
82 / Mark Twain / The publication of “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” / Lauren Ankrum
83 / Martin Luther King / Montgomery Bus Boycott / Ricardo Montanez
84 / Mary Austin / Move to California
85 / Maxine Hong Kingston / Publication of her memoir
86 / Maya Angelou / Publication of her memoir / Emily Pangalila
87 / Michael Chabon / Publication of his first novel / Andrew Loh
88 / Michael Crichton / English grade in high school / Annelise Mace
89 / Nathaniel Hawthorne / Publication of The Scarlet Letter / Sean Jin
90 / Nikki Giovanni / Teaching Seung-Hui Cho at Virginia Tech
91 / Norman Mailer / World War II service / Carlos Reyes
92 / Oliver Wendell Holmes / Friendships with the Transcendentalists
93 / Patrick Henry / The delivery of his “Speech in the Virginia Convention”
94 / Paul Laurence Dunbar / Writing the lyrics for In Dahomey
95 / Pearl S. Buck / Receiving the Nobel Prize / Daniela Mejia
96 / Peter Benchley / Publication of Jaws / Mari Silva
97 / Phillis Wheatley / Trip to England / Natalie Peters
98 / R.L. Stine / Working for the Nickelodeon network / Landis Elston-Hurdle
99 / Ralph Ellison / Publication of Invisible Man / Skylar Evans
100 / Ralph Waldo Emerson / Delivery of the Phi Beta Kappa Address “The American Scholar / Ian Hartwell
101 / Ray Bradbury / Publication of Fahrenheit 451 / Dylan Behseresht
102 / Raymond Carver / Sobriety
103 / Richard Wright / Joining the Communist Party / Roland Williams
104 / Robert Frost / Living in England / Jenny Hubbard
105 / Robert Hayden / Conversion to the Bahá'í faith
106 / Robert Kirkman / Publication of The Walking Dead / Cinthia Gonzalez
107 / S. E. Hinton / Publication of The Outsiders / Blake Walker
108 / Sandra Cisneros / Publication of her first novel
109 / Scott O’Dell / Working for the Los Angeles Mirror / Crisbel Mendez
110 / Shel Silverstein / Death of his daughter, Shoshanna / Jeffrey Hall
111 / Shirley Jackson / Publication of “The Lottery” / Brittney Singh
112 / Sinclair Lewis / Receiving the Nobel Prize
113 / Stan Lee / Becoming Marvel editor at 19 / Hunter Short
114 / Stephanie Meyer / Publication of Twilight / Janna Que
115 / Stephen Crane / The wreck of the SS Commodore / Kyle Bugayang
116 / Stephen King / Abandoned by father at 2 years old / Kaitlyn Etzweiler
117 / Susan Collins / Working at Nickelodeon / Sonny Choi
118 / Sylvia Plath / Suicide attempt while attending Smith College / Alexis Townsend
119 / T. S. Eliot / Move to England
120 / Tennessee Williams / Close relationship with his sister Rose / Lunden Spencer
121 / Theodor Seuss Geisel / Publication of his first book / Etienne Hein
122 / Theodore Roethke / Teaching at the University of Washington
123 / Thomas Paine / Publication of Common Sense
124 / Thornton Wilder / Receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Our Town
125 / Tim O’Brien / Participation in My Lai Massacre / Shannon Wong
126 / Toni Morrison / Receiving the Nobel Prize in literature in 1993 / Jeff Ding
127 / Truman Capote / Writing In Cold Blood / Jerry Gilbert
128 / Upton Sinclair / Joining the Communist Party / Christer Jorgensen
129 / Veronica Roth / Publication of Divergent / Haley Hoag
130 / W. H. Auden / Move to America
131 / Wallace Stegner / Teaching career at Stanford University
132 / Wallace Stevens / World War I service / Dara Salamante
133 / Walt Whitman / The publication of “O Captain, My Captain”
134 / Washington Irving / Creation of the literary magazine, Salmagundi
135 / Willa Cather / Childhood move to Nebraska
136 / William Carlos Williams / Association with “The Others” / Ethan Goyne
137 / William Cullen Bryant / Publication of “Thanatopsis “ / Samantha Grossman
138 / William Faulkner / Winning the Nobel Prize / Elijah Velasquez
139 / William Saroyan / Time spent in an orphanage / Krysthel Gamayo
140 / Zane Grey / Publication of his first western / Harley Kerr
141 / Zora Neale Hurston / Travels to Jamaica and Haiti in 1936-1937
Dean Koontz Trinity Tanner
Jack Karouac Michael Lowe
Cassandra Clare Kaitlyn Etzweiler
Tupac Shakur Matai Mayne
Kanye West Elijah Mopera
Malcolm X Jordan Awoniyi
H.P. Lovecraft Quintin Tabingo