Born on August 17, 1959
Novelist and essayist Jonathan Franzen, who grew up in St. Louis, made an acclaimed and indelible contribution to American fiction. In 2001 he floored both the literary world and the reading public with his novel The Corrections, which won the National Book Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. In his books Freedom, Purity, and Crossroads, he continued to comment on American culture and depict complex personal and family dynamics. He infused insight and humor into his rich character-driven work. Jonathan Franzen was also known for his essays and journalism, which regularly appeared in national magazines, primarily The New Yorker, and were collected in several volumes.
