… of novelist Joyce Carol Oates. She’s 68.
She is one of the most prolific writers of her generation, having published almost one hundred books in forty years, including novels, short stories, plays, poetry and essays. She’s the author of many novels, including Them (1969), Bellefleur (1980), and We Were the Mulvaneys (1996).
…When asked how she can write so much, Oates says she just works steadily, about eight or ten hours a day. She spends a lot of her time thinking about her work while she’s running, walking, or bicycling. She said, “At such times the imagination floats free, and one can contemplate one’s work with an almost magical detachment.”
… of Lamont Dozier, 65 today. Who is Lamont Dozier you say? Along with Eddie and Brian Holland, Dozier wrote a few songs you may know, among them:
Baby I Need Your Loving
Baby Love
Bernadette
Come See About Me
Nowhere To Run
I Hear a Symphony
My World Is Empty Without You
Reach Out, I’ll Be There
How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You
(Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) I Can’t Help Myself
Stop! In The Name Of Love
This Old Heart Of Mine
It’s The Same Old Song
Jimmy Mack
… of Roberto Duran. “No mas” is 55. (In a 1980 fight with Sugar Ray Leonard, with 16 seconds remaining in the 8th round, Duran had enough. He told the referee, “No mas, no mas.”)
… of Phil Mickelson. Lefty is 36 today.
And, it was on this date in 1904 that Leopold Bloom took his epic journey through Dublin in James Joyce’s Ulysses. Happy Bloomsday.