National Author's Day



Nellie Verne Burt McPherson, then president of the Illinois’ Women’s Club, is the originator of the concept to celebrate a day dedicated to authors. She wrote a letter to her favorite author. In response, he sent her a signed copy of one of his works. Out of appreciation, she promoted the idea of a national author’s day to the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. The federation supported a resolution in May 1929 to foster National Author’s Day. Twenty years later, the US Department of Commerce officially recognized the day.

What’s it like to be an aspiring author? It isn’t easy to put into words.

Why are writers always cold? They’re surrounded by drafts.


The way a book is read, which is to say, the qualities a reader brings to a book can have as much to do with its worth as anything the author puts into it. ~ Norman Cousin


Here are a few ways you can celebrate National Author’s Day:

Offer to be a beta reader.

Send a Thank you letter to an author.

Buy an indie book [an independently published book].

Commit a favorite passage to memory.

Begin your own novel. November is also National Novel Writing Month, which began in 1999. NaNoWriMo is a challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel in the month of November. Do you dare?


To learn more about the Author, JL Huffman, look at her author website or follow her on Twitter @JoanHuffmanMD. You can find her books on Amazon: Almanac: The Four Seasons and Family Treasons.

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