Because Shakespeare.

Born in rural Pennsylvania, and spending most of his life in semi-rural eastern settings, Updike originally hoped to become a cartoonist, edited the Harvard Lampoon, then worked for The New Yorker, but became one of the greatest and most prolific interpreters in fiction of the experience of ordinary, middle-class American men. His “Rabbit” Angstrom series

                  Today is the 212th birthday of Charles Dickens, novelist extraordinaire.  Dickens wrote 14 novels between 1836 and 1865, in the process becoming one of the most famous writers in the world.  His novels have never been out of print, his name has been transformed into an