On this date ...

... in 1890, Conrad Richter was born in Pine Grove, Pa. Pine Grove is about a 20-minute drive from Pottsville, where John O'Hara was born. Both won the National Book Award (Richter also won the Pulitzer). About an hour south is Shillington, where John Updike - who has won both the Pulitzer and the NBA twice - was born and raised. And Shillington is right outside Reading, which is where Wallace Stevens hailed from. Can't be many places in this country that have that kind of literary record.