This Month in St. Louis history

Famous St. Louis authors; a baseball milestone

September is a good month to talk about St. Louis' rich literary history. Two famous authors--one a kid's poet and the other a giant of adult literature--were born in St. Louis during September.

The baseball milestone came only four years ago. Mark McGwire passed Roger Maris' season home run record when he hit his 62nd homer on Sept. 8, 1998. He went on to hit 70 that season. (Maris broke Babe Ruth's record of 60 homers while a New York Yankee. But, Maris also played for the St. Louis Cardinals late in his career.)

But, the Giants' Barry Bonds toppled McGwire's record in 2001 and this year has topped 600 total homers, a total McGwire never did reach.

The two famous St. Louis authors with September birthdays were Eugene Field and T.S. Eliot. Field was born on Sept. 2, 1850, while Eliot was born on Sept. 26, 1888.

Field was known as the "children's poet" for books like "Wynken, Blyken and Nod." His childhood home on South Broadway near Busch Stadium is now a children's museum, filled with historic children's toys.

For more on Field and the museum, go to: www.eugenefieldhouse.org/history.html.

Field and T.S. Eliot are just two St. Louis authors who have their stars on the Walk of Fame in University City's downtown loop. A walk on Delmar Avenue to read about the Walk of Famers is interesting.

Among other authors with stars are natives Maya Angelou and Tennessee William along with humorist Stanley Elkin, and poets Howard Nemerov and Mona Van Duyn. Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson before changing her name.

Nemerov and Van Duyn both were poets laureate of the United States.

For more about McGwire, Bonds and baseball, you can go to Major League Baseball's website at: mlb.com (you don't need www.)

A footnote: Although not a St. Louisan, outlaw Missourian Jessie James was born Sept. 5, 1847. For more about James, see: www.memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/sept05.html