Photo Credit: Carl Van Vechten

This week, we’re celebrating Roald Dahl’s birthday (September 13th, 1916). Dahl was the author of many well-known children’s books including, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Matilda which became a Broadway play in 2013. While many know him for his children’s stories, he also wrote screenplays (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) and was an avid writer of adult fiction as well. Dahl was known for his darkly comic and unsentimental tales for children and adults.

“So, please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install, a lovely bookcase on the wall.”
-Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

 Dahl also wrote two autobiographies, Boy: Tales of Childhood (1984) which reflected on his childhood, and Going Solo (1986) which detailed Dahl’s life during WWII.

“Two hours of writing fiction leaves this writer completely drained. For those two hours he has been in a different place with totally different people.”

An advocate for children, he has a charity in his name in the United Kingdom: Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity. Dahl continues to inspire many readers, even today, years after his death in 1990. Join people all over the world and celebrate Roald Dahl Day.

Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.
— Roald Dahl, The Minpins