National Author's Day 2026 Is Sunday, Nov. 1: Where It Began and a Free Reading Log

National Author’s Day falls on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, a day for reading authors and thanking them, and two newsrooms, Illinois Times and The Hans India, trace it to a 1928 proposal from a women’s club in Bement, Illinois. No agency owns the day, and it is not a federal holiday, so nothing closes. The page below covers where it came from, which weekday Nov. 1 lands on through 2030 and a free reading log for the first week of November.

Where did National Author’s Day come from?

No official owner or registry exists for the day, so the origin rests on two independent accounts that agree. In an Illinois Times column published Nov. 10, 2022, John Hallwas wrote that “back in 1928” Nellie Verne Burt McPherson, president of the Woman’s Club at Bement, Illinois, came up with the idea. The column describes her as a teacher and says the General Federation of Women’s Clubs approved it.

The Hans India (Arti Adke, Nov. 1, 2023) tells the same story: McPherson was president of the Bement women’s club and in 1928 proposed a National Author’s Day to the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. The Hans India adds a detail the Illinois column does not have. She had written to the author Irving Bacheller, and he sent back a signed copy of a different novel.

On recognition, both name the federal government. Illinois Times says the Department of Commerce made it a recognized national day in 1949 and that November 1 was National Authors’ Day. The Hans India says only that the United States Department of Commerce made it a nationally recognized holiday, with no year. We use 1949 as Illinois Times’ figure and do not go further than the two accounts.

Is National Author’s Day a day off?

No. Nov. 1 does not appear in the federal holiday list kept by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), so we found no source that makes it a day off. In 2026 it lands on a Sunday. The next federal holiday this month is Veterans Day on Wednesday, Nov. 11. See our Veterans Day 2026 story for that date.

National Author’s Day dates, 2026 to 2030

The date is fixed, so only the weekday moves. We computed these from the calendar.

Year	Nov. 1 falls on	Weekend or weekday
2026	Sunday	Weekend
2027	Monday	Weekday
2028	Wednesday	Weekday
2029	Thursday	Weekday
2030	Friday	Weekday

Our November 2026 printable calendar shows the whole month if you want to plan more reading days.

How can you mark National Author’s Day?

The history gives a hint: the day began as a fan letter and a request that readers recognize writers. These are simple actions, none of which needs a purchase or an account.

• Read something by one author, even a single chapter.
• Borrow a book from a library, or ask the library to order one it lacks.
• Write a short review of a book you liked, or recommend it to a friend.
• Write a thank-you note. Many publishers list a contact page on their websites; check the publisher’s site rather than guessing an address.

Our free reading log turns those ideas into a one-week plan from Sunday, Nov. 1 to Saturday, Nov. 7, with tick boxes and a lined notes area for titles. Print it on letter paper, or use the ink saver version, and pin it where the books are. For a reader who prefers a longer project, our Pride and Prejudice reading plan lays out a schedule ahead of its Dec. 3 release date, and the printable weekly calendar leaves room for daily reading time.

What we could not confirm: a single official page for the day, and further details of McPherson’s request beyond what the two newsrooms report. If a federal or club archive page becomes available, we will check it against the 1928 and 1949 dates above.