Leo (23 July - 22 August)

Symbolized by a horseshoe who won’t let chronic scoliosis stand in the way of her stardom, the Leo writer is represented by the Almighty Sun, or as Ancient Greeks knew him, Helios: god of the daddy complex, guardian of the limelight, and protector of leave-in curl-activating conditioner. 

Physically, these writers are prone to spine and back pains more than others, perhaps from yet another marathon session, hunched over their laptop, picking blonde hairs out of their coffee mug, while putting the finishing touches on their latest tale of doomed romance. 

Associated with the Fifth House, Leo writers are the tourists of the zodiac, hellbent on sports, leisure, and love, especially love in the form of honeymoons, first dates and one-night-stands. So too, Leo’s characters seem to have a proclivity for terminal romance. 

E. Annie Proulx’s (August 12, 1935) collection, Close Range: Wyoming Stories includes the piece “Brokeback Mountain,” centering on two ranch hands who spend summers entangled together in a forbidden affair; while Emily Brontë’s (July 30, 1818) Wuthering Heights, sees Heathcliff perpetually pining for Catherine’s ghost. And again, in James Baldwin’s (August 2, 1924) Giovanni’s Room, where David deals with his own internalized homophobia after a secret affair with a bartender, now on death-row.

You might assume Scorpios had the monopoly on revenge tales, but that honor might just go to Leos. Once crossed, these writers will show their claws. 

In Herman Melville’s (August 1, 1819) Moby Dick, where Captain Ahab will sacrifice everything just to harpoon the white whale who bit off his leg, or Alexandre Dumas’s (July 24, 1802) The Count of Monte Cristo, which follows Edmont Dantès as he’s framed for a crime, escapes imprisonment, and reinvents himself, repaying those who were kind to him, and punishing his foes. Once their pride has been challenged, these fiery characters are driven to extremes in the name of redemption. 

As one of the four Fixed Signs of the Zodiac (along with Taurus, Scorpio and Aquarius) these writers are tireless workers. Often, their characters start as unassuming, blue-collar John-Everyman types, just trying to avoid attention. 

Ray Bradbury’s (August 22, 1920) Fahrenheit 451 sees Guy Montag toiling away as a “fire man,” in a world that has prohibited books. And Aldous Huxley’s (July 26, 1894) Brave New World sees milquetoast psychologist Bernard Marx grappling with his Napoleon-complex in a seemingly worry-free utopia, before love and adventure find him. 

Sometimes their rags to riches stories never quite reach the riches part. Charles Bukowski’s (August 16, 1920) Ham on Rye and Frank McCourt’s (August 19, 1930) Angela’s Ashes both loose memoirs about growing up during the Great Depression. 

More often than not, Leo’s characters begin as ugly-ducklings, destined for big city fame, fortune and perhaps even global adulation. Jacqueline Susann’s (August 20, 1918) Valley of the Dolls has working-class Anne Welles catch the eye of an undercover millionaire, becoming an overnight celebrity. Or Suzanne Collins’s (August 10, 1962) The Hunger Games, where impoverished Katniss Everdeen battles Panem’s aristocratic Capitol, and in true Leo fashion, becomes a superstar in the process. 

Leo’s interminable drive to attain glory can sometimes send characters flying too close to the Sun. In Zelda Fitzgerald’s (July 24, 1900) Save Me the Waltz, Alabama Beggs’s dreams of being the world’s greatest ballerina are squashed by a foot injury, and Daniel Keyes’ (August 9, 1927) Flowers for Algernon, which follows unassuming, low-IQ, janitor Charlie Gordon and the chemical experiments that give him a superhuman intellect, fleeting as it may be. 

Leos have all the potential to write themselves into the spotlight of history, with their ugly-ducklings and rags-to-riches journeys toward glamorous heroics. If they can just stop practice crying in the airplane bathroom while on their latest international vacation, they’ll write the next great revenge story or fantasy trilogy.

Notable Mentions 
Percy Bysshe Shelley, August 4, 1792 
Lord Alfred Tennyson, August 6, 1809 
George Bernard Shaw, July 26, 1856
Hilaire Belloc, July 27, 1870
Ogden Nash, August 19, 1902
William Goldman, August 12, 1931
Garrison Keillor, August 7, 1942 
Danielle Steel, August 14, 1947 
Saphire, August 4, 1950
Ann M Martin, August 12, 1955
JK Rowling, July 31, 1965

- F. R. Oliver