Happy birthday, Jack Finney.

Before the day is done: Author Jack Finney, best known for two works—The Body Snatchers (1955) and Time and Again (1970)—was born today in 1911. He died in 1995. The film Somewhere in Time (based on the novel Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson, who makes a cameo appearance in the film) pays homage to Finney when aspiring time traveler Christopher Reeve goes to consult "Professor Finney" about his plans.

The fourth and latest film adaptation of Body Snatchers, The Invasion, came and went fairly quickly, and I suspect for many, Kevin McCarthy (from the 1956 film version) will always be their man. The engaging Time and Again, featuring a government experiment in time travel set in Gilded Age New York, has seldom been out of print; at one time, it was rumored that Robert Redford was interested in a film version. "You write a book," Finney was quoted in Entertainment Weekly in 1995 about Time and Again, "and you don't expect it to hang around."