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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, May 13, 2024

Posted on May 13, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Daphne du Maurier, born in London (1907). She came from a family of actors and writers, and her first two big successes were books about her family — Gerald (1936), a biography of her father; and The Du Mauriers (1937), the story of her family beginning in the early 18th century. She was inspired to write about her family after she found a stack of old letters in a drawer, letters belonging to her “grandfather and his father before him.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, May 12, 2024

Posted on May 12, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

Today is Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day as we know it — where we celebrate our own mothers, with flowers, gifts, and cards — is relatively new, but annual celebrations to celebrate motherhood are an ancient practice. The motherhood festivities have historically been in spring, the season of fertility. In ancient Egypt, there were celebrations to honor Isis, the loving mother-goddess, who is often shown in Egyptian art with the baby Horus at her breast, much like Mary and Jesus in later Christian iconography.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, May 11, 2024

Posted on May 11, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1942 that Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner was published. It was a group of interrelated stories that made up a novel: “Was,” “The Fire and the Hearth,” “Pantaloon in Black,” “The Old People,” “The Bear,” “Delta Autumn,” and “Go Down, Moses.” Like much of Faulkner’s fiction, Go Down, Moses was set in Yoknapatawpha County, and the stories trace members of the McCaslin family from pre-Civil War slavery days until the 1940s.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, May 10, 2024

Posted on May 10, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1749 that the 10th and final volume of Henry Fielding’s novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling was published. The novel form was still very new in English — other fiction writers presented their work as if it were factual, or as a moral allegory, whereas Fielding just wanted to write a good story. He said, “I shall not look on myself as accountable to any court of critical jurisdiction whatever; for as I am, in reality, the founder of a new province of writing, so I am at liberty to make what laws I please therein.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, May 9, 2024

Posted on May 9, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of J.M. Barrie, born James Matthew Barrie in Kirriemuir, Scotland (1860). He was a shy boy and a shy man. His contemporary Charles Lewis Hind wrote: “Barrie is a little man, shy-looking and dark, with black hair, a dome-like forehead, pale as ivory, and eyes that look as if they always want to escape from what he is doing. […] He loves to spring surprises on rather a dense world.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, May 8, 2024

Posted on May 8, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of poet Gary Snyder, born in San Francisco in 1930. He’s associated with the Beat Generation; he certainly knew them, and liked them well enough, especially Jack Kerouac, who modeled Dharma Bums’ Japhy Ryder on Snyder. Most of the Beats were city kids, and they found Snyder fascinating because he grew up in the woods of Washington and Oregon, was interested in nature, and had worked as a logger, a seaman, and a fire lookout.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Posted on May 7, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Victorian poet and playwright Robert Browning, born in Camberwell, England, in 1812. His mother was an accomplished pianist, and his father was a fairly well-off bank clerk whose personal library contained 6,000 books. Robert was educated at home and was a voracious reader from an early age. He loved the Romantic poets, especially Shelley, and at 14 he became an atheist and a vegetarian, to be more like his hero.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, May 6, 2024

Posted on May 6, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of filmmaker Orson Welles, born George Orson Welles in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1915. He was hired by John Houseman to direct a production of Macbeth in 1936. The production was part of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Theatre Project, which put unemployed theater people to work. Welles, 20 years old, set the play in Haiti, and substituted witch doctors for the weird sisters; he was hailed as a prodigy.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, May 5, 2024

Posted on May 5, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of journalist Nellie Bly, born Elizabeth Jane Cochran in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania (1864). When she was 16, her family moved to Pittsburgh, where she read an editorial in The Pittsburgh Dispatch titled “What Girls are Good For.” (The paper’s answer was “not much,” at least, not outside the home.) She wrote a furious reply and signed it “Little Orphan Girl.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, May 4, 2024

Posted on May 4, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of journalist and novelist David Guterson, born in Seattle, Washington (1956). He taught high school for many years, and wrote a collection of essays and articles about education and why homeschooling is a good idea. He also published a short-story collection, The Country Ahead of Us, The Country Behind (1989). But he’s best known for his first novel, Snow Falling on Cedars (1994).

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