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The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Posted on December 11, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the writer who said: “To write a poem you must first create a pen that will write what you want to say. For better or worse, this is the work of a lifetime.” That’s Jim Harrison, born in Grayling, Michigan (1937). He had a couple of major accidents that ended up changing his writing career. When he was seven years old, he was playing with a friend and she accidentally cut him across the face and he went blind in one eye. He felt as though that set him apart from other kids, and he started turning to nature, to the woods and creeks and fields.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Posted on December 10, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of poet Emily Dickinson, born in Amherst, Massachusetts (1830). She was a bright, spirited girl who loved to be outside. She had a close-knit group of girl friends, and together they would explore the woods around Amherst, picking flowers, meeting people, helping with the final cooking down of maple syrup in the spring, and going for long walks. They read the Atlantic Monthly, admiring some of the poets and laughing at others, and they joined a Shakespeare club and then protested when their male tutors tried to cross out all the inappropriate parts from their books.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, December 9, 2024

Posted on December 9, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of one of the people who helped invent the modern computer: Grace Hopper, born in New York City (1906). She began tinkering around with machines when she was seven years old, dismantling several alarm clocks around the house to see how they worked. She was especially good at math in school.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, December 8, 2024

Posted on December 8, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of the humorist and cartoonist James Thurber, born in Columbus, Ohio (1894). He’s best remembered today for his short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (1944), the tale of a henpecked husband who fantasizes about a life of daring adventure. As a young man, Thurber’s own fantasy had been a little more tame: he dreamed of working as a staff writer for a new magazine called The New Yorker.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, December 7, 2024

Posted on December 7, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the woman who said: “It is a solemn and terrible thing to write a novel.” That’s the novelist Willa Cather, born in the village of Back Creek near Winchester, Virginia (1873). When Cather was nine years old, she and her family left their home in Virginia to homestead in Nebraska, and the Nebraska prairie is the setting of her great novels O Pioneers! (1913) and My Àntonia (1918).

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, December 6, 2024

Posted on December 6, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of lyricist Ira Gershwin, born Israel Gershowitz in New York City (1896). When Ira was 21, he was working in his father’s Turkish bath business, while his younger brother George was already making it big in Tin Pan Alley. When an acquaintance gave Ira yet another newspaper clipping about George’s success, Ira responded: “I now belong, I see, to the rank of Brothers of the Great.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, December 5, 2024

Posted on December 5, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Pre-Raphaelite poet Christina Rossetti, born in London in 1830. She grew up in a large, boisterous household. She had three brothers and sisters, and her parents were Italian, so all the children grew up speaking Italian and English. Her father was a political refugee and a Dante scholar and poet.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, December 4, 2024

Posted on December 4, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of the British essayist, philosopher, and historian Thomas Carlyle, born in Ecclefechan, Scotland (1795). Carlyle moved to London with his wife in 1834, and began work on an ambitious project about the French Revolution. He spent months of hard work on the book, living in poverty and devoting every resource to the project, but when he lent the manuscript to philosopher John Stuart Mill, Mill’s maid accidentally threw it in the fire.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Posted on December 3, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

The Lerner and Loewe musical Camelot opened on Broadway on this date in 1960. It was an adaptation of The Once and Future King, T.H. White’s retelling of the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (1958). The original cast recording — featuring Richard Burton, Julie Andrews, and Robert Goulet — was a favorite of President Kennedy and his family. Not long after her husband’s assassination, Jacqueline Kennedy gave an interview to T.H. White. She told him how her husband would often ask her to play the album at bedtime, to take his mind off his crippling back pain.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, December 2, 2024

Posted on December 2, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer George Saunders, born in Amarillo, Texas (1958), the author of the books CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (1996), Pastoralia (2000), and In Persuasion Nation (2006). He contributes to magazines like The New Yorker, GQ,and McSweeney’s, and has won the National Magazine Award for fiction four times in the past 16 years.

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