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The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, December 13, 2025

Posted on December 13, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the mystery novelist who wrote under the name Ross Macdonald, born Kenneth Millar in Los Gatos, California (1915). His father abandoned the family, and his mother struggled to support him, occasionally begging for money on the street.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, December 12, 2025

Posted on December 12, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of French novelist Gustave Flaubert, born in Rouen, France (1821). He’s best known for the novel Madame Bovary (1857). He grew up in a middle-class family. His father convinced him to go to law school, but he dropped out. So his father bought him a house on the Seine, and Flaubert devoted the rest of his life to writing. After his father died, he moved back in with his mother, where he lived until he was 50 years old.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, December 11, 2025

Posted on December 11, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the man called the “Father of Modern Arabic Literature,” Naguib Mahfouz, born in Cairo (1911). He wrote about the lives of ordinary people in the densely urban districts of Cairo. In 1988, he won the Nobel Prize, recognized for a work he had written decades earlier.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, December 10, 2025

Posted on December 10, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the poet Emily Dickinson, born in Amherst, Massachusetts (1830). She spent most of her adult life in her corner bedroom in her father’s house. The room contained a writing table, a dresser, a Franklin stove, a clock, a ruby decanter, and pictures on the wall of three writers: George Eliot, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Thomas Carlyle.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Posted on December 9, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the poet John Milton, born in London (1608). He was well-known in his own time for his political essays. He wrote a pamphlet arguing for the right to get a divorce on the grounds of incompatibility. He had married a woman named Mary Powell, and she left him almost immediately after their honeymoon.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, December 8, 2025

Posted on December 8, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Mary Gordon, born in Far Rockaway, New York (1949). Her Irish-Catholic mother was the family’s breadwinner. Her father dreamed of being a writer, and he stayed home and looked after Mary. She said, “He bred me to be a lady and a scholar.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, December 7, 2025

Posted on December 7, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the novelist Willa Cather, born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia (1873). Her family moved to Nebraska when she was a little girl, to get away from a tuberculosis epidemic that had killed a lot of her extended family. In Red Cloud, Nebraska, Cather spent most of her free time talking to the immigrant farmers and listening to their stories about their homelands.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, December 6, 2025

Posted on December 6, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1877 that Thomas Alva Edison recited “Mary Had a Little Lamb” into his new phonograph device. It was the world’s first recording of the human voice. Edison had invented a method to inscribe telegraph messages through indentations on paper tape, and then store them to send later.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, December 5, 2025

Posted on December 5, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer John Berendt, born in Syracuse, New York (1939). He was an editor at Esquire magazine when he took a trip to Savannah, Georgia. He ended up living there for five years doing research and interviews, and he wrote a book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1994).

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, December 4, 2025

Posted on December 4, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, born in Prague (1875). His family wanted him to be a lawyer and take over his uncle’s law firm. But he published some sentimental love poetry, and it inspired him to make his living as a writer. He went to Munich to be part of the arts scene there, and he met a woman, Lou Salomé.

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