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The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, June 20, 2025

Posted on June 20, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1977 that the Trans-Alaska Pipeline began to pump oil for the first time. It was the largest private construction project ever completed in United States history.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, June 19, 2025

Posted on June 19, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the music journalist and cultural critic Greil Marcus, born in San Francisco (1945). He was named for his father, Greil Gerstley, who was killed in World War II before Marcus was born. Gerstley served on a Navy ship, one of three that were deliberately sent into a typhoon. Although the other officers urged him to mutiny, Gerstley refused, and all three ships sank. The incident inspired Herman Wouk’s novel The Caine Mutiny (1952).

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Posted on June 18, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Richard Powers, born in Evanston, Illinois (1957). When he was in his early 20s, he was working as a computer programmer in Boston. He spent every Saturday at the Museum of Fine Arts, where admission was free in the morning, and one day he saw a photograph from 1914 of three farm boys headed to a dance.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Posted on June 17, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Hersey, born to American missionaries in Tientsin, China (1914), who spoke Chinese before he spoke English, moved to the States when he was 10, and graduated from Yale. After college, he spent a summer as a secretary for writer Sinclair Lewis, then he went to work for Time magazine, reporting on World War II from all over Europe and Asia.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, June 16, 2025

Posted on June 16, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Joyce Carol Oates, born in Lockport, New York (1938). She’s the author of books such as Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart (1990), and We Were the Mulvaneys (1996).

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, June 15, 2025

Posted on June 15, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of advertising exec-turned-writer Ilene Beckerman, born in Manhattan (1935). She didn’t begin her writing career until the age of 60, and even then, she became a published author almost by accident. She had written and illustrated a book for her five children, something to remember her by.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, June 14, 2025

Posted on June 14, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Harriet Elizabeth Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1811. Her father, Lyman Beecher, was a prominent Congregationalist minister, and he was a great proponent of education. The family moved to Cincinnati in 1832, and Harriet married Calvin Ellis Stowe in 1836; he was a clergyman and scholar, and he encouraged her to continue writing, which she had already enjoyed doing for several years.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, June 13, 2025

Posted on June 13, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of English novelist and diarist Frances (Fanny) Burney (1752). She was born in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, the daughter of a music historian. She didn’t learn to read and write until she was 10 years old, but once she did learn, she wasted no time in putting her skills to work writing plays, poems, and songs.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, June 12, 2025

Posted on June 12, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer Djuna Barnes, born near Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York (1892). For many years she lived in the Bohemian world of Greenwich Village and then as an expatriate in Paris, drinking and smoking and having love affairs with men and women alike.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Posted on June 11, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the playwright Ben Jonson, born on this day in London, probably in 1572. His plays include Every Man in His Humour (1598), Volpone (1606), The Alchemist (1610), and Bartholomew Fair (1614). A contemporary, friend, and rival of Shakespeare’s, Jonson was a heavy drinker and a fighter, no “Gentle Will.”

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