Writer's Almanac Archives - Garrison Keillor

Albums APHC Clips Audio Events Prairie Home Archives Songs Writer's Almanac

Writer's Almanac

To subscribe to the Writer’s Almanac Anniversary Episode email, which includes the unedited text and audio from one daily anniversary episode selected from the archive, click here >>>

To browse archived episodes of The Writer’s Almanac from before 2017, click here >>>

• • • • •

To support The Writer’s Almanac Anniversary Episodes newsletter, please consider “buying” a donation here >>>

You can also buy a paid subscription to the Anniversary Episode newsletter here >>>

Checks may be made out to Prairie Home Productions, LLC and mailed to:

Prairie Home Productions
P.O. Box 2090
Minneapolis, MN 55402

(Note: donations to LLCs are not tax-deductible)

• • • • •

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, October 1, 2026

Posted on October 1, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

t’s the birthday of William Timothy O’Brien, better known as Tim O’Brien, born in Austin, Minnesota (1946). O’Brien grew up on the shores of Lake Okabena, and part of his book The Things They Carried (1990) was set there.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, September 30, 2026

Posted on September 30, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of American writer Truman Capote, born Truman Persons in New Orleans (1924). When he was 17, he dropped out of school and got a job as an errand boy in the art department at The New Yorker magazine.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, September 29, 2026

Posted on September 29, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, born in London (1810), the author of Cranford (1853), North and South (1855), and Mary Barton (1848).

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, September 28, 2026

Posted on September 28, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

W.C. Handy published “Memphis Blues” on this date in 1912. William Christopher Handy came from northern Alabama, the son of a Methodist preacher who didn’t approve of secular music.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, September 27, 2026

Posted on September 27, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of the man often called the “father of the American cartoon,” Thomas Nast, born in Landau, Germany (1840). His father had socialist leanings and found the political climate of Germany unpleasant.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, September 26, 2026

Posted on September 26, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

The poet Thomas Stearns Eliot, better known as T.S. Eliot , was born on this day in 1888, in St. Louis, Missouri, where he spent the first 18 years of his life.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, September 25, 2026

Posted on September 25, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor was sworn in as a justice in the Supreme Court of the United States, becoming the first woman to hold that office.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, September 24, 2026

Posted on September 24, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of F. Scott Fitzgerald, born Francis Scott Fitzgerald in St. Paul, Minnesota (1896). The son of a would-be furniture manufacturer who never quite made it big in business, Fitzgerald grew up feeling like a “poor boy in a rich town,” in spite of his middle-class upbringing.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Posted on September 23, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Roman emperor Caesar Augustus, born Gaius Octavius Thurinus in Rome in the year 63 B.C. The great-nephew of Julius Caesar, Augustus was named as the childless statesman’s heir upon his assassination.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, September 22, 2026

Posted on September 22, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1862 that President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring slaves in rebel states free as of January 1 the following year.

Load next posts