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 Friday, July 26, 2024

Posted on July 26, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer Aldous Huxley, born in Surrey, England (1894). As a boy, he wanted to be a scientist like his grandfather, Thomas Henry Huxley. But when he was 17 years old, he contracted an eye disease that rendered him nearly blind, so he decided to become a writer. His first successful novel was Point Counter Point (1928), which was an extremely ambitious book, with numerous characters and a complex interweaving plot. Huxley decided that his next book would be something light. He had been reading some H.G. Wells and thought it would be interesting to try to write something about what the future might be like.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, July 25, 2024

Posted on July 25, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the anniversary of the day when Bob Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, to the great consternation of folk music fans.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Posted on July 24, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Zelda Fitzgerald, born Zelda Sayre in Montgomery, Alabama (1900). She met F. Scott Fitzgerald at one of the military dances where he was stationed in Montgomery. He stood out from the crowd, wearing his Brooks Brothers uniform and his cream-colored boots. Zelda said, “He smelled like new goods.” He told her that she looked like the heroine in the novel he was writing.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Posted on July 23, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1903 that the Ford Motor Company sold its first car, a two-cylinder Model A. It was sold to a Chicago dentist named Ernst Pfenning, who paid $850 for it. The Model A was painted red, with a seat that fit two people, and no roof. It reached 28 mph at top speed.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, July 22, 2024

Posted on July 22, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the painter Edward Hopper, born in Nyack, New York (1882). By the time he was 12, he was already six feet tall. He was skinny, gangly, made fun of by his classmates, painfully shy, and spent much of his time alone drawing. After he finished art school, he took a trip to Paris and spent almost all of his time there alone, reading or painting. In Paris, he realized that he had fallen in love with light. He said the light in Paris was unlike anything he’d ever seen before. He tried to re-create it in his paintings.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, July 21, 2024

Posted on July 21, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Ernest Hemingway, born in Oak Park, Illinois (1899). As a young man, he wanted to fight in World War I, but he had bad eyesight so he volunteered as an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross in Italy. Only one month after he started, he was passing out chocolates to Italian soldiers on the frontlines and got hit by shrapnel from an exploding shell. He spent several weeks in the hospital, where he started suffering from insomnia. He couldn’t sleep without a light on for fear that he might die in the night. He traveled back to his parents’ home, still recuperating from his injury.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, July 20, 2024

Posted on July 20, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist and screenwriter Cormac McCarthy (1933). He was born Charles McCarthy Jr. in Providence, Rhode Island. He’s best known as the author of the “Border Trilogy” — All the Pretty Horses (1992), The Crossing (1994), and Cities of the Plain (1998). In The New York Times Magazine, Richard B. Woodward, called him, “A man’s novelist whose apocalyptic vision rarely focuses on women, McCarthy doesn’t write about sex, love or domestic issues.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, July 19, 2024

Posted on July 19, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

The Seneca Falls Convention — the first convention for women’s rights — began on this date in 1848. It was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her friend Lucretia Mott. They had been getting together frequently to talk about the abuses they suffered as women, and they finally decided to have a public meeting to discuss the status of women in society.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, July 18, 2024

Posted on July 18, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, born in Louisville, Kentucky (1939). He was trying to make it as a freelance writer, living with his mother, when he was hired by The Nation magazine to write a brief investigative article about the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang. After his article was published, he got a call from a publisher offering him $1,500 to write a book on the same subject.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Posted on July 17, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the comedian and actress who was once called “the funniest woman in the world”: Phyllis Diller, born in Lima, Ohio (1917). She didn’t start her career in stand-up comedy until she was middle-aged, after spending much of her life as a housewife. In her act, she said: “Housework can’t kill you, but why take a chance?”

Load next posts