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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, September 18, 2023

Posted on September 18, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of movie star Greta Garbo (1905). She was born Greta Lovisa Gustafson in Stockholm, Sweden, and was best known for her sultry voice, sharp cheekbones, and sullen demeanor. The Guinness Book of World Records named her “the most beautiful woman who ever lived” in 1954. Film critic Kenneth Tynan found her beauty so intoxicating he sighed, “What when drunk one sees in other women, one sees in Garbo sober.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, September 17, 2023

Posted on September 17, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the American poet who once wrote, “A poem is a complete little universe” and “Say it! No ideas but in things.” William Carlos Williams was born in Rutherford, New Jersey (1883). His father was an Englishman and his mother was Puerto Rican. She often read and spoke to Williams in Spanish. His father was a no-nonsense businessman who urged Williams to practice dentistry, but Williams opted for pediatrics and general practice instead, because he preferred to move, rather than standing still, and he liked talking and visiting with people.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, September 16, 2023

Posted on September 16, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Henry Louis Gates Jr., born in Keyser, West Virginia (1950). He is a scholar, a literary critic, a historian, and a television host. “When I was a kid growing up,” he said, “my friends wanted to be Hank Aaron or Willie Mays. I wanted to be a Rhodes scholar. I didn’t know why. I just wanted to go to Harvard or Yale and I wanted to go to Oxford or to Cambridge.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, September 15, 2023

Posted on September 15, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of English crime novelist and playwright Agatha Christie (1890), the best-selling novelist of all time. Christie’s books have sold more than 2 billion copies around the world and been translated into more than 103 languages. On writing, she said, “Three months seems to me to be quite reasonable to finish a book, if you can get right down to it.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, September 14, 2023

Posted on September 14, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Margaret Sanger, born in Corning, New York (1879). She coined the term “birth control,” she was its most famous advocate in the United States, and she was the founder of Planned Parenthood. H.G. Wells said of her, “The movement she started will grow to be, a hundred years from now, the most influential of all time.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Posted on September 13, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the “Father of Bluegrass,” Bill Monroe, born in Rosine, Kentucky (1911), a brilliant mandolinist and a hard-driving tenor singer. His mother was an excellent fiddler, but his main inspiration was his Uncle Pen Vandiver, whom Monroe later honored with the song “Uncle Pen.” In 1938, Bill formed the Blue Grass Boys, a group that would include future stars of country music such as Don Reno, Jimmy Martin, Carter Stanley, Vassar Clements, Chubby Wise, and Byron Berline — and Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Posted on September 12, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of French scientist Irène Joliot-Curie, born in Paris (1897). She was the daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie. She was homeschooled as part of an educational experiment run by her parents and their friends. Called “The Cooperative,” the adults — all experts in their respective fields — took turns teaching one another’s children. She then studied at the Sorbonne, but World War I interrupted her university career, so she helped her mother operate mobile X-ray units in field hospitals instead.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, September 11, 2023

Posted on September 11, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of English novelist, poet, and short-story writer D.H. Lawrence (1885), born David Herbert Richards Lawrence. He’s best known for his novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928), which was banned in several countries for its explicit content. Lawrence’s books include The Rainbow (1915), Women in Love, and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which was his last novel.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, September 10, 2023

Posted on September 10, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of best-selling poet Mary Oliver, born in Maple Heights, Ohio (1935). She published five books of poetry, and still almost no one had heard of her. She doesn’t remember ever having given a reading before 1984, which is the year that she was doing dishes one evening when the phone rang and it was someone calling to tell her that her most recent book, American Primitive (1983), had won the Pulitzer Prize. Suddenly, she was famous.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, September 9, 2023

Posted on September 9, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1839 that Englishman John Herschel took the first glass plate photograph. Cameras, and photography, weren’t new: the Chinese had been experimenting with pinhole cameras as far back as the fifth century B.C. A pinhole camera is a box with a tiny hole in the front. When light enters through the hole, an upside-down image is displayed on the inside back wall of the box. They also knew that some chemicals changed when exposed to light. They just couldn’t quite figure out how to combine the two so that an image stayed permanent. Images were proving too light sensitive and would quickly fade.

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