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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Posted on August 29, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the man who said, “Love is the master-key that opens the gates of happiness, of hatred, of jealousy, and, most easily of all, the gate of fear. How terrible is the one fact of beauty!” That’s 19th-century poet and physician Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. , born in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1809).

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 28, 2023

Posted on August 28, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of American poet Rita Dove, born in Akron, Ohio (1952). Her mother loved to read and often quoted Shakespeare while cooking. Dove’s parents encouraged their children to read widely and there were always a lot of books in the house. She credits poets Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks as inspirations, but also James Wright, a fellow Ohioan. When asked if she considers herself an African-American poet, she answered, “I’m an African-American poet; I’m a woman poet; I’m an American poet. But I’m a poet first.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 27, 2023

Posted on August 27, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

The first edition of the Guinness Book of World Records was published on this date in 1955. The idea for the book had come four years earlier, when Sir Hugh Beaver, the managing director of the Guinness Brewery, was hunting birds in Ireland. He missed a shot at a golden plover, which led to an argument among his friends over which was faster, the golden plover or the red grouse. Beaver considered creating a book that could be consulted during similar debates that often cropped up over a round of drinks. He figured that Guinness could stamp it with their name and distribute it to pubs for advertising purposes.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, August 26, 2023

Posted on August 26, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Roman Catholic nun and missionary Mother Teresa (1910), born Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje, (modern Macedonia), which was then a part of the Ottoman Empire. Gonxhe means “rosebud” or “little flower” in Albanian. Mother Teresa’s father died when she was eight, plunging her family into poverty. But her mother was strong and had faith. And little Anjeze, born with a club foot, knew by the age of 12 that she had a religious calling.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 25, 2023

Posted on August 25, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of American poet Charles Wright (1935), born in Pickwick Dam, Tennessee, a tiny, rural community named for the title character of Charles Dickens’s novel The Pickwick Papers. Wright was named for his great-grandfather Charles Penzel, who at age 23 took a bullet in the mouth when shouting “Charge!” during the Battle of Chickamauga during the Civil War.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, August 24, 2023

Posted on August 24, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1456 that the first edition of the Gutenberg Bible was bound and completed in Mainz, Germany. The Gutenberg Bible was the first complete book printed with movable type. The press produced 180 copies of the Bible.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Posted on August 23, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of American poet, novelist, and lawyer Edgar Lee Masters, born in Garnett, Kansas (1868). Masters’ father was a lawyer who struggled financially with his own practice. He moved the family to Lewiston, Illinois, situated not far from Spoon River, a place that would inspire Master’s best-known work, The Spoon River Anthology (1915).

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Posted on August 22, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of writer and wit Dorothy Parker (1893). She went to a Catholic elementary school, but she was asked to leave after she referred to the Immaculate Conception as “spontaneous combustion.” She sold her first poem to Vanity Fair in 1914, and she got offered a job as an editorial assistant for Vogue, which was owned by the same company. Two years later, she became a theater critic at Vanity Fair.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 21, 2023

Posted on August 21, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Robert Stone, born in Brooklyn (1937). He was raised by his mother, who was schizophrenic, and when she was institutionalized, he spent several years in a Catholic orphanage. Stone served as a correspondent in Vietnam for a British magazine, which quickly folded, but he got enough material to return home and write the novel Dog Soldiers (1974).

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 20, 2023

Posted on August 20, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Jacqueline Susann, born in Philadelphia (1918). She wanted to be an actress, so she moved to New York when she graduated from high school, but she never had much success. She did commercials, had bit parts in Broadway plays, and worked as a model. Her husband suggested that Susann write about her experience with the underbelly of show business. In 1966, she published Valley of the Dolls, about three ambitious young women who move to New York to try to make it big and end up destroying themselves.

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