The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, August 19, 2023

Today is the birthday of memoirist Frank McCourt, born in Brooklyn, New York (1930). He was the oldest of seven children born to an Irish immigrant couple, and they moved back to Limerick when McCourt was four years old, after the death of his baby sister. His childhood was marked by poverty, the deaths of half of his siblings, and his father’s alcoholism.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 18, 2023

Today is the birthday of Italian-born Viennese composer Antonio Salieri, born in Legnago, in the Republic of Venice (1750). Although he was quite popular in the 18th century, he probably wouldn’t be well known today were it not for the movie Amadeus (1984). The movie was based on Peter Shaffer’s play by the same name (1979), which was in turn based on a short play by Aleksandr Pushkin, which was called Mozart and Salieri (1830).

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, August 17, 2023

Today is the birthday of American soldier, politician, and folk hero David — better known as “Davy” — Crockett, born in Greene County, Tennessee (1786). He was first elected to the state legislature of Tennessee in 1821, and the U.S. House of Representatives in 1827, where he served three nonconsecutive terms in all.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Today is the birthday of the writer that The Washington Post called “the poet laureate of sour alleys and dark bars, of racetracks and long shots”: Charles Bukowski, born in Andernach, Germany (1920). He wrote more than 45 books of poetry and prose.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Permanent construction began on the Berlin Wall on this date in 1961. After World War II, Germany had been divided up by British, French, Soviet, and American occupying forces. The city of Berlin lay completely within Soviet territory, but it was also divided. Soviet forces controlled the eastern part of the city and the country, and they were increasingly concerned about locking it down against the democratic West. The border was porous after the war, and millions of East Germans emigrated west in search of greater opportunities. By 1961, they were leaving at a rate of a thousand per day.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 14, 2023

The original Social Security Act was signed into law on this date in 1935. It was part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, and it was first intended to help keep senior citizens out of poverty. When he signed the act into law, Roosevelt said: “We can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 13, 2023

It’s the birthday of American sharpshooter Annie Oakley (1860), born Phoebe Ann Mosey in a log cabin just north of what is now Willowdell, in Darke County, Ohio. Her parents were Quakers from Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. Oakley’s father died of pneumonia when she was six, which sent her mother into a financial tailspin. Oakley was the sixth of nine children, and she and her sister were sent to the Darke County Children’s Infirmary, where they learned to cook and sew. After a few years, Oakley was “bound out” to a local family, who expected her to be able to cook, pump water, and care for their child. Oakley was small and the couple was unkind; they beat and starved her and left her outside in freezing weather without shoes. She called them “the wolves” and after two years, she ran away and returned to her mother.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, August 12, 2023

It’s the birthday of American film director Cecil B. DeMille, whose epic Hollywood films, like The Ten Commandments (1956) and Samson and Delilah (1949), have grossed over $30 billion worldwide.

DeMille as born in Massachusetts (1881), but grew up in Washington, North Carolina. His father was a playwright and also a lay reader in the Episcopal church. He read to his children every night from the Bible and classic literature. Though he eventually stopped going to church, DeMille continued to believe in prayer and the power of biblical stories. He once said, “My ministry has been to make religious movies and to get more people to read the Bible than anyone else ever has.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 11, 2023

It’s the birthday of American poet and critic Louise Bogan. Bogan was the poetry editor of The New Yorker for almost 40 years.
In 1945, Louise Bogan was named the fourth poet laureate of the Library of Congress. When she retired from The New Yorker in 1969, she said: “No more pronouncements on lousy verse. No more hidden competition. No more struggling not to be a square.” She died a year after leaving the magazine.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, August 10, 2023

It was on this date in 1519 that the explorer Ferdinand Magellan set off to sail around the world. Although he was Portuguese, Magellan had sworn allegiance to Spain, and he began the journey with a fleet of five ships and 270 men to see if he could accomplish what Columbus had failed to: find a navigable route to Asia that didn’t involve going around Africa.