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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, July 10, 2023

Posted on July 10, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of Marcel Proust, born in Auteuil, France in 1871. His major work is the seven-volume Remembrance of Things Past (or, more literally, In Search of Lost Time) (1913–27). It’s Proust’s own life story, told as an allegorical search for truth. The most famous scene in the book occurs early on, when the narrator dips a bit of a madeleine in some tea and experiences a profound sense-memory of his childhood. That really happened to Proust, although in his case it was a much humbler and less poetic piece of a rusk — a twice-baked, dry biscuit or cracker — rather than a madeleine that triggered the memories.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, July 9, 2023

Posted on July 9, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the artist David Hockney, born in Bradford, England, in 1937. Hockney is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century and had a big impact on the pop art of the 1960s. He grew up in a working-class family and started drawing cartoons in grammar school when he became bored with schoolwork. One of his first works was a portrait of his father, an oil painting that he sold for 12 dollars.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, July 8, 2023

Posted on July 8, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of columnist and best-selling novelist Anna Quindlen, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1953). She grew up in the suburbs, in a middle-class, Irish-American family. Her dad was a management consultant and her mom took care of the kids. She said, “I sometimes joke that my greatest shortcoming as a writer is that I had an extremely happy childhood.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, July 7, 2023

Posted on July 7, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of drummer Ringo Starr, born in Liverpool, England (1940). He is known as the “easy-going Beatle.” His genial quality proved to be a steady background to the moodiness of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison, his bandmates in the most famous band in the world, the Beatles. When the Beatles came to the United States on February 7, 1964, they set off a craze that lasted for the entire 1960s. Starr says, “I lived in a nightclub for three years. It used to be a nonstop party.” In 1970, Paul McCartney quit the band. Ringo Starr went on to a solo career, earning seven Top 10 hits from 1971 to 1975.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, July 6, 2023

Posted on July 6, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Louis Pasteur successfully tested his rabies vaccine on this day in 1885. Pasteur had begun work on a vaccine in 1882, using a weakened form of the virus taken from the spinal cords of infected animals. The research was time-consuming, because it took several weeks for the virus to reach his test animals’ brains after they were infected, but Pasteur soon realized that people didn’t need to have the vaccine on board before they were bitten, as with other diseases. The delay between the rabid animal’s bite and the outbreak of the disease meant the vaccine could be given only when needed, and it would have plenty of time to work.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Posted on July 5, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of American technology executive Susan Wojcicki, born in Santa Clara County, California (1968). You might not know her name, but if you like to watch cat videos on YouTube, she’s the person to thank: she convinced her employer, Google, to buy the home video startup. Wojcicki has been called “the most important person in advertising” and “the most powerful woman on the internet.” She was the CEO of YouTube.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Posted on July 4, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

The French presented the United States with the Statue of Liberty on this date in 1884. The statue owes its origins to a comment made by the president of the French Anti-Slavery Society, a man named Édouard René de Laboulaye, in 1865. The American poet Emma Lazarus wrote a sonnet, “The New Colossus,” to raise funds for construction of the statue’s pedestal; the sonnet was inscribed on a plaque and displayed inside the pedestal in 1903.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, July 3, 2023

Posted on July 3, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of George M. Cohan, born in Providence, Rhode Island (1878). He wrote hundreds of songs and more than 40 shows and musicals. Critics didn’t like them, but theatergoers loved them. In 1904, his breakout show, Little Johnny Jones, took local houses by storm, especially the new numbers “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and “Give My Regards to Broadway.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, July 2, 2023

Posted on July 2, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1937, that Amelia Earhart was last heard from, somewhere over the Pacific. She and her navigator, Fred Noonan, had set off in May from Miami to fly around the world in a Lockheed Electra. She said, “I have a feeling that there is just about one more good flight left in my system, and I hope this trip is it.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, July 1, 2023

Posted on July 1, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Jean Stafford, born in Covina, California (1915). When she was six years old, her father lost most of the family’s money on the stock market. They moved to Boulder, Colorado, where they lived in poverty. Despite their money troubles, her father spent all his time writing, though he only sold one book. They survived by taking in sorority girls as boarders.

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