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The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, March 14, 2026

Posted on March 14, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the bookseller and publisher Sylvia Beach, born in Baltimore, Maryland (1887). She opened a bookstore and lending library on the Left Bank of Paris called Shakespeare and Company, which stocked English-language books. She handpicked her books, she had copies of all the new innovative literary magazines, and she sold contemporary literature that was banned in America and England.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, March 13, 2026

Posted on March 13, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of science fiction writer and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, born Lafayette Ronald Hubbard in Tilden, Nebraska (1911). He started out writing for pulp magazines, and he was a prolific writer.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, March 12, 2026

Posted on March 12, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the anniversary of the Great Blizzard of 1888, a storm that dumped up to 50 inches of snow along the East Coast from Montreal to Washington, D.C. Four hundred people died in the storm, more than 200 of them from New York City, which was hit particularly hard.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Posted on March 11, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer Douglas Adams, born in Cambridge, England (1952), best known for his five-book “trilogy” The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a series of comic science fiction novels that sold more than 15 million copies, have been translated into more than 30 languages, and inspired a cult-like following.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Posted on March 10, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of playwright and novelist David Rabe, born in Dubuque, Iowa (1940). He was drafted and sent to Vietnam. He didn’t actually fight — he worked in a hospital unit and did paperwork. He said: “Barriers were down; restrictions were down; behavior outside the norms. There was this giddy thing. You could go around one corner and see something horrible, around another and see something thrilling. It was a little like the Wild West.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, March 9, 2026

Posted on March 9, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of one of the 20th century’s best-selling novelists: Mickey Spillane, born Frank Morrison Spillane in New York City (1918). He grew up in an Irish-American family in a rough New Jersey neighborhood. His father was a bartender, and his mother made sure that her children had a good education. He claimed to have read everything written by Herman Melville and Alexandre Dumas by the time he was 11.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, March 8, 2026

Posted on March 8, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1935 that Thomas Wolfe’s novel Of Time and the River was published. Wolfe’s editor was Maxwell Perkins, who also edited Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. When Wolfe brought Perkins a draft of Of Time and the River in December of 1933, it was more than one million words long, and still growing. The first installment alone was two feet high.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, March 7, 2026

Posted on March 7, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the anniversary of the first march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama (1965), known as “Bloody Sunday.” Six hundred civil rights activists left Selma to march the 54 miles to the state capitol, demonstrating for African-American voting rights. They got six blocks before state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, March 6, 2026

Posted on March 6, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the Nobel Prize-winning novelist who said, “I’ve always been convinced that my true profession is that of journalist.” That’s Gabriel García Márquez,, born in Aracataca, Colombia, on this day in 1927. He’s the author of one of the most important books in Latin American literature, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967).

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, March 5, 2026

Posted on March 5, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the anniversary of the Boston Massacre, which took place on a cold and snowy night in 1770. British soldiers had occupied Boston for 18 months to protect the tax collectors for the king of England. There had been several street fights between soldiers and townsmen since the beginning of the month, so tensions were already high on the evening of March 5th.

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