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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, May 21, 2023

Posted on May 21, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross. She said, “I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, May 20, 2023

Posted on May 20, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Shakespeare’s sonnets were first published on this day in 1609, most likely without Shakespeare’s permission. The book contained 154 sonnets, all but two of which had never been published before.
Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day/Thou art more lovely and more temperate/Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May/And Summer’s lease hath all too short a date…

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, May 19, 2023

Posted on May 19, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It is the birthday of American merchant Johns Hopkins, born on a tobacco plantation in Anne Arundel County, Maryland (1795). With no wife or children, he began to ponder the fate of his tremendous fortune after his death and in 1867 he incorporated The Johns Hopkins University and The Johns Hopkins Hospital. When he died in 1873, his $7 million fortune was divided between the two institutions.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, May 18, 2023

Posted on May 18, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It is the birthday of comedy writer and actress Tina Fey, born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania (1970). Her mother, Jeanne, worked in a brokerage firm and her father, Donald, was a university grant proposal writer. In 1997, she was hired as a sketch writer for Saturday Night Live and she quickly rose to head writer.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Posted on May 17, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

On this date the Supreme Court ruled that school segregation violated the Fourteenth Amendment on this date in 1954.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Posted on May 16, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer, historian, and radio man Studs Terkel, born in New York City (1912). When he was eight, his family moved to Chicago, where they ran a rooming house, and Terkel was fascinated by all the different people who came through. The Studs Terkel Program debuted in 1952 and aired for 45 years, until 1997.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, May 15, 2023

Posted on May 15, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Katherine Anne Porter, born Callie Russell Porter in Indian Creek, Texas (1890). She was brought up by her beloved grandmother, Catherine Anne, whose name she later took. Porter won the Pulitzer Prize (1966) for The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, May 14, 2023

Posted on May 14, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is Mother’s Day, first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her own mother at a church in Grafton, West Virginia. Jarvis’s mother had been a peace activist who cared for wounded soldiers on both sides of the Civil War.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, May 13, 2023

Posted on May 13, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of singer and songwriter Richard Steven Valenzuela (1941), born in Pacoima, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. He’s better known as “Ritchie Valens,” and you’ve probably danced along to two of his biggest hits, “La Bamba” and “Donna.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, May 12, 2023

Posted on May 12, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of American novelist and poet Rosellen Brown, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1939. Her novels include Tender Mercies (1978), Before and After (1992), and Half a Heart (2000), which tells the story of a white, Jewish woman who is reunited with the biracial daughter she abandoned during the sixties

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