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The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, March 23, 2023

Posted on March 23, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today marks the first day in 1942 when the U.S. government began moving Japanese-Americans from their West Coast homes to internment camps. Between 110,000 and 120,000 people were forcibly relocated. Some Japanese-American men were drafted into the War even as their families remained incarcerated. The camps remained open until 1945.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Posted on March 22, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today would have been the 93rd birthday of Stephen Sondheim. The American composer and lyricist was born in 1930 to unhappy people. At 10 years old he made friends with the son of Oscar Hammerstein, and his life changed as Hammerstein took him under his wing. He taught him about lyrics, harmony, the business of the theater, and was responsible for Sondheim being involved in “West Side Story” his first Broadway show.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Posted on March 21, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

The Alabama Freedom March began on this date in 1965. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King and 3,200 demonstrators set off on a 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to protest the disenfranchisement of black voters. The marchers traveled about 12 miles a day, and slept in the fields at night. By the time they reached Montgomery on March 25, their numbers had swelled to 25,000. President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — which prohibits racial discrimination in voting — in August, less than five months after the Selma march.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, March 20, 2023

Posted on March 20, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the Vernal Equinox, the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Emily Dickinson said: “A little Madness in the Spring / Is wholesome even for the King.” Mark Twain said: “It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want — oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, March 19, 2023

Posted on March 19, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of novelist Philip Roth, born in 1933. In 1959, when he was 26 years old he published his first book, a novella and short stories titled “Goodbye, Columbus”. It won the National Book Award. In 1969 he wrote a best seller “Portnoy’s Complaint”, which is entirely made up of a monologue delivered by a patient, Alexander Portnoy, to his analyst.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, March 18, 2023

Posted on March 18, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Novelist John Updike was born on this day in 1932. His literary career had him write more than 50 books, including novels, poetry, short stories and many newspaper columns. He said, “No amount of learned skills can substitute for the feeling of having a lot to say.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, March 17, 2023

Posted on March 17, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of novelist and children’s author Penelope Lively, her novel Moon Tiger (1987) won the Booker Prize. In Moon Tiger, she wrote: “We open our mouths and out flow words whose ancestries we do not even know. We are walking lexicons. In a single sentence of idle chatter we preserve Latin, Anglo-Saxon, Norse: we carry a museum inside our heads, each day we commemorate peoples of whom we have never heard.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, March 16, 2023

Posted on March 16, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

“The books we enjoy as children stay with us forever — they have a special impact. Paragraph after paragraph and page after page, the author must deliver his or her best work.” – Sid Fleischman, born on this day in 1920. He won the Newbery Award in 1987 for his novel “The Whipping Boy.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Posted on March 15, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the Ides of March, the day Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by conspirators in 44 B.C.E. The Roman Senate felt Cesar was a threat to the Republic, and had tyrannical leanings. An assassination was planned where only senators were allowed to be present, knives easily concealed in the drapery of their togas. Despite warnings Caesar went to meet the Senate. Upon arrival he was set upon, and murdered. The assassination that was meant to save the Republic actually resulted, ultimately, in its downfall. It sparked a series of civil wars and led to Julius’ heir, Octavian, becoming Caesar Augustus, the first Roman emperor.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Posted on March 14, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of Sylvia Beach, born in Baltimore, Maryland (1887). In Paris, she founded an English-language bookstore and lending library called Shakespeare and Company, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It opened just as the “lost generation” was discovering that city, and it became a central feature of the Parisian literary scene of the 1920s. Beach also published books, including the first — blue and white — edition of James Joyce’s “Ulysses” in 1922.

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