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The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, March 3, 2023

Posted on March 3, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata was published on this date in 1802. Its real name is the slightly less evocative “Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor, Opus 27, No. 2,” and its Italian subtitle is translated as “almost a fantasy.” In 1832, five years after Beethoven’s death, a German critic compared the sonata to the effect of moonlight shining on Lake Lucerne, and the interpretation became so popular that, by the end of the century, the piece was universally known as the “Moonlight Sonata.” Beethoven himself had attributed the emotion of the piece to sitting at the bedside of a friend who had suffered an untimely death.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, March 2, 2023

Posted on March 2, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

This day in 1904 of the children’s book author who wrote under the name Dr. Seuss was born. Theodor Geisel published his first book for children, “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street”, in 1937. Soon after followed “The Cat in the Hat” and “Green Eggs and Ham.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Posted on March 1, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

President Ulysses S. Grant signed legislation making Yellowstone this country’s first national park on this date in 1872. Yellowstone covers nearly 3,500 square miles, and is home to one of the world’s 30 active super volcanoes. The volcano lies underneath Yellowstone Lake, and it’s responsible for some of the more dramatic of the park’s features, including hot springs, mud pots, and the famous Old Faithful and Steamboat Geysers.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Posted on February 28, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the 58th birthday of author Colum McCann, who once said “I think a good novel can be a doorstop to despair. I also think the real bravery comes with those who prepared to go through that door and look at the world in all its grime and torment, and still find something of value, no matter how small.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, February 27, 2023

Posted on February 27, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

“A writer out of loneliness is trying to communicate like a distant star sending signals. He isn’t telling or teaching or ordering. Rather he seeks to establish a relationship of meaning, of feeling, of observing. We are lonesome animals. We spend all life trying to be less lonesome.” – John Steinbeck, born on this day in 1902.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, February 26, 2023

Posted on February 26, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

French author Victor Hugo was born on this day in 1802. The author of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Les Miserables.”By the time he died in 1885, at the age of 82, he was a national hero; journalists recorded everything he said on his deathbed, and 2 million mourners watched his funeral procession go by.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, February 25, 2023

Posted on February 25, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of the author of “A Clockwork Orange” Anthony Burgess, born in Manchester in 1917. He once said, “The ideal reader of my novels is a lapsed Catholic and a failed musician, short-sighted, color-blind, auditorily biased, who has read the books that I have read.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, February 24, 2023

Posted on February 24, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of Wilhelm Karl Grimm, born in Hanau, Germany (1786). He and Jacob, his older brother, published Grimm’s Fairy Tales (1812), the first collection of folklore in modern publishing history. Wilhelm was more romantic and literary, and Jacob was more intellectual. For the most part, Wilhelm found the stories, and Jacob theorized about them.

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

Posted on February 23, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1940 that American folk singer and activist Woody Guthrie wrote the lyrics to “This Land is Your Land.” In 1954 the first mass inoculation of the Salk vaccine against polio began at Arsenal Elementary School. It’s also the birthday of novelist John Camp (1944), Baroque composer George Frideric Handel (1685), and Samuel Pepys (1633) the English diarist who recorded the 1660’s in minute detail.

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

Posted on February 22, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892), considered one of the finest American poets of her time. One of her best-known poems, “First Fig,” became emblematic for certain wild-hearted young people during the Jazz Age.
Millay wrote: “My candle burns at both ends; / It will not last the night; / But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends — / It gives a lovely light!”

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