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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!”

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

Posted on February 21, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

The most influential and best-selling political pamphlet of all time was first published on this day in 1848: The Communist Manifesto, written by Marx and Engels. Marx and Engels wrote the Manifesto as a call to action aimed at proletariat across Western Europe, and as an advertisement or plug for a specific type of socialism — the version Marx and his colleagues and the Communist League promoted. There were a lot of versions of socialism already circulating around Europe.

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

Posted on February 20, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

“I hesitate to define just what the qualities of a true wilderness experience are. Like music and art, wilderness can be defined only on its own terms. The less talk, the better.” — Ansel Adams, photographer, born on this day in 1902.

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

Posted on February 19, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today’s birthdays include novelists Amy Tan (1989) and Carson McCullers (1917), writer Siri Hustvedt (1955), André Breton (1896) author of “The Surrealist Manifesto”, and the scientist who first proposed the Earth revolved around the Sun, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473).

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

Posted on February 18, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of writer Sholem Aleichem, born Solomon Rabinowitz in Pereyaslav, Ukraine (1859). He’s known as the Mark Twain of Yiddish literature. He wrote five novels, many plays, and over 300 short stories.
Aleichem said, “No matter how bad things get, you got to go on living, even if it kills you.”

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

Posted on February 17, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1904 that Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly had its premiere at La Scala Theater in Milan, Italy. The audience hated it so much they hissed and booed. Puccini closed it after one night, revised it, and opened it later the same year. The second time around it was such a hit that there were five encores, and Puccini had to come out in front of the curtain 10 times.

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

Posted on February 16, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of American novelist and short-story writer Richard Ford (1944). On writing, Richard Ford says: “I like the part of being a writer in which you don’t feel the sides of anything. You don’t see the beginning, and you don’t see the end, you’re just in it.”

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

Posted on February 15, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of a pioneer in the women’s suffrage movement., Susan B. Anthony, in 1820. With the help of some famous friends, abolitionist Frederick Douglass and fellow suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she fought and raised her voice for equality. Equality she did not live to witness.

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