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The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, June 26, 2025

Posted on June 26, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer Pearl S. Buck, born in Hillsboro, West Virginia (1892). Her parents were Christian missionaries, and she was raised in China from the age of three months. She said: “I spoke Chinese first, and more easily. […] I did not consider myself a white person in those days.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Posted on June 25, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

The Korean War began on this date in 1950, when North Korean soldiers invaded South Korea. The Korean peninsula had become a Japanese colony in 1910, but with Japan’s surrender to the Allies in 1945, all the Japanese territories landed in the laps of the Soviet Union and the United States.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Posted on June 24, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Anita Desai, born in Mussoorie, India (1937). Her mother was German and her father was Bengali. She said, “I am sure this is what makes my writing whatever it is; I see India through the eyes of my mother, as an outsider, but my feelings are my father’s, of someone born here.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, June 23, 2025

Posted on June 23, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1868, the first typewriter was patented by Christopher Latham Sholes. It only had capital letters and it took up as much room as a large table. Typewriters were slow sellers at first, but Mark Twain bought one almost as soon as they came out, and in 1883 Twain sent the manuscript of his book Life on the Mississippi (1883) to his publisher in typed form, the first author ever to do so.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, June 22, 2025

Posted on June 22, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1944 that the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 became law — a law better known as the GI Bill. It was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, June 21, 2025

Posted on June 21, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre, born in Paris (1905). This giant of existential thought was also a well-known prankster during his days at the École Normale. He and a friend dropped water balloons from the roof onto dinner guests in tuxedos, shouting, “Thus pissed Zarathustra!” He sometimes showed up naked to official functions, and he vomited on the feet of a school official.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, June 20, 2025

Posted on June 20, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1977 that the Trans-Alaska Pipeline began to pump oil for the first time. It was the largest private construction project ever completed in United States history.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, June 19, 2025

Posted on June 19, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the music journalist and cultural critic Greil Marcus, born in San Francisco (1945). He was named for his father, Greil Gerstley, who was killed in World War II before Marcus was born. Gerstley served on a Navy ship, one of three that were deliberately sent into a typhoon. Although the other officers urged him to mutiny, Gerstley refused, and all three ships sank. The incident inspired Herman Wouk’s novel The Caine Mutiny (1952).

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Posted on June 18, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Richard Powers, born in Evanston, Illinois (1957). When he was in his early 20s, he was working as a computer programmer in Boston. He spent every Saturday at the Museum of Fine Arts, where admission was free in the morning, and one day he saw a photograph from 1914 of three farm boys headed to a dance.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Posted on June 17, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Hersey, born to American missionaries in Tientsin, China (1914), who spoke Chinese before he spoke English, moved to the States when he was 10, and graduated from Yale. After college, he spent a summer as a secretary for writer Sinclair Lewis, then he went to work for Time magazine, reporting on World War II from all over Europe and Asia.

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