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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 4, 2025

Posted on August 4, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the crime writer Dennis Lehane, born in Dorchester, Massachusetts (1965). He grew up in a poor Irish neighborhood that he once described as “[a place] cramped with corner stores, small playgrounds, and butcher shops. … Days, the mothers searched the papers for coupons.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 1, 2025

Posted on August 1, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Herman Melville, born in New York City (1819). He was born into a successful merchant family and was the third child of eight. When he was twelve, his father went insane and died and his mother was left alone to raise all the children. A bout of scarlet fever left young Melville with permanently poor eyesight.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Posted on July 30, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of American blues guitarist Buddy Guy, born George Guy in Lettsworth, Louisiana (1936). He made his own guitar when he was 13, and learned to play it by listening to the records of John Lee Hooker and other blues artists. He soon began playing clubs in Baton Rouge, and moved to Chicago in 1957, when he was 21.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Posted on July 29, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of poet Stanley Kunitz, born in Worcester, Massachusetts (1905). His parents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. His father committed suicide in a public park before Kunitz was born, and his mother, Yetta, erased all traces of Stanley’s father from the house, and refused to speak about him.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, July 28, 2025

Posted on July 28, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of poet John Ashbery, born in Rochester, New York (1927). He grew up on his family’s fruit farm near Lake Ontario. He went to a small, rural school, and although they read some poetry, all of it was old. Then he won a contest, and the prize was Louis Untermeyer’s anthology Modern American and British Poetry.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, July 27, 2025

Posted on July 27, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Bharati Mukherjee, born in Calcutta, India (1940). She said: “As a bookish child in Calcutta, I used to thrill to the adventures of bad girls whose pursuit of happiness swept them outside the bounds of social decency. Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Emma Bovary, and Anna Karenina lived large in my imagination.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, July 26, 2025

Posted on July 26, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of English author Aldous Huxley, born in Godalming, Surrey (1894). He was the grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley, a scientist and man of letters who was known as “Darwin’s bulldog” for his defense of the theory of evolution. Huxley wrote a few novels that satirized English literary society, and these established him as a writer.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, July 25, 2025

Posted on July 25, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1897 that Jack London set off for the Klondike Gold Rush. Gold was discovered a year earlier, in August of 1896, on the Klondike River, near Dawson City in the Yukon. But the news took a while to reach the United States. In July of 1897, a boat from the Yukon arrived in Seattle, and the passengers had bags of gold. Immediately, newspapers were covered in the headline “GOLD!” and soon 100,000 men dropped everything to head north.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, July 24, 2025

Posted on July 24, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of French novelist Alexandre Dumas, born in Villers-Cotterêts, France (1802). He wrote swashbuckling adventure novels like The Three Musketeers (1844) and The Count of Monte Cristo (1844). He started writing fiction at a time when publishers used fiction to sell newspapers.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Posted on July 23, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1903 that the Ford Motor Company sold its first car, a two-cylinder Model A. It was sold to a Chicago dentist named Ernst Pfenning, who paid $850 for it. The Model A was painted red, with a seat that fit two people, and no roof. It reached 28 mph at top speed.

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