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Writer's Almanac

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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 24, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 24, 2021

“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, / Old Time is still a-flying, / And this same flower that smiles to-day / To-morrow will be dying.” –Robert Herrick, baptized this day 1591.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 23, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 23, 2021

It’s the birthday of the author who gave us “The Spoon River Anthology,” Edgar Le Masters (1868). The work lost him friends in Spoon River, but earned him enough to live as a writer.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 22, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 22, 2021

Today is the birthday of novelist Annie Proulx (1935), who won the Pulitzer Prize for her second novel, “The Shipping News” (1993).

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The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, August 21, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, August 21, 2021

“Poetry…answers to no one, it crosses borders without a passport, and it speaks the truth… it is one of the most powerful of the arts.”– Ellen Hinsey, born in 1960.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 20, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 20, 2021

It was on this day in 1940 that Winston Churchill delivered a speech to the House of Commons with the famous line: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, August 19, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, August 19, 2021

Today is the 100th birthday of Gene Roddenberry, most famous as the creator of “Star Trek,” the first sci-fi series to depict a generally peaceful future.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, August 18, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” was published in the United States on this day in 1958 and, in 1920, on this day the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 17, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 17, 2021

“…the physical body, so to speak, of poetry, is the treatment by which the poet tries to reconcile that pain with the world.” –Ted Kooser, born on this day in 1930.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 16, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 16, 2021

Today is the birthday of Charles Bukowski, born in Germany in 1920. His first rejection note read, “Possibly we will print you sometime, but I don’t know exactly when. That depends on you.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 15, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 15, 2021

This day in 1969 the three-day concert known as Woodstock began. A beautiful weekend of music and togetherness in a time of societal anger and war.

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