Albums APHC Clips Audio Events Prairie Home Archives Songs Writer's Almanac
Writer's Almanac

To subscribe to the Writer’s Almanac Anniversary Episode email, which includes the unedited text and audio from one daily anniversary episode selected from the archive, click here >>>

To browse archived episodes of The Writer’s Almanac from before 2017, click here >>>

• • • • •

To support The Writer’s Almanac Anniversary Episodes newsletter, please consider “buying” a donation here >>>

You can also buy a paid subscription to the Anniversary Episode newsletter here >>>

Checks may be made out to Prairie Home Productions, LLC and mailed to:

Prairie Home Productions
P.O. Box 2090
Minneapolis, MN 55402

(Note: donations to LLCs are not tax-deductible)

• • • • •

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, February 13, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, February 13, 2021

American religious historian Elaine Pagels turns 78 today. Best known for her books about the Gnostic Gospels, 13 texts found in 1945 in Nag Hammadi, Egypt.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, February 12, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, February 12, 2021

“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” –Abraham Lincoln, born this day 1809

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, February 11, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, February 11, 2021

On this day in 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from 27 years of imprisonment by the apartheid government of South Africa. Four years later he was elected president.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, February 10, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, February 10, 2021

175 years ago the Mormons headed west following Brigham Young to what would become their new home in what is now Salt Lake City.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, February 9, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, February 9, 2021

The author of “The Color Purple,” Alice Walker celebrates her 77th birthday on this day. She once wrote, “Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence.”

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, February 8, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, February 8, 2021

It’s the birthday of John Grisham (1955), who wrote his first best-seller, “The Firm,” using rules for suspense that he read about in a Writer’s Digest article.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, February 7, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, February 7, 2021

It’s the birthday of Sinclair Lewis (1885), whose novel “Main Street” satirizing people in the Midwest caused a sensation. It made him a millionaire in 1920.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, February 6, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, February 6, 2021

Today is the birthday of Mary Douglas Leakey (1913), who discovered fifteen new species of animal in her career as a paleoanthropologist.

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, February 5, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, February 5, 2021

It’s the 85th anniversary of the opening of the last film to feature Charlie Chaplin’s character The Little Tramp, “Modern Times”(1963).

Read More
The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, February 4, 2021

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, February 4, 2021

This day marks the birth 100 years ago, and death 15 years ago, of Betty Friedan, women’s rights activist and author of “The Feminine Mystique.”

Read More