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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Posted on June 10, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Saul Bellow, born in Lachine, Quebec (1913). His parents were Russian immigrants. His father worked in a bakery; he delivered coal; and he was a bootlegger, smuggling alcohol across the border during Prohibition. When Saul was nine years old, the family moved to Chicago, the city that would become the setting of many of Bellow’s novels.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, June 9, 2025

Posted on June 9, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the man who wrote the songs “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “You’re the Top,” and “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall In Love”: Cole Porter, born in Peru, Indiana (1891). Most of his great songs were written within a 10-year period: between his first popular Broadway musical, Paris (1928)—his first musicals had been complete flops—and a terrible riding accident in 1937.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, June 8, 2025

Posted on June 8, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of best-selling crime novelist Sara Paretsky, born in Ames, Iowa (1947). She grew up in rural Kansas. Her parents were brilliant but troubled. Her father was a microbiology professor at the University of Kansas, her mother a frustrated housewife who had never lived up to her intellectual potential. Her father was from New York, and felt alienated in Lawrence where there were few other Jewish people, so he decided they needed to leave the city.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, June 7, 2025

Posted on June 7, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Louise Erdrich, born in Little Falls, Minnesota (1954). She grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota, where her parents taught at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Her mother was French-Ojibwe, and her father was German; she and her six brothers and sisters were raised in a close, loving family.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, June 6, 2025

Posted on June 6, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1933 that the first drive-in movie theater opened, in Camden, New Jersey. The theater was the brainchild of a young man named Richard Hollingshead Jr., a manager at his father’s Camden auto shop, Whiz Auto Products. He dreamed of creating something that would bring a little fun to the tough daily life of the Depression era. He was also thinking about his mother, who was a little bit overweight and wasn’t comfortable in movie theater seats.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, June 5, 2025

Posted on June 5, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1977, the Apple II computer went on sale, and the era of personal computing began. Developed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, it was the first successful mass-produced microcomputer designed for home use. It came standard with 4 kilobytes of memory, game paddles, and a demo cassette with some programs on it. Most people used their televisions as monitors.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Posted on June 4, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

On this date in 1896, a young electrical engineer named Henry Ford completed, and successfully tested, his first experimental automobile. He called it the “Quadricycle,” because it rolled around on four bicycle tires. He’d been working on it for two years, out in the shed behind his house on Bagley Avenue in Detroit.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Posted on June 3, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of poet Allen Ginsberg (1926). He was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in Paterson. His father, Louis, was a poet and high school teacher; his mother, Naomi, was a communist and a paranoid schizophrenic. Naomi and Allen were very close; when she was in the grip of her delusions, he was the only one she trusted, and he often accompanied her to her therapy appointments.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, June 2, 2025

Posted on June 2, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1692, the Court of Oyer and Terminer convened in Salem Town, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem Witch Trials. The hysteria had begun in Salem Village (now Danvers, Massachusetts) in January of that year; a few preteen and teenage girls, including the daughter of Samuel Parris, the village’s minister, began acting strangely and having fits, insisting that they were being poked and pinched.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, June 1, 2025

Posted on June 1, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

In 1824, Carnot published one of the first physics books written for general audiences, called Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire. It explained, in laymen’s terms, the principles of converting heat to energy. Carnot argued that the real power behind an engine lay in the temperature difference between its hottest and coolest elements, and that the use of gas or fluid was irrelevant.

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