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Writer's Almanac

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The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, December 12, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, December 12, 2020

It’s the birthday of painter Edvard Munch, who said, “My fear of life is necessary to me, as is my illness. Without anxiety and illness, I am a ship without a rudder.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, December 11, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, December 11, 2020

It’s the birthday of two writers who were lifelong friends: Jim Harrison (1937-2016) and Thomas McGuane (b. 1939).

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The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, December 10, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, December 10, 2020

It’s the birthday of English mathematician and inventor Ada Augusta Byron (AKA Ada Lovelace, born 1815), the first-ever computer programmer.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, December 9, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, December 9, 2020

It’s the birthday of Grace Hopper (1906-1992), who helped invent the modern computer and who helped design and promote a new computer language called COBOL.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, December 8, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, December 8, 2020

On this day 60 years ago, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was created, declaring over 8 million acres to be federally protected from things like oil drilling.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, December 7, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, December 7, 2020

On this day 60 years ago, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was created, declaring over 8 million acres to be federally protected from things like oil drilling.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, December 6, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, December 6, 2020

The Washington Monument was finally completed on this date in 1884, thirty-six years after construction began.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, December 5, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, December 5, 2020

It’s the 86th birthday of essayist, novelist, and memoirist Joan Didion (b. 1934), who wrote, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, December 4, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, December 4, 2020

It’s the birthday of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke (Prague, 1875), a notorious seducer of rich noblewomen all over Europe.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, December 3, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, December 3, 2020

It was on this day in 1947 that “A Streetcar Named Desire” opened on Broadway. When the curtain went down, the audience applauded for 30 minutes.

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