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The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Posted on March 18, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer John Updike, born in Reading, Pennsylvania (1932). His father was a high school teacher, and his mother aspired to be a writer; Updike said: “One of my earliest memories is of seeing her at her desk. I admired the writer’s equipment, the typewriter eraser, the boxes of clean paper. And I remember the brown envelopes that stories would go off in — and come back in.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Posted on March 17, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, the annual feast day celebrating a patron saint of Ireland. St. Patrick was born around the year 385, in a village in Wales. When he was 16, a group of Irish pirates raided his village and took many of the young men back to Ireland to work as slaves. Patrick worked for six years as a herdsman in the Irish countryside.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, March 16, 2026

Posted on March 16, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Alice Hoffman, born in New York City (1952). Growing up, she thought that her brother was the smart one, and that as a girl she couldn’t be a veterinarian or a writer, the two things she was most interested in, but should settle for life as a hairdresser.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, March 15, 2026

Posted on March 15, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the playwright and folklorist Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory, born in Galway, Ireland (1852). Lady Gregory is best remembered as an instrumental figure in the Irish Literary Revival. At age 28, Isabella Augusta married the 63-year-old widower Sir William Henry Gregory.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, March 14, 2026

Posted on March 14, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the bookseller and publisher Sylvia Beach, born in Baltimore, Maryland (1887). She opened a bookstore and lending library on the Left Bank of Paris called Shakespeare and Company, which stocked English-language books. She handpicked her books, she had copies of all the new innovative literary magazines, and she sold contemporary literature that was banned in America and England.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, March 13, 2026

Posted on March 13, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of science fiction writer and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, born Lafayette Ronald Hubbard in Tilden, Nebraska (1911). He started out writing for pulp magazines, and he was a prolific writer.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, March 12, 2026

Posted on March 12, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the anniversary of the Great Blizzard of 1888, a storm that dumped up to 50 inches of snow along the East Coast from Montreal to Washington, D.C. Four hundred people died in the storm, more than 200 of them from New York City, which was hit particularly hard.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Posted on March 11, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer Douglas Adams, born in Cambridge, England (1952), best known for his five-book “trilogy” The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a series of comic science fiction novels that sold more than 15 million copies, have been translated into more than 30 languages, and inspired a cult-like following.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Posted on March 10, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of playwright and novelist David Rabe, born in Dubuque, Iowa (1940). He was drafted and sent to Vietnam. He didn’t actually fight — he worked in a hospital unit and did paperwork. He said: “Barriers were down; restrictions were down; behavior outside the norms. There was this giddy thing. You could go around one corner and see something horrible, around another and see something thrilling. It was a little like the Wild West.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, March 9, 2026

Posted on March 9, 2026 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of one of the 20th century’s best-selling novelists: Mickey Spillane, born Frank Morrison Spillane in New York City (1918). He grew up in an Irish-American family in a rough New Jersey neighborhood. His father was a bartender, and his mother made sure that her children had a good education. He claimed to have read everything written by Herman Melville and Alexandre Dumas by the time he was 11.

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