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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 31, 2025

Posted on August 31, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of educator Maria Montessori, born in Chiaravalle, Italy (1870). She studied literature and medicine at the University of Rome and was the first woman in Italy to be granted a doctor of medicine (M.D.) degree. She worked as a psychiatric instructor at a clinic for children with learning disabilities and developed therapeutic approaches that involved appeals to the children’s senses, especially the sense of touch.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, August 30, 2025

Posted on August 30, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Warren Buffet, born in Omaha, Nebraska (1930). In February 2008, he was ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world, worth about $62 billion. Despite his massive wealth, he lived relatively frugally, still residing in the home he bought in 1958 for $31,500, driving his own car, and allotting himself an annual salary from his investment company of about $100,000.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 29, 2025

Posted on August 29, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of animal scientist and memoirist Temple Grandin, born in Boston (1947). At age two and a half, she was diagnosed with autism, and doctors recommended that her parents put her in an institution. Though she had developed and acted normally for the first six months of her life, she then began to stiffen up when her mother tried to hold and cuddle her.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, August 28, 2025

Posted on August 28, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Liam O’Flaherty, born on Inishmore, in the Aran Islands off the western coast of Ireland (1896). He said, “I was born on a storm-swept rock and hate the soft growth of sun-baked lands where there is no frost in men’s bones.” He was the ninth of 10 children, born to a father who fished and farmed and a mother who was once a member of the Plymouth Brethren and whose family came to the islands to build lighthouses.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Posted on August 27, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of travel writer William Least Heat-Moon, born William Trogdon in Kansas City, Missouri (1939). He’s best known for an account of his journey across the back roads of America, Blue Highways.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Posted on August 26, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1920 that the 19th Amendment was formally incorporated into the U.S. Constitution. It proclaimed, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” It ended more than 70 years of struggle by the suffragist movement.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 25, 2025

Posted on August 25, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of journalist and novelist Frederick Forsyth (1938), born in Ashford, Kent, England. When he was just a student in Kent, Forsyth learned to speak French, German, Spanish, and Russian. At 17, he quit school and left home to see the world. He learned to fly a plane and joined the Royal Air Force as England’s youngest pilot. And he set out to write thrillers like The Day of the Jackal (1971), The Odessa File (1972), The Devil’s Alternative (1980), and The Fourth Protocol (1984).

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 24, 2025

Posted on August 24, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the writer Oscar Hijuelos, born in New York City in 1951. His parents were immigrants from Cuba, and his father supported the family by working in a hotel. Hijuelos went through the New York public schools, he went to City University, and then he got a job working in an advertising office. At night, he would write fiction, and he began to publish short stories.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, August 23, 2025

Posted on August 23, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of American poet Edgar Lee Masters, born in Garnett, Kansas, in 1868. Masters grew up in the small town of Lewiston, Illinois, in the Spoon River valley. His father was a lawyer who didn’t approve of his son’s ambition to write, so Masters became a lawyer in Chicago.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 22, 2025

Posted on August 22, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

And it’s the birthday of science fiction and fantasy writer Ray Bradbury, born in 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He has written books such as The Martian Chronicles (1950), Fahrenheit 451 (1953), and Farewell Summer (2006).

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