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Writer's Almanac

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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, May 3, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, May 3, 2020

“One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.” –the late poet May Sarton, born this day in 1912

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The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, May 2, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, May 2, 2020

It’s the birthday of Dr. Benjamin Spock (New Haven, 1903), who wrote the parenting bible for all the post-war moms and dads raising the baby boomer generation.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, May 1, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, May 1, 2020

“I’m out of it, but not too far out. I figure somewhere between 12 to 18 inches.” –Louis Jenkins (1942-2019), from today’s featured poem

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The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, April 30, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, April 30, 2020

Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” was first published in serial form on this date in 1859. The weekly journal it appeared in sold 125,000 copies.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, April 29, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, April 29, 2020

It’s the birthday of William Randolph Hearst (1863), whose newspapers’ sensational reporting actually helped cause the Spanish-American War of 1898.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, April 28, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, April 28, 2020

It’s the birthday of poet Carolyn Forché (1950), whose first collection won the Yale Younger Poets Award and whose latest collection came out just last month.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, April 27, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, April 27, 2020

It’s the birthday of the author of the “Madeline” books, Ludwig Bemelmans, born in Austria in 1898.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, April 26, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, April 26, 2020

It’s the birthday of novelist and screenwriter Anita Loos (1889), who wrote approximately 150 screenplays for silent films between 1913 and 1928.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, April 25, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, April 25, 2020

It’s the birthday of ‘First Lady of Song’ Ella Fitzgerald (1917), who said, “The only thing better than singing is more singing.”

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The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, April 24, 2020

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, April 24, 2020

The Library of Congress was established on this date in 1800. The library receives about 15,000 new items every workday, and its collection includes more than 24 million books.

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