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The Writer’s Almanac for July 27, 2018

Posted on July 27, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer and critic Elizabeth Hardwick, who co-founded The New York Review of Books and who also said, “There are really only two reasons to write: desperation or revenge.”

The Writer’s Almanac for July 26, 2018

Posted on July 26, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of Aldous Huxley, author of the classic dystopian novel “Brave New World” (1923). Comparing “Brave New World” to George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” (1948), cultural critic Neil Postman said: “What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.”

The Writer’s Almanac for July 25, 2018

Posted on July 25, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Louise Brown, the first baby conceived via in vitro insemination. “In vitro” means “in glass,” so for years she was referred to as the first “test tube baby.” She was born in Oldham, Great Britain, in 1978, to Lesley and John Brown, who had tried to conceive a child for nine years.

The Writer’s Almanac for July 24, 2018

Posted on July 24, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer and socialite Zelda Fitzgerald, born Zelda Sayre in Montgomery, Alabama. She was named after the fictional gypsy heroine in Zelda’s Fortune (1874), one of her mother’s favorite books. Zelda Fitzgerald said, “I don’t want to live — I want to love first, and live incidentally.”

The Writer’s Almanac for July 23, 2018

Posted on July 23, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

On this date in 1903, the Ford Motor Company sold its first car, the Model A. Ford used all the letters of the alphabet from A to T, but not all of them were manufactured and sold; most were just prototypes.

The Writer’s Almanac for July 22, 2018

Posted on July 22, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of painter Edward Hopper, who lived and worked in the same New York City apartment from 1913 until 1967, and who once said, “Maybe I am slightly inhuman. … All I ever wanted to do was to paint sunlight on the side of a house.”

The Writer’s Almanac for July 21, 2018

Posted on July 21, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first people to walk on the moon. It was actually July 20 in the United States, nearly 11 o’clock p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, but according to Greenwich Mean Time, it was already almost 3 a.m. on the 21st.

The Writer’s Almanac for July 20, 2018

Posted on July 20, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Italian scholar and poet Francesco Petrarca, better known as Petrarch. Of the 366 poems in his collection Il Canzoniere, 316 were in sonnet form–and today we call that type of sonnet “Italian” or “Petrarchan.”

The Writer’s Almanac for July 19, 2018

Posted on July 19, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

On this date in 1848, the first Convention for Women’s Rights opened in Seneca Falls, New York. Reporting on the event, the Oneida Whig wrote: “This bolt is the most shocking and unnatural incident ever recorded in the history of womanity.”

The Writer’s Almanac for July 18, 2018

Posted on July 18, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer Elizabeth Gilbert, best known for her memoir Eat Pray Love. She said: “The more important virtue for a writer, I believe, is self-forgiveness. Because your writing will always disappoint you. Your laziness will always disappoint you…Continuing to write after that heartache of disappointment doesn’t take only discipline, but also self-forgiveness.”

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