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The Writer’s Almanac for July 17, 2018

Posted on July 17, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

On this date in 1867, Harvard Dental School, the first university-based dental school in the United States was founded. Prior to the 19th century, dental treatment options were extremely limited: If you had a toothache, you went to the barber-surgeon — or even the blacksmith — to have the tooth pulled, with no anesthesia.

The Writer’s Almanac for July 16, 2018

Posted on July 16, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger was published on this date in 1951. The book took Salinger 10 years to write, and it was at one time the most banned book and the most frequently taught book in the country.

The Writer’s Almanac for July 15, 2018

Posted on July 15, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who founded the literary analysis technique known as deconstruction and who famously proclaimed that “there is nothing outside the text.”

The Writer’s Almanac for July 14, 2018

Posted on July 14, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of Woody Guthrie (born 1912), who once wrote a song about Billy the Kid. Coincidentally, today is the anniversary of the day Billy the Kid was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in 1881 in New Mexico Territory.

The Writer’s Almanac for July 13, 2018

Posted on July 13, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the 41st anniversary of the 1977 blackout in New York City. It is also the birthday of poet John Clare, whose poem “The Sweetest Woman There” is featured in today’s episode. In 1840, Clare was committed to the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum, where he wrote some of his best poetry.

The Writer’s Almanac for July 12, 2018

Posted on July 12, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

Birthdays for today include those of Pablo Neruda, Henry David Thoreau, Julius Caesar, and Donald Westlake, who was such a prolific mystery writer that he used multiple pen names–Richard Stark, Curt Clark, Timothy J. Culver, and more–to circumvent his publisher’s reluctance to publish multiple titles per year by a single author.

The Writer’s Almanac for July 11, 2018

Posted on July 11, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of author Jhumpa Lahiri. She went to college at Barnard, then to graduate school at Boston University. She was on the verge of going to work in retail when Houghton Mifflin agreed to publish her first book for a small advance. That book was The Interpreter of Maladies (1999), a collection of nine stories about Bengalis and Bengali-Americans living in suburban New England.

The Writer’s Almanac for July 10, 2018

Posted on July 10, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

On this date in 1553, Lady Jane Grey was crowned Queen of England. She ruled for only nine days before being deposed by Edward’s half-sister Mary Tudor, who was the designated heir by act of Parliament and by Henry VIII’s will. Mary had Jane Grey imprisoned in the Tower and she was later executed for treason.

The Writer’s Almanac for July 9, 2018

Posted on July 9, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, granting full citizenship to African-Americans and due process to all citizens. It’s one of the Reconstruction Amendments, along with the Thirteenth and the Fifteenth.

The Writer’s Almanac for July 8, 2018

Posted on July 8, 2018 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of the poet Jean de la Fontaine, whose Fables (1668-1693) consisted of several volumes of poems that tell familiar stories such as “The Tortoise and the Hare,” “The City Mouse and The Country Mouse,” and “The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs.” They are still popular in France today, where they are memorized by schoolchildren and studied by scholars.

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