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The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, November 14, 2025

Posted on November 14, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of political satirist P.J. O’Rourke, born in Toledo, Ohio (1947). After a conservative upbringing, he started his writing life in the 1960s as a “left-leaning hippie,” but claims that he was never ever a Democrat. He said, “I went from being a Republican to being a Maoist, then back to being a Republican again.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, November 13, 2025

Posted on November 13, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Robert Louis Stevenson, born in Edinburgh, Scotland (1850). He was a sickly, moderately successful essayist and travel writer, living in France, when he fell in love with a woman after one look at her. The woman was Fanny Osbourne, an American, and she was unhappily married.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Posted on November 12, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist and short-story writer Hanan al-Shaykh, born in Beirut, Lebanon (1945). She came from a strict Shi’a family, and she knew from a young age that she wanted to be a writer, she said, because it allowed her to release anger and frustration at male members of her family, who had the power to control her freedom.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, November 11, 2025

Posted on November 11, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Abigail Adams, the wife of the second U.S. president and mother of the sixth, born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1744. She was a frail and sickly child, raised by her well-educated grandmother. Early on, separated from her friends and family, she developed her habit of writing letters, a habit for which she later became well-known.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, November 10, 2025

Posted on November 10, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Irish poet and patriot Padraic Pearse, born in Dublin (1879). Though he spent most of his short life as an academic and writer, he’s best known as a leader of the Easter Rising of 1916, a failed Irish rebellion against Britain.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, November 9, 2025

Posted on November 9, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Irish playwright Hugh Leonard, born John Keyes Byrne in Dublin (1926). He acted in plays with an amateur drama club and then tried writing a few, which the drama club performed. He sent one of his plays to the Abbey Theatre, but they rejected it.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, November 8, 2025

Posted on November 8, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the woman who wrote Gone with the Wind (1936), Margaret Mitchell, born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1900.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, November 7, 2025

Posted on November 7, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer Albert Camus, born in Mondovi, Algeria (1913). He grew up in a working-class family. His father was killed in WWI, and his mother worked as a cleaning woman; she could barely read. They had no money, but a grammar-school teacher encouraged him to go to college.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, November 6, 2025

Posted on November 6, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the man who founded The New Yorker magazine, Harold Ross, born in Aspen, Colorado (1892). His father worked in the mining business. He ran away from home when he was 16, and he worked at various newspapers from New Orleans to California.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, November 5, 2025

Posted on November 5, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of memoirist Joyce Maynard, born in Exeter, New Hampshire (1953). She was a regular contributor to The New York Times, CBS radio, and various magazines.

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