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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, January 26, 2025

Posted on January 26, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of children’s book author and editor Mary Mapes Dodge, born Mary Mapes in New York City (1831). She had long been interested in writing something about Holland, although she’d never been there. She had some Dutch friends who had emigrated from Amsterdam, and she asked them to tell her everything they knew about their home country, what things looked like and smelled like, and the things people did and the food they ate and the stories they told their children at night. She used all of these details to write a children’s book called Hans Brinker; or, The Silver Skates (1865), which became a best-seller.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, January 25, 2025

Posted on January 25, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

On this date in 1993, Sears, Roebuck and Company announced that they would no longer publish their “Big Book” catalog. The catalog was produced for nearly a century, and it made available a dazzling array of East Coast products to remote, rural areas across the country. It was the backbone of the Sears-Roebuck retail empire — R.W. Sears didn’t even get around to opening a brick-and-mortar store until 30 years later — and was so popular that catalogs were sent to American soldiers overseas during both World Wars.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, January 24, 2025

Posted on January 24, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Edith Wharton, born in New York City (1862). She wrote about frustrated love in novels like The House of Mirth (1905), Ethan Frome (1911), and The Age of Innocence (1920), for which she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, January 23, 2025

Posted on January 23, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of architect Henry Mather Greene, born in Brighton, Ohio (1870). Henry and his brother, Charles, founded the famous architecture firm Greene and Greene. As boys, they grew up partly on their mother’s family farm in West Virginia, rambling happily outdoors. As teenagers, they lived in St. Louis, where their father practiced as a respiratory physician. These years in St. Louis had two big influences on their later work.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Posted on January 22, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the man who founded the science of electrodynamics: André-Marie Ampère, born in Lyon, France (1775). Ampère didn’t have much in the way of formal schooling, but he was given free rein of his father’s large collection of books. Some say that Ampère was a math genius from the time he was young, working out complex mathematical formulas with crumbs of bread.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Posted on January 21, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1977, President Jimmy Carter issued an official pardon to Vietnam War draft dodgers. It was the day after his inauguration. He said: “One of the things I did was among the most controversial I ever did. And that was to pardon the so-called draft dodgers who escaped into Canada. And I did that before I ever began to walk down toward the Oval Office. […] I knew I was going to do it.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, January 20, 2025

Posted on January 20, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Italian film director Federico Fellini, born in Rimini, Italy (1920). As a young man, he enrolled in the University of Rome Law School to avoid military service, but he never attended classes. He worked instead as a cartoonist for a satirical magazine and as a gag writer for a vaudeville troupe.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, January 20, 2026

Posted on January 20, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the first president to take the oath of office on January 20, back in 1937. Originally, the Presidential Inauguration Day had been March 4th to allow the new president time to get to Washington D.C. Due to the speed of modern transportation and communication, Congress decided there was no need to wait so long between the election and the oath of office, so they established the new date with the passage of the Twentieth Amendment.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, January 19, 2025

Posted on January 19, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston, Massachusetts (1809). His poem “The Raven” is one of his best-known works, and it is also one of the most popular poems in the English language. Even people who have no interest in poetry can usually recite a line or two. It’s narrated by a studious young man who is mourning the loss of his lover, Lenore.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, January 18, 2025

Posted on January 18, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of physician and philologist Peter Mark Roget, born in London in 1779. He was a physician, trained at the University of Edinburgh, and he helped to found the University of London as well as a medical school at the University of Manchester. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society, served as its secretary for over 20 years, and invented a slide rule that was widely used until the invention of the pocket calculator.

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