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

Posted on March 13, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1891 that Henrik Ibsen’s play Ghosts opened on the London stage. Ghosts was considered a controversial play because it included content about incest and sexually transmitted diseases, and Ibsen refused to give his audiences the happy endings they were used to. When it premiered in London, the play had already been banned in St. Petersburg on religious grounds.

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

Posted on March 12, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Jack Kerouac,, born Jean-Louis Kerouac in Lowell, Massachusetts (1922). He was from a working-class French-Canadian family; he grew up speaking French, and he wasn’t fluent in English until he was a teenager. Kerouac was a star football player, and after an impressive performance in the Thanksgiving Day game his senior year, he was offered a scholarship to Columbia University. In New York City, he met a group of friends who would eventually be known as the Beat Generation — Allen Ginsberg, William S. Boroughs, Neal Cassady, and others. Kerouac wrote his novel On the Road (1957) about Cassady.

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

Posted on March 11, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of media mogul (Keith) Rupert Murdoch, born on a farm outside of Melbourne, Australia (1931). His father was in the newspaper business, and by the time young Rupert was about 12, he had already made up his mind to carry on the family trade. When the elder Murdoch died unexpectedly in 1952,

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

Posted on March 10, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1965 that Neil Simon’s play The Odd Couple opened at the Plymouth Theatre in New York City, starring Walter Matthau and Art Carney as Oscar and Felix, who become roommates after their marriages fall apart. Oscar is a recently divorced sportswriter, a total slob, relishing his new apartment.

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

Posted on March 9, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of a writer who called his books “the chewing gum of American literature.” That’s crime novelist Mickey Spillane, born Frank Morrison Spillane in Brooklyn (1918). His Irish father was a bartender, and Spillane grew up in a tough neighborhood in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He worked odd jobs, including as a lifeguard, circus performer, and salesman. He was selling ties at a department store when he met a coworker whose brother produced comic books, and he was convinced to try writing some himself.

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

Posted on March 8, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1935 that Thomas Wolfe’s novel Of Time and the River was published. Wolfe’s editor was Maxwell Perkins, who also edited Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. When Wolfe brought Perkins a draft of Of Time and the River in December of 1933, it was more than one million words long, and still growing. The first installment alone was two feet high.

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

Posted on March 7, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the anniversary of the first March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama (1965), known as “Bloody Sunday.” Six hundred civil rights activists left Selma to march the 54 miles to the state capitol, demonstrating for African-American voting rights. They got six blocks before state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas.

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

Posted on March 6, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the Nobel Prize-winning novelist who said, “I’ve always been convinced that my true profession is that of journalist.” That’s Gabriel García Márquez, born in Aracataca, Colombia, on this day in 1927. He’s the author of one of the most important books in Latin American literature, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967).

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

Posted on March 5, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the anniversary of the Boston Massacre, which took place on a cold and snowy night in 1770. British soldiers had occupied Boston for 18 months to protect the tax collectors for the king of England. There had been several street fights between soldiers and townsmen since the beginning of the month, so tensions were already high on the evening of March 5th.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, March 4, 2025

Posted on March 4, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

John Adams was inaugurated on this date in 1797. He became the second president of the United States, succeeding George Washington in the first peaceful transfer of power between elected officials in modern times. His rival for the office had been Thomas Jefferson, and because Jefferson had received the second highest number of electoral votes, the Electoral College named him vice president.

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