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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, February 24, 2025

Posted on February 24, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of Steve Jobs, born in San Francisco (1955) to two University of Wisconsin graduate students who placed him for adoption. Clara and Paul Jobs, an accountant and a machinist, adopted him when he was still a baby. Growing up, Jobs and his father would tinker with electronics in the garage.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, February 23, 2025

Posted on February 23, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of W.E.B Du Bois, born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts (1868). His town was virtually all white. But he didn’t really notice racial discrimination — he said that he was only aware of it when people visited from out of town. He was smart; he went to Fisk University in Nashville and then to Harvard, where he was the first African-American to get a Ph.D.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, February 22, 2025

Posted on February 22, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the first president of the United States, George Washington, born in Westmoreland County, Virginia (1732). He came from a prosperous family, but when he was young, his father died after a long inspection of his plantation in terrible weather.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, February 21, 2025

Posted on February 21, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the poet who said: “I was — and in most respects still am — mentally precocious, physically backward, short-sighted, a rabbit at all games, very untidy and grubby, a nail-biter, a physical coward, dishonest, sentimental, with no community sense whatever.” That’s W.H. Auden, born Wystan Hugh Auden in York, England (1907).

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, February 20, 2025

Posted on February 20, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1877 that Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake had its premier performance by the Imperial Ballet in Moscow. It was Tchaikovsky’s first attempt at writing music for a ballet, and the critics hated the production.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Posted on February 19, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1945 that U.S. Marines began their invasion of Iwo Jima. Iwo Jima, whose name means Sulfur Island, is a small volcanic island 660 miles off the coast of mainland Japan, just eight square miles. The writer William Manchester described Iwo Jima as “an ugly, smelly glob of cold lava squatting in a surly ocean.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Posted on February 18, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1678 that The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan was published, a book that became a huge mass-market best-seller during the author’s lifetime. At the time of its publication, Bunyan was 50 years old, a little-known Baptist preacher who had been thrown in jail for preaching without a license.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, February 17, 2025

Posted on February 17, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of crime novelist Ruth Rendell, born in London, England (1930). Her parents had a terrible marriage and her mother was ill with multiple sclerosis that went undiagnosed for years, and so young Ruth began writing about her life as if it were a story happening to someone else.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, February 16, 2025

Posted on February 16, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

On this date in 1937, Wallace Carothers and DuPont Chemical Company were granted a patent for the synthetic polymer called nylon. Carothers was a gifted chemist and was made a chemistry instructor while he was still a student at Tarkio College in Missouri. When World War I broke out and many college faculty were sent overseas, he even served as head of the department.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, February 15, 2025

Posted on February 15, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of artist, writer, and filmmaker Miranda July, born Miranda Grossinger in Barre, Vermont (1974). She grew up in Berkeley and attended the University of California at Santa Cruz, but dropped out after a couple of years — she was frustrated with her film class, which she said was “all guys, and every project had a gun or a dog in it.” So she moved to Portland and started doing performance art.

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