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The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, December 14, 2024

Posted on December 14, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Amy Hempel, born in Chicago, Illinois (1951). She always knew she wanted to be a writer, but she didn’t have anything to write about, so she moved to California and worked in a series of odd jobs. She took an anatomy class where she performed autopsies on corpses, and then she worked in a counseling group for terminally ill people. But after her best friend died of cancer, she moved to New York City. It was only after she’d left California that she could write about the life she had been living there.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, December 13, 2024

Posted on December 13, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of mystery novelist Ross Macdonald, born Kenneth Millar in Los Gatos, California (1915). He also published under the names John Macdonald and John Ross Macdonald. He is most known for a series of novels starring Lew Archer, a private investigator. Macdonald named his character after Sam Spade’s dead partner in Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon (1930).

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, December 12, 2024

Posted on December 12, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of painter and printmaker Edvard Munch, born in Løten, Norway (1863). He was a sickly child; his mother and favorite sister both died of tuberculosis when Munch was a boy, and he was still a young man when his father and brother died as well. Another sister went mad. “I inherited two of mankind’s most frightful enemies — the heritage of consumption and insanity — illness and madness and death were the black angels that stood at my cradle,” he wrote in his journal.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Posted on December 11, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the writer who said: “To write a poem you must first create a pen that will write what you want to say. For better or worse, this is the work of a lifetime.” That’s Jim Harrison, born in Grayling, Michigan (1937). He had a couple of major accidents that ended up changing his writing career. When he was seven years old, he was playing with a friend and she accidentally cut him across the face and he went blind in one eye. He felt as though that set him apart from other kids, and he started turning to nature, to the woods and creeks and fields.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Posted on December 10, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of poet Emily Dickinson, born in Amherst, Massachusetts (1830). She was a bright, spirited girl who loved to be outside. She had a close-knit group of girl friends, and together they would explore the woods around Amherst, picking flowers, meeting people, helping with the final cooking down of maple syrup in the spring, and going for long walks. They read the Atlantic Monthly, admiring some of the poets and laughing at others, and they joined a Shakespeare club and then protested when their male tutors tried to cross out all the inappropriate parts from their books.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, December 9, 2024

Posted on December 9, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of one of the people who helped invent the modern computer: Grace Hopper, born in New York City (1906). She began tinkering around with machines when she was seven years old, dismantling several alarm clocks around the house to see how they worked. She was especially good at math in school.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, December 8, 2024

Posted on December 8, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of the humorist and cartoonist James Thurber, born in Columbus, Ohio (1894). He’s best remembered today for his short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (1944), the tale of a henpecked husband who fantasizes about a life of daring adventure. As a young man, Thurber’s own fantasy had been a little more tame: he dreamed of working as a staff writer for a new magazine called The New Yorker.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, December 7, 2024

Posted on December 7, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the woman who said: “It is a solemn and terrible thing to write a novel.” That’s the novelist Willa Cather, born in the village of Back Creek near Winchester, Virginia (1873). When Cather was nine years old, she and her family left their home in Virginia to homestead in Nebraska, and the Nebraska prairie is the setting of her great novels O Pioneers! (1913) and My Àntonia (1918).

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, December 6, 2024

Posted on December 6, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of lyricist Ira Gershwin, born Israel Gershowitz in New York City (1896). When Ira was 21, he was working in his father’s Turkish bath business, while his younger brother George was already making it big in Tin Pan Alley. When an acquaintance gave Ira yet another newspaper clipping about George’s success, Ira responded: “I now belong, I see, to the rank of Brothers of the Great.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, December 5, 2024

Posted on December 5, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Pre-Raphaelite poet Christina Rossetti, born in London in 1830. She grew up in a large, boisterous household. She had three brothers and sisters, and her parents were Italian, so all the children grew up speaking Italian and English. Her father was a political refugee and a Dante scholar and poet.

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