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The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, February 28, 2025

Posted on February 28, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Colum McCann, born in Dublin, Ireland (1965). He’s the author of Let the Great World Spin (2009), which won the 2009 National Book Award. His fiction has been translated into 30 languages.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, February 27, 2025

Posted on February 27, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of John Steinbeck, born in Salinas, California (1902). His early books didn’t sell well at all, and he supported himself as a manual laborer. His first success came with the 1935 novel Tortilla Flat, which was the story of King Arthur and the Round Table told through the lives of pleasure-loving Mexican Americans.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Posted on February 26, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

President Woodrow Wilson established the Grand Canyon National Park on this date in 1919, after a 30 year opposition from ranchers, miners, and entrepreneurs. Today, the Grand Canyon National Park covers more than 1,900 square miles; the canyon itself is 277 river miles long, 10 miles wide, and a mile deep. The park receives 5 million visitors every year.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Posted on February 25, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of former Beatle George Harrison, born in Liverpool, England, in 1943. He was the youngest of Harold and Louise Harrison’s four children, and the youngest of the four Beatles as well. He joined the band when he was only 14, and there was a tendency ever after for his bandmates to treat him like a tag-along kid brother.

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.”

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