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

Posted on October 25, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of poet and scholar John Berryman, born in McAlester, Oklahoma (1914). His mother was a schoolteacher. His father, who was a banker, took his own life when John was 12 years old. A few months later, his mother married a man whom she’d been having an affair with for the past year.

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

Posted on October 24, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1929, the U.S. Stock Market crashed. The day became known as “Black Thursday.” By the next Tuesday, the market had lost almost 26 billion dollars of value. Banks failed, individual investors lost their savings, and the Great Depression began in America.

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

Posted on October 23, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Augusten Burroughs, born Christopher Robison in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1965). He’s the author of the best-selling memoir Running with Scissors, based on his teenage years. He said, “When I was 13, my crazy mother gave me away to her lunatic psychiatrist, who adopted me. I then lived a life of squalor, pedophiles, no school and free pills.”

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

Posted on October 22, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer and psychedelic drug advocate Timothy Leary, born in Springfield, Massachusetts (1920). He was the only child of an army captain-turned-dentist and a devout Catholic mother. He attended Jesuit schools growing up, and he started at a Catholic college before deciding he was no longer a believer.

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

Posted on October 22, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin, born in Berkeley, California (1929). She grew up in a family of academics. Her mother, Theodora Kroeber, was a psychologist and writer. Her father, Alfred Kroeber, was the first person to receive a Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University, and he was called the “Dean of American anthropologists.”

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

Posted on October 20, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the poet Arthur Rimbaud, born in Charleville, France (1854). He wrote, “But, truly, I have wept too much! The Dawns are heartbreaking. Every moon is atrocious and every sun bitter.” He came to epitomize the Decadent Movement, in which poets and writers celebrated artifice in their works.

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

Posted on October 19, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the anniversary of the end of the Revolutionary War. On this day in 1781 in Yorktown, Virginia, General Charles Cornwallis and his army of 8,000 troops surrendered to George Washington and Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau. Together the Americans and the French had about 17,000 troops.

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

Posted on October 18, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the journalist A.J. Liebling, born Abbott Joseph Liebling in New York City, 1904. He got kicked out of Dartmouth for missing too many chapel services, so he became a reporter. He was a WWII correspondent for The New Yorker, and he ignored politics and combat strategy and just wrote about day-to-day life among the soldiers and the civilians.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, October 17, 2025

Posted on October 17, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Arthur Miller, born in New York City in 1915. His family was wealthy, but they lost all their money during the stock market crash, so they moved to Brooklyn and lived with the whole extended family. Arthur’s uncle was a storyteller and a big liar.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, October 16, 2025

Posted on October 16, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the often-quoted Irish writer Oscar Wilde, born in Dublin in 1854. He said, “I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.” And he said, “The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on. It is never any use to oneself.”

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