Writer's Almanac Archives - Page 51 of 280 - Garrison Keillor

Albums APHC Clips Audio Events Prairie Home Archives Songs Writer's Almanac

Writer's Almanac

To subscribe to the Writer’s Almanac Anniversary Episode email, which includes the unedited text and audio from one daily anniversary episode selected from the archive, click here >>>

To browse archived episodes of The Writer’s Almanac from before 2017, click here >>>

• • • • •

To support The Writer’s Almanac Anniversary Episodes newsletter, please consider “buying” a donation here >>>

You can also buy a paid subscription to the Anniversary Episode newsletter here >>>

Checks may be made out to Prairie Home Productions, LLC and mailed to:

Prairie Home Productions
P.O. Box 2090
Minneapolis, MN 55402

(Note: donations to LLCs are not tax-deductible)

• • • • •

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, September 2, 2024

Posted on September 2, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1935 that George Gershwin officially completed the score for the opera Porgy and Bess. Nine years earlier, during tryouts for his musical Oh, Kay! (1926), Gershwin picked up the novel Porgy by DuBose Heyward. Set in the slums of Charleston, South Carolina, the book told the story of a crippled beggar named Porgy, a beautiful drug addict named Bess, and her abusive lover, Crown.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, September 1, 2024

Posted on September 1, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1773 that 20-year-old Phillis Wheatley published Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. It was the first book of poetry published by an African-American. Phillis was born in West Africa and brought over as a slave when she was a young girl. She was purchased by a Boston family, who taught her to read and write, and eventually gave her her freedom.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, August 31, 2024

Posted on August 31, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Maria Montessori, born on this day in Chiaravalle, Italy (1870). She was a bright student, studied engineering when she was 13, and — against her father’s wishes — she entered a technical school, where all her classmates were boys. After a few years, she decided to pursue medicine, and she became the first woman in Italy to earn a medical degree.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 30, 2024

Posted on August 30, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Giorgio Vasari, born in Arezzo, Italy (1511). He was trained as a painter, but is remembered now for his Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors and Architects, more commonly known as Lives of the Painters. Vasari’s work is still regarded as the best contemporary source of information about Renaissance art.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, August 29, 2024

Posted on August 29, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker, born in Kansas City, Kansas (1920). He is considered one of the half-dozen greatest jazz musicians, right up there with Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. Early in his career, he received the nickname of “Yardbird,” and then he became known as “Bird.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Posted on August 28, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the father of German literature, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, born in Frankfurt, Germany (1749), the author of the epic drama Faust.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Posted on August 27, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Theodore Dreiser, born in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1871. Dreiser was a novelist known for writing realistic books like Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925). Dreiser got the idea for his novel An American Tragedy when he read a newspaper article about a man who had murdered his pregnant girlfriend to keep their relationship a secret.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 26, 2024

Posted on August 26, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist and playwright Christopher Isherwood, born in Cheshire, England (1904). He’s best known for the novels he wrote about life in Berlin, just before the rise of the Nazi party, including Mr Norris Changes Trains (1935), Sally Bowles (1937), and Goodbye to Berlin (1939).

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 25, 2024

Posted on August 25, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the eccentric King Ludwig II of Bavaria, or “Mad Ludwig” or “The Swan King,” as he was called, born near Munich (1845). When he was 15 years old, Ludwig attended the opera Lohengrin, by the composer Richard Wagner, and he was smitten. His father died when he was 18, and Ludwig became king. Soon after being crowned, Ludwig asked that Wagner be brought to his court. After meeting Ludwig, Wagner wrote: “Alas, he is so handsome and intelligent, so splendid, and so full of soul, that I tremble lest his life should dissolve like a fleeting dream of the gods in this vulgar world.” Ludwig offered to be Wagner’s patron, to relieve his many debts, and to set him up in a beautiful villa.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, August 24, 2024

Posted on August 24, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist A.S. Byatt, born Antonia Susan Drabble in Sheffield, England (1936). She grew up in a literary family, and she was a shy girl. She said she didn’t speak to anyone voluntarily until she was 16. She went to a Quaker boarding school, and in order to be alone, she made a secret workspace for herself in the school’s boiler room, where she could read and write by the light of the fire.

Load next posts