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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 4, 2024

Posted on August 4, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, born in Sussex, England (1792). His father was rich, landed, a member of the aristocracy and of Parliament, and had a huge inheritance set aside for his young son. Shelley went to prestigious English schools and enrolled at Oxford University where he was eventually expelled for writing a pamphlet called “The Necessity of Atheism.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, August 3, 2024

Posted on August 3, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of one of America’s first embedded reporters, Ernie Pyle, born Ernest Taylor Pyle in a little white farmhouse near Dana, Indiana (1900). In the fall of 1940, Pyle went to London to travel around with Yank troops, and they went to Africa, Italy, and France. He wrote for newspapers about World War II in the form of daily letters home from the war front. When he covered the war, he never made it look glamorous.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 2, 2024

Posted on August 2, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer James Baldwin born in Harlem Hospital in New York City (1924). He was the oldest of a family of nine children, and he was often put in charge of his younger siblings. He spent much of his childhood with a baby in one hand and a book in the other, reading and rereading Uncle Tom’s Cabin and A Tale of Two Cities.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, August 1, 2024

Posted on August 1, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the first professional woman astronomer, Maria Mitchell, born in Nantucket, Massachusetts (1818). She was the third child of 10 born into a New England Quaker family. She was taught a bit by her father but largely self-educated. Her parents encouraged their daughters as well as their sons to excel, and she became a noted scientist, which was very rare for a woman back then.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Posted on July 31, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer J.K. Rowling, born Joanne Rowling in Yate, England (1965). Rowling grew up in rural England. She tried writing a couple of novels but never finished them. One day, on a cross-country train trip, the idea of Harry Potter just appeared in her mind. She didn’t have a pen to write things down, so she said: “Rather than try to write it, I had to think it. And I think that was a very good thing. I was besieged by a mass of detail, and if it didn’t survive that journey, it probably wasn’t worth remembering.” As soon as she got home, she started writing what she did remember.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Posted on July 30, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of American blues guitarist Buddy Guy, born George Guy in Lettsworth, Louisiana (1936). He made his own guitar when he was 13, and learned to play it by listening to the records of John Lee Hooker and other blues artists. He soon began playing clubs in Baton Rouge, and moved to Chicago in 1957, when he was 21.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, July 29, 2024

Posted on July 29, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of documentary filmmaker Ken Burns (1953). He was born in Brooklyn, New York, but he grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where his father was a professor at the University of Michigan. He studied film and design at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and his first major documentary film was Brooklyn Bridge in 1981.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, July 28, 2024

Posted on July 28, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the philosopher Karl Popper, born in Vienna (1902). He was one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century. He came up with the theory that what defines a scientific idea is that it can be falsified. He realized that the real work of scientists is not to look for evidence that their theories are correct, but to look as hard as they can for evidence that their theories are false.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, July 27, 2024

Posted on July 27, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1940 that Bugs Bunny made his official debut in an animated film short called A Wild Hare. It was the first cartoon in which Bugs Bunny acted like himself. The storyline of the cartoon involved Elmer Fudd hunting rabbits, only to have Bugs thwart him at every turn.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, July 26, 2024

Posted on July 26, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer Aldous Huxley, born in Surrey, England (1894). As a boy, he wanted to be a scientist like his grandfather, Thomas Henry Huxley. But when he was 17 years old, he contracted an eye disease that rendered him nearly blind, so he decided to become a writer. His first successful novel was Point Counter Point (1928), which was an extremely ambitious book, with numerous characters and a complex interweaving plot. Huxley decided that his next book would be something light. He had been reading some H.G. Wells and thought it would be interesting to try to write something about what the future might be like.

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