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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.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 23, 2024

Posted on August 23, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

And it’s the birthday of Edgar Lee Masters, born in Garnett, Kansas (1868). He grew up in small farming towns in Illinois, and he wanted to write a novel about growing up in Illinois, but he didn’t know where to start. Then, the editor of a poetry magazine sent him a book of poems called Selected Epigrams from the Greek Anthology, epigrams from classical Greece, many of them about the details of daily life and ordinary people.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, August 22, 2024

Posted on August 22, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Annie Proulx, born in Norwich, Connecticut (1935). She was virtually unknown until the early 1990s, when she burst on to the literary scene, publishing her first novels, Postcards (1992) and The Shipping News (1993) when she was in her late 50s. She said she doesn’t regret becoming a writer later than most people because, she said, she knows a lot more about life than she did 20 years ago.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Posted on August 21, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the boy who inspired his father to write the children’s classic Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), Christopher Robin Milne, born in London (1920). His father, A.A. Milne, was an extremely prolific author who wrote plays, novels, mysteries, poetry, and essays. It wasn’t until after Christopher Robin was born that A.A. Milne began to write for children.

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