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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Posted on June 18, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It is the birthday of musician and songwriter Paul McCartney (1942), born in Liverpool, England. When he was 14, he learned to play a left-handed guitar and met a local art student named John Lennon. The Guinness Book of World Records lists McCartney as the best-selling composer in popular music history. His song “Yesterday” is the most recorded ever, with 2,200 versions.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, June 17, 2024

Posted on June 17, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of poet Ron Padgett, born in Tulsa, Oklahoma (1942). When he was growing up, Oklahoma was a dry state, and his father made a living as a bootlegger. Padgett read voraciously as a child and began jotting down poems in spiral notebooks when he was 13. He went to Columbia University and studied at the Sorbonne in France on a Fulbright scholarship.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, June 16, 2024

Posted on June 16, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Joyce Carol Oates, born in Lockport, New York (1938). She’s the author of books such as Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart (1990) and We Were the Mulvaneys (1996).

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, June 15, 2024

Posted on June 15, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1752, Benjamin Franklin is believed to have performed his famous kite experiment and proved that lightning is electricity. He tied the kite to a silk string with an iron key on the end of the string. From the key, he ran a wire into a Leyden jar, a container that stored electrical charge. He then tied a silk ribbon to the key, which he held onto from inside a shed, to keep it dry. The electrical charge from the storm overhead passed through the key and into the Leyden jar.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, June 14, 2024

Posted on June 14, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, born Ernesto Guevara de la Serna in Rosario, Argentina (1928). As a young man, he took a year off from college to travel around South America by motorcycle with his friend Alberto Granado, and he recorded their adventures in his journal, which was later published by his daughter as The Motorcycle Diaries (1993). He was disturbed by all the poverty and oppression he saw among the Indian people of Latin America, and he came to believe that the only solution was violent revolution.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, June 13, 2024

Posted on June 13, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of poet and playwright William Butler Yeats, born in Dublin, Ireland (1865). He lived during great political and social changes in his home country, but he spent much of his life obsessed not with politics but with mysticism. His aunt gave him a popular book of the era called Esoteric Buddhism (1884), about Eastern mystical philosophy, and Yeats especially loved its idea that the world of matter was an illusion.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Posted on June 12, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Anne Frank, born in Frankfurt, Germany (1929). She received a diary as a birthday present on her 13th birthday in 1942, and she immediately began writing in it. A few weeks after her birthday, Anne’s older sister, Margot, got a notice to report to a Jewish work camp, so the Franks went into hiding in an annex in Amsterdam, along with four other people. They lived together in the annex for two years, and a family friend, Miep Gies, brought them food and supplies.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Posted on June 11, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of the novelist William Styron, born in Newport News, Virginia, in 1925. As a teenager, he enlisted in the Marines to fight in World War II, but by the time he’d finished training and set sail for Japan, the war had ended. He moved to Brooklyn, New York, and got a job as an office boy at the McGraw-Hill publishing house. He was supposed to write book jacket copy, but he was so disgusted with most of the books that he filled all his summaries with insults and foul language. After throwing several paper airplanes and water balloons out the window of his office, he got fired. So he decided to try to make it as a writer.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, June 10, 2024

Posted on June 10, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist and short-story writer James Salter, born James Horowitz, in New York City (1925). He attended West Point and became a pilot in the Air Force. He flew one hundred combat missions during the Korean War, and served as a squadron leader in Europe before retiring in 1957 to become a writer.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, June 9, 2024

Posted on June 9, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Cole Porter, born in Peru, Indiana (1891). He was a composer and lyricist, and he wrote a string of hit songs: “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “Night and Day,” “You’re the Top,” “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall In Love,” “I’ve got You Under My Skin,” and “Let’s Misbehave.” All of these songs were written within a 10-year period: between his first popular Broadway musical, Paris (1928) — his first musicals had been complete flops — and a terrible riding accident in 1937.

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