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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 20, 2024

Posted on August 20, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1977 that Voyager 2 was launched by NASA to explore the planets of our solar system and to take the first up-close photographs of the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Just before the Voyagers took off, a committee of scientists, led by Carl Sagan, decided to put on board each Voyager a message from Earth in case extraterrestrials ever found them. At the time, the Cold War was at its height, and some members of the committee considered that these spacecraft and their contents might be the last traces of the human race left in the universe after a nuclear war.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 19, 2024

Posted on August 19, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Frank McCourt, born in Brooklyn, New York (1930). He was the first of seven children born to two Irish immigrants. He lived for a few years in New York City, as his father struggled to hold onto a job, but after his younger sister died, the family decided to return to Ireland, and they settled in the town of Limerick.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 18, 2024

Posted on August 18, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

On this date in 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote. In the latter half of the 19th century, states began gradually loosening restrictions on voting rights for women. Most Southern states opposed the amendment, and on August 18, 1920, it all came down to Tennessee. The pro-amendment faction wore yellow roses in their lapels, and the “anti” faction wore red American Beauty roses.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, August 17, 2024

Posted on August 17, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the poet Ted Hughes, born in the town of Mytholmroyd, England (1930). He grew up in the countryside, surrounded by moors. He joined the air force and was assigned duty as a wireless mechanic in an isolated spot in rural Yorkshire, where he read Shakespeare all day. At Cambridge he studied anthropology and archaeology. After he graduated, he helped found a literary magazine, and at the launch party, he met an American student named Sylvia Plath.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 16, 2024

Posted on August 16, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Charles Bukowski, born in Andernach, Germany (1920). He published more than 15 wildly popular books of fiction and poetry, including Run With the Hunted (1962), and The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills (1969).

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, August 15, 2024

Posted on August 15, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of food critic Julia Child, born in Pasadena, California (1912). She was a tomboy as a child, and grew to be more than six feet tall. When she went to college, she wanted to be a basketball star before she changed her mind and tried to write a novel. But that didn’t work out either.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, August 14, 2024

Posted on August 14, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Nobel laureate John Galsworthy, born in Surrey, England (1867). He’s the author of the Forsyte Saga, a series of novels that satirically portray British upper-middle-class families. He won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1932, and he used the prize money to help establish an international organization for writers, PEN. It’s an acronym they chose for the group after someone pointed out that the words for “Poet,” for “Essayist,” and for “Novelist” in most European languages have the same initial letters (P-E-N).

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Posted on August 13, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, born in London (1899). He directed many films, including Strangers on a Train (1951), Rear Window (1954), and Psycho (1960), which earned him the title of “Master of Suspense.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 12, 2024

Posted on August 12, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

On this date in 1851, Isaac Merritt Singer patented his first commercial sewing machine. Elias Howe had first gotten the American patent for his machine in 1846. Singer had improved on the design and made it much more practical and efficient. His was the first to use an up-and-down needle movement that was powered by a foot treadle, but his machine used a lockstitch pattern that Howe had patented, so Howe sued him for infringement.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 11, 2024

Posted on August 11, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of playwright Fernando Arrabal, born in Melilla, Spanish Morocco (1932). He became known writing plays of “theater of the absurd” style, and also for ones of an abstract style he developed and called “panic art” — the most famous example of which is his play The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria (1967), in which the characters on stage exchange personalities as the performance progresses.

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