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The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, June 21, 2024

Posted on June 21, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of American critic and novelist Mary McCarthy, born in Seattle, Washington (1912). Both of her parents died from the flu epidemic in 1918, when she was six years old. She and her three younger brothers were sent to Minneapolis to live with “a severe great-aunt and her sadistic husband.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, June 20, 2024

Posted on June 20, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

Eighteen-year-old Alexandrina Victoria became Queen of England on this date in 1837. “Drina,” as she was known to her family, had a fairly quiet childhood. She kept a diary, so we know a lot about her private life. She was a lively and sometimes mischievous child, and she was well educated, but her mother was overprotective and kept her isolated at Kensington Palace in London.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Posted on June 19, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of mathematician, physicist, and theologian Blaise Pascal, born in Clermont-Ferrand, France (1623). A child prodigy, by the time he was 19 he had already perfected the first mechanical calculator for sale to the public. In the field of physics, he discovered that air has weight, and he conducted experiments to prove that vacuums could exist, which led him to formulate the hydraulic principle that “pressure exerted on a fluid in a closed vessel is transmitted unchanged throughout the fluid.”

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.

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