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The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Posted on April 10, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Anne Lamott, born in San Francisco in 1954. Lamott was an alcoholic who went to rehab, became a Christian, started teaching writing, and published a journal of the first year of her son’s life, Operating Instructions (1993), to great acclaim.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Posted on April 9, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to the General of the United States Armies, Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the Civil War.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, April 8, 2024

Posted on April 8, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Barbara Kingsolver, born in Annapolis, Maryland (1955). She grew up in a house in an alfalfa field in rural Kentucky, where her dad was the county doctor. When she was seven, her father moved the family to the Congo for a year so he could work as a medical missionary, and she started keeping a diary.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, April 7, 2024

Posted on April 7, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of William Wordsworth, born in Cockermouth, England (1770). For two hundred years tourists have gone to England’s Lake District to see Wordsworth’s daffodils and other places he wrote about in his poems.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, April 6, 2024

Posted on April 6, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the Shoshone woman Sacajawea, born in Idaho sometime around 1789. She was kidnapped at age 10 by the Hidatsa tribe, sold into slavery, and bought by a French-Canadian trapper who made her one of his two wives.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, April 5, 2024

Posted on April 5, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of the father of antiseptic medicine: Joseph Lister, born in Upton, England (1827). He was a surgeon at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where about half of all patients in surgery died later of what was called “ward fever.” The prevailing theory of infection was that it was caused by miasma, or bad air.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, April 4, 2024

Posted on April 4, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Ann Johnson in St. Louis in 1928, whose 1969 memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was a big best-seller. It begins: “When I was three and Bailey four, we had arrived in the musty little town, wearing tags on our wrists which instructed — “To Whom It May Concern” — that we were Marguerite and Bailey Johnson Jr., from Long Beach, California, en route to Stamps, Arkansas, c/o Mrs. Annie Henderson. Our parents had decided to put an end to their calamitous marriage, and Father shipped us home to his mother.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, April 3, 2024

Posted on April 3, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Washington Irving, born in 1783 in New York City. That same week, the British cease-fire was brokered and the American Revolution ended, and William and Sarah Irving named their youngest child in honor of its most famous general, George Washington.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Posted on April 2, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen, born in Odense, Denmark (1805), the son of an illiterate mother and a poor cobbler. He trained for the ballet, the stage and the opera, but when all of that failed, he settled on becoming a poet. His first novel gained him enough success that he was able to afford to travel, which would become his life-long passion.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, April 1, 2024

Posted on April 1, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of political commentator Rachel Maddow. She was born in California’s Castro Valley (1973), not far from San Francisco. She was the first openly gay American to be chosen a Rhodes scholar, and she went on to become the first openly gay American news anchor.

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