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

Posted on January 8, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of British physicist Stephen Hawking, born in Oxford, England (1942), who pursues what physicists call a Grand Unified Theory, or a “Theory of Everything.” As Hawking puts it, “My goal is simple. It is complete understanding of the universe.” His most important work in physics has explored the nature of “singularities,” anomalies in the space-time continuum commonly known as “black holes.”

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

Posted on January 7, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist, folklorist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, born in Notasulga, Alabama (1891). She was working full time as a live-in maid when, in 1920, she enrolled in Howard University. Her first story, “Spunk,” was published in Opportunity magazine in 1925, when it won second prize in a fiction contest.

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

Posted on January 6, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of poet Khalil Gibran, born in a mountain village in Lebanon (1883). When Gibran was a boy, his mother decided to leave her alcoholic husband and take her four children to America. They settled in Boston, where they had relatives, and it was there that a charity worker noticed that Gibran appeared to be artistically gifted.

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

Posted on January 5, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the poet W. D. (William DeWitt) Snodgrass, born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania (1926). He started writing poetry at a time when the poets T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound had persuaded most poets writing in English that poetry should be full of imagery and symbols and allusions to mythology, but that it shouldn’t contain any obviously personal details.

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

Posted on January 4, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the man who invented a system of reading and writing for the blind, Louis Braille, born in Coupvray, France (1809). He was blinded in his father’s harness shop when he was three years old. But even without his eyesight, he was the best student in his school, and went on to become a famous organist and cellist in Paris.

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

Posted on January 3, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of J.R.R. (John Ronald Reuel) Tolkien, born in South Africa (1892). He was a professor of philology, the study of the derivation of languages, at Oxford. He was fluent in classical Greek and Latin, Old Norse, Old English, medieval Welsh and Anglo-Saxon, and an ancient form of German called Gothic, among other ancient European languages. He was so interested in the structure of language that he decided to invent an entire language of his own. He even invented a new alphabet to write in that language, and when he began writing Lord of the Rings, he gave that new language to the Elves, calling it “High Elvish.” He later said, “I wrote Lord of the Rings to provide a world for the language. … I should have preferred to write the entire book in Elvish.”

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

Posted on January 2, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It was 515 years ago, on this day in 1492, that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella captured the city of Granada, the last major Muslim stronghold in Spain, bringing to an end more than 700 years of Islamic influence on that country. Muslims from North Africa had first invaded the country back in the year 711, capturing most of the major cities and then ruling without challenge for three centuries.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, January 2, 2024

Posted on January 2, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, born in Petrovichi, Russia (1920). His family immigrated to the United States when he was three years old, and his parents opened a candy shop in Brooklyn. He spent most of his time working in the family store, and he was fascinated by the shop’s newspaper stand, which sold the latest issues of popular magazines. When his father finally relented and let him read pulp fiction, Asimov started reading science fiction obsessively.

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

Posted on January 1, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of American writer J.D. Salinger, born in New York City (1919). He’s one of the most famous living authors in America even though he hasn’t published anything since 1965, and he’s been living as a recluse since then. He’s best known for his novel The Catcher in the Rye, about a boy named Holden Caulfield who gets expelled from his boarding school and spends the next few days wandering around New York City, trying to figure out why people have to grow older, why everyone is so phony, and where the ducks go when the pond in Central Park freezes over.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, December 31, 2023

Posted on December 31, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the novelist Nicholas Sparks, born in Omaha, Nebraska (1965). He wrote his first book as a young man, a horror novel called “The Passing,” which he never tried to publish. He said, “In all honesty, it’s a wonderful story — except for the writing.” But soon after that, Sparks met his future wife. Over the course of two months, he wrote her 150 love letters. They got married and had kids, and Sparks gave up trying to be a writer, eventually taking a job as a pharmaceutical sales rep.

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