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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, November 12, 2023

Posted on November 12, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of American nonfiction writer Tracy Kidder (1945). He’s written about public education, a nursing home, an American doctor in Haiti, and a young medical student in Burundi. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his book The Soul of a New Machine (1981), about his experiences watching engineers at the Data General Corporation build a new microcomputer. Kidder started out as a fiction writer, but figured out early on that he preferred to write about real people. He once said: “In fiction, believability may have nothing to do with reality or even plausibility. It has everything to do with those things in nonfiction. I think that the nonfiction writer’s fundamental job is to make what is true believable.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, November 11, 2023

Posted on November 11, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of American author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922). He’s best known for his book Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), which he based on his experiences during the famous bombing of Dresden during World War II. Vonnegut’s novels often blended satire, science fiction, realism, and politics. During the 1960s, he became a counter-culture icon on college campuses whose speeches to students inspired the wrath of conservatives. He scoffed: “The beliefs I have to defend are so soft and complicated, actually, and, when vivisected, turn into bowls of undifferentiated mush. I am a pacifist, I am an anarchist, I am a planetary citizen, and so on.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, November 10, 2023

Posted on November 10, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of Martin Luther (1483), the German theologian who set in motion the Protestant Reformation in 16th-century Europe and forever changed Christianity. In response to what he saw as the excesses of Pope Leo X and the Church, such as forgiving penance for sins in exchange for monetary donations, he wrote a screed he called “Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences.” On October 31, 1517, after Luther nailed what was now called “95 Theses” to the doors of the University of Wittenberg’s chapel, people began to vocally question the actions of the pope. Aided by the printing press, copies of the ”95 Theses” spread throughout Germany within two weeks and throughout Europe within two months. Out of the upheaval, the Lutheran Church was eventually born.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, November 9, 2023

Posted on November 9, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Anne Sexton (1928). Sexton was best known for poems that explored mental illness, female sexuality, and death. She once wrote: “Live or die. Make up your mind. If you’re going to hang around don’t ruin everything. Don’t poison the world.” Her first book, To Bedlam and Partway Back (1960), was a sensation. Sexton wrote about menstruation, madness, and sexual politics at a time when women weren’t supposed to be writing about those things. Sometimes her raw honesty cost her friends. The poet Louis Simpson said, “‘Menstruation at Forty’ was the straw that broke this camel’s back,” referring to one of her more personal poems.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Posted on November 8, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of American activist Dorothy Day (1897). Day spent her life fighting for women’s rights, civil rights, and the poor. She was a lively and curious young woman when she landed in Greenwich Village after two years of college in Illinois. She quickly became part of the bohemian lifestyle, making friends with playwright Eugene O’Neill and writer John Reed, and working as a journalist for several socialist and progressive publications. She even interviewed Leon Trotsky. The New Yorker once referred to Dorothy Day as, “perhaps the most famous radical in the history of the American Catholic Church.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Posted on November 7, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Polish physicist and chemist Marie Curie (1867). Curie discovered radium, without which we wouldn’t have X-rays or certain cancer therapies. Curie was born in Warsaw, which is now Poland, but used to be part of the Russian Empire. She went on to win two Nobel Prizes, but she always donated her prize money and remained humble about her achievements. She once summed up her potential biography as, “I was born in Poland. I married Pierre Curie, and I have two daughters. I have done my work in France.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, November 6, 2023

Posted on November 6, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the March King, John Philip Sousa, born in Washington, D.C. (1854). His father was a U.S. Marine Band trombonist, and he signed John up as an apprentice to the band after the boy tried to run away from home to join the circus. By the time he was 13 years old, Sousa could play violin, piano, flute, cornet, baritone, and trombone — and was a pretty good singer, too. At 26, he was leading the Marine Band and writing the first of his 136 marches, including “Semper Fidelis,” which became the official march of the Corps, and “The Washington Post March.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, November 5, 2023

Posted on November 5, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of American journalist Ida Tarbell (1857), best known for The History of the Standard Oil Company, a 19-part series of articles in McClure’s in 1902 that exposed the questionable business practices of the Standard Oil Company. The series eventually led the Supreme Court to break Standard Oil’s monopoly. Tarbell’s tenacious exposure of political and economic greed became known as “muckraking” and she was frequently referred to as “the terror of the trusts.” Tarbell is considered an early pioneer in investigative reporting.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, November 4, 2023

Posted on November 4, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Will Rogers (1879), also known as “America’s Cowboy Philosopher.” He got his start as a circus performer and cowboy, and became one of the most famous humorists in the world. He once said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, November 3, 2023

Posted on November 3, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879), the Canadian-born American explorer and ethnologist who spent years exploring vast tracts of the Arctic. Stefansson spent a year living with the Inuit (1906–07), coming to the conclusion that Europeans could easily “live off the land” of the Arctic if they adopted Inuit ways. About life in the Arctic, he wrote, “It is chiefly our unwillingness to change our minds which prevents the North from changing into a country to be used and lived in just like the rest of the world.”

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