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The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Posted on March 13, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1881 that Henrik Ibsen’s play Ghosts opened on the London stage. Ghosts was considered a controversial play with references to incest and sexually transmitted diseases, and Ibsen refused to give his audiences the happy endings they were used to. The play had already been banned in St. Petersburg on religious grounds when it premiered in London.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Posted on March 12, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of poet and author Naomi Shihab Nye. She was born in 1952 in Saint Louis, Missouri, to Miriam and Aziz Shihab. Nye’s late father was a Palestinian immigrant from Jerusalem, and her mother is German American. Nye grew up in Saint Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas. Nye’s literary work reflects her travels and her experiences in a family of mixed religions and cultures.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, March 11, 2024

Posted on March 11, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of poet who said, “Any time not spent on love is wasted.” That’s Torquato Tasso, born in Sorrento, Italy (1544), into a noble family. In 1581, he published his most famous work, La Gerusalemme liberata, or Jerusalem Delivered, an epic poem about the Crusades.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, March 10, 2024

Posted on March 10, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of a man called a “lexicographical genius” by the London Times, Henry Watson Fowler, born in Tonbridge, England (1858), most famous as the author of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, which he published in 1926. His style guide — now generally referred to as “Fowler’s Modern English Usage” or even just “Fowler’s” — has sold more than a million copies.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, March 9, 2024

Posted on March 9, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1913 that Virginia Woolf delivered the manuscript for her first novel, The Voyage Out, to the Duckworth Publishing House. She had been working on it for almost seven years. She first mentioned it in a letter to her friend Violet Dickinson in 1907, full of excitement at the thought of a future, however uncertain, as a writer; she wrote, “I shall be miserable, or happy; a wordy sentimental creature, or a writer of such English as shall one day burn the pages.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, March 8, 2024

Posted on March 8, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1935 that Thomas Wolfe’s novel Of Time and the River was published. Wolfe’s editor was Maxwell Perkins, who also edited Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. When Wolfe brought Perkins a draft of Of Time and the River in December of 1933, it was more than one million words long, and still growing. The first installment alone was two feet high.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, March 7, 2024

Posted on March 7, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of one of the great Texas troubadours and a legend in songwriting circles, Townes Van Zandt, born in Fort Worth (1944). He was born into wealthy oil family, and they moved around quite a bit when he was a young kid — to Minnesota, Colorado, and Illinois — but he abandoned wealth for poetry and singing and living couch to couch.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Posted on March 6, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the Nobel Prize-winning novelist who said, “I’ve always been convinced that my true profession is that of journalist.” That’s Gabriel García Márquez, born in Aracataca, Colombia, on this day in 1927. He’s the author of one of the most important books in Latin American literature, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967).

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Posted on March 5, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of a playwright and folklorist who was also W.B. Yeats’s early patron, long-term and most loyal friend, a woman G.B. Shaw called “the greatest Irishwoman.” Lady Gregory was born Isabella Augusta Persse on this day in 1852 (some sources say March 15) in Roxborough, County Tipperary, Ireland. She helped lead the Irish Literary Revival in the early 20th century and she co-founded, along with Yeats, the Abbey Theatre.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, March 4, 2024

Posted on March 4, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Khaled Hosseini, born in Kabul (1965), author of the runaway best-selling novel The Kite Runner (2003), which has sold more than 12 million copies around the world. He’s the son of a diplomat, and his affluent family immigrated to the United States around the time of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, receiving political asylum as members of Afghanistan’s government were being executed. They landed in San Jose, California, when Khaled was 12 with nearly nothing.

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