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The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, October 13, 2023

Posted on October 13, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1881, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda held the first-known conversation in modern Hebrew. Hebrew had not been spoken in a mother tongue since the second century CE. It had endured for more than a millennium until 135 CE and was then only used in literature or prayer. He said, “The Hebrew language will go from the synagogue to the house of study and from the house of study to the school, and from the school it will come into the home and … become a living language.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, October 12, 2023

Posted on October 12, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1892 that the Pledge of Allegiance was recited en masse for the first time, by more than 2 million students. It had been written just a month earlier by a Baptist minister named Francis Bellamy, who published it in Youth’s Companion and distributed it across the country. It was recited on this day to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. It was slightly shorter in its 1892 version: “I pledge allegiance to my flag and the Republic for which it stands — one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Posted on October 11, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the longest-serving First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, born in New York City (1884) who said, “A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.” She began a secret courtship with her cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt. During World War I, she went off to Europe and visited wounded and shell-shocked soldiers in hospitals there. Later, during her husband’s presidency, she campaigned hard on civil rights issues — not a universally popular thing in the 1930s and 1940s. She once said, “We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk.” And, “You wouldn’t worry so much about what others
think of you if you realized how seldom they do.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Posted on October 10, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of playwright Harold Pinter, born in London (1930). He described the neighborhood of his childhood: “It was a working-class area — some big, run-down Victorian houses and a soap factory with a terrible smell and a lot of railway yards.” His father was a tailor who worked long days. Pinter said: “At least when he got home, my mother always cooked him a very good dinner. Lots of potatoes, I remember; he used to knock them down like a dose of salts. He needed it, after a 12-hour day. So we were not well-off in any way — he was a working man and that was it.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, October 9, 2023

Posted on October 9, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of composer Camille Saint-Saens, born in Paris (1835). He was a child prodigy, with perfect pitch and a fantastic memory. He learned the piano and organ, and played the music of Beethoven, Bach and Mozart in recitals. He composed nice waltzes and gallops by the age of five, and wrote his first symphony at sixteen.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, October 8, 2023

Posted on October 8, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1971, John Lennon released his second solo album, Imagine. The title track was the best-selling song of his solo career and was included on BMI’s list of the top 100 most-performed songs of the 20th century. Lennon said that he and Yoko Ono received a prayer book, which inspired him to write the song. He said: “The concept of positive prayer … If you can imagine a world at peace, with no denominations of religion — not without religion but without this my-God-is-bigger-than-your-God thing — then it can be true.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, October 7, 2023

Posted on October 7, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the religious leader Desmond Tutu, born in Klerksdorp, South Africa, (1931). He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his role in the opposition to apartheid in South Africa. In 1986, he was elected the first black archbishop of Cape Town, the head of South Africa’s 1,600,000-member Anglican Church. And in 1995, South African President Nelson Mandela appointed him head of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, which investigated apartheid-era human rights abuses.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, October 6, 2023

Posted on October 6, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of soprano Jenny Lind, born in Stockholm, Sweden (1820). She is considered to be one of the most gifted sopranos ever. In 1840, she was appointed member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and official singer of the Swedish Court. She was known also as a great philanthropist. Hans Christian Andersen fell in love with her, but she did not return his love. Among other stories, he wrote “The Nightingale” (1843) as a tribute to Jenny Lind. He said, “[S]he can never be mine … though her voice stays with me, forever, in my story.” Lind would later be known as “The Swedish Nightingale.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, October 5, 2023

Posted on October 5, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of scientist Robert Hutchings Goddard, born in Worcester, Massachusetts (1882), who is known as the “Father of the Space Age.” From childhood, Goddard had been fascinated by space travel, finding inspiration in part from H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds. He began studying physics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and as a student he decided that the most effective propellant would be a combination of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. In 1926, he discovered an even more effective liquid fuel combination: gasoline and liquid oxygen. He launched the world’s first liquid-propelled rocket, a small device that went up 41 feet and landed 184 feet away.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, October 4, 2023

Posted on October 4, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of one of the most popular novelists of all time, Jackie Collins, born in London (1937). Her first major American best-seller was Hollywood Wives (1983), which remained on the New York Times best-seller list for 28 weeks, and ultimately sold 15 million copies. Known as the “Queen of Steam,” Jackie Collins went on to average about a novel a year over two decades before her death of breast cancer in 2015.

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