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The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, February 22, 2024

Posted on February 22, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay, born in Rockland, Maine (1892). She was as famous for her bohemian lifestyle in Greenwhich Village as for her work. Millay was the author of the famous lines: “My candle burns at both ends / It will not last the night / But, ah, my foes, and, oh, my friends / It gives a lovely light.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Posted on February 21, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of newspaper columnist and best-selling author Erma Bombeck, born in Dayton, Ohio (1927). After graduating college she became a columnist for the Dayton Journal Herald. She soon left that position to stay home and raise her children. When her third child started school, Bombeck returned to her writing because she was, as she put it, “too old for a paper route, too young for Social Security, and too tired for an affair.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Posted on February 20, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of boogie-woogie pioneer Jimmy Yancey (James Edward Yancey), born in Chicago (1898). He was a mainstay in the jazz and blues circles in Chicago, playing at after-hours joints and rent parties. Piano pieces such as “Yancey Stomp,” and “State Street Special,” were his signature songs.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, February 19, 2024

Posted on February 19, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist and short-story writer Carson McCullers, born in Columbus, Georgia (1917). Her original intention was to study music, and she came to New York at the age of 17 to attend Juilliard. But she lost her wallet and her tuition fees, so she got a job and took writing classes at Columbia University. Her first and most critically acclaimed novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940), concerns four lonely misfits in a small town in Georgia.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, February 18, 2024

Posted on February 18, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist and teacher Wallace Stegner, born in Lake Mills, Iowa (1909). His father was a schemer who was constantly moving the family from place to place, hoping to strike it rich in one of the Western boomtowns. He watched as his father tried and failed to plant a farm in North Dakota, tried and failed to run a lunchroom in the backwoods of Washington state, sold bootleg liquor in Great Falls, Montana, poured the family’s savings into an invention that was supposed to detect gold in the ground, and finally bought a piece of redwood forest in California, only to cut it all down and sell it for firewood.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, February 17, 2024

Posted on February 17, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of crime novelist Ruth Rendell, born in London (1930). One of the most celebrated mystery novelists of all time, she’s best known for her mystery novels featuring Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford. But she also writes novels under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, and some critics consider these books to be her best work.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, February 16, 2024

Posted on February 16, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Richard Ford, born in Jackson, Mississippi (1944). His father was a traveling salesman and his grandfather managed a hotel. Ford originally thought he would go into hotel management, like his grandfather, and he studied hotel science at Michigan State University. But he switched to studying English literature, even though he suffered from dyslexia. He said, “Being a slow reader admitted me to books at a very basic level — word by word. That doesn’t seem like bad preparation to me, if writers are people who essentially live in sentences.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, February 15, 2024

Posted on February 15, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of cartoonist Matt Groening, born in Portland, Oregon (1954). He decided to move to Los Angeles after college to try to make it as a writer. He lived in a neighborhood full of drug dealers and thieves, and got a job ghostwriting the memoirs of an 88-year-old filmmaker. After that, he worked at a convalescent home, a waste treatment plant, and a graveyard.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Posted on February 14, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

Many writers have been inspired by love. William Butler Yeats met the Irish Nationalist Maud Gonne in 1889. She was one of the most beautiful women of her time, and Yeats fell in love with her the first time he saw her. He said, “[When I met her] the troubles of my life began.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Posted on February 13, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Georges Simenon, born in Liége, Belgium (1903). He’s one of the most prolific writers of all time, best known for his detective novels featuring Inspector Maigret.

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