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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, September 3, 2023

Posted on September 3, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the man who said, “Form follows function.” That’s American architect Louis Henry Sullivan, born in Boston (1856). He worked in Chicago in the 1880s and ’90s, when the city was teeming with immigrants, grain trading, and railroads. Sullivan designed more than 100 buildings for the city, including its early steel-frame skyscrapers — innovations in their day for using a kind of experimental skeleton construction on the inside and intricate, subtle ornamentation outside.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, September 2, 2023

Posted on September 2, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Austrian novelist and journalist Joseph Roth, born in Brody, Ukraine (1894). He started out as a journalist just after the end of the First World War, and he began moving back and forth between Berlin and Paris, as well as Russia, Poland, Albania, Italy, and southern France. He covered the riots and assassinations and political uprisings that went on all over Europe during the 1920s and ’30s. He rarely had a home in his adult life, and lived in hotels for years on end. He wrote his novels in between newspaper deadlines, while sitting at café counters. He somehow managed to produce 16 novels in 16 years.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, September 1, 2023

Posted on September 1, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1773 that 20-year-old Phillis Wheatley published Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. It was the first book of poetry published by an African-American. George Washington praised her talents, and she published numerous poems in magazines. But her husband fell into debt and then abandoned her when she was pregnant, and she died in childbirth, in a boarding house, when she was only 31 years old.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, August 31, 2023

Posted on August 31, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Aug 31 It’s the birthday of Maria Montessori , born on this day in Chiaravalle, Italy (1870). She was a bright student, studied engineering when she was 13— after a few years, she decided to pursue medicine, and she became the first woman in Italy to earn a medical degree. It was so unheard of for a woman to go to medical school that she had to get the approval of the pope in order to study there.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Posted on August 30, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the journalist and humorist, Molly Ivins who said, “The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion.” Molly Ivins, born in Monterey, California (1944) and raised in Houston, Texas. She went to Smith and to Columbia’s School of Journalism and spent years covering the police beat for the Minneapolis Tribune (the first woman to do so) before moving back to Texas.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Posted on August 29, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the man who said, “Love is the master-key that opens the gates of happiness, of hatred, of jealousy, and, most easily of all, the gate of fear. How terrible is the one fact of beauty!” That’s 19th-century poet and physician Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. , born in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1809).

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 28, 2023

Posted on August 28, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of American poet Rita Dove, born in Akron, Ohio (1952). Her mother loved to read and often quoted Shakespeare while cooking. Dove’s parents encouraged their children to read widely and there were always a lot of books in the house. She credits poets Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks as inspirations, but also James Wright, a fellow Ohioan. When asked if she considers herself an African-American poet, she answered, “I’m an African-American poet; I’m a woman poet; I’m an American poet. But I’m a poet first.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 27, 2023

Posted on August 27, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

The first edition of the Guinness Book of World Records was published on this date in 1955. The idea for the book had come four years earlier, when Sir Hugh Beaver, the managing director of the Guinness Brewery, was hunting birds in Ireland. He missed a shot at a golden plover, which led to an argument among his friends over which was faster, the golden plover or the red grouse. Beaver considered creating a book that could be consulted during similar debates that often cropped up over a round of drinks. He figured that Guinness could stamp it with their name and distribute it to pubs for advertising purposes.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, August 26, 2023

Posted on August 26, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Roman Catholic nun and missionary Mother Teresa (1910), born Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje, (modern Macedonia), which was then a part of the Ottoman Empire. Gonxhe means “rosebud” or “little flower” in Albanian. Mother Teresa’s father died when she was eight, plunging her family into poverty. But her mother was strong and had faith. And little Anjeze, born with a club foot, knew by the age of 12 that she had a religious calling.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 25, 2023

Posted on August 25, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of American poet Charles Wright (1935), born in Pickwick Dam, Tennessee, a tiny, rural community named for the title character of Charles Dickens’s novel The Pickwick Papers. Wright was named for his great-grandfather Charles Penzel, who at age 23 took a bullet in the mouth when shouting “Charge!” during the Battle of Chickamauga during the Civil War.

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