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The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, August 24, 2023

Posted on August 24, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1456 that the first edition of the Gutenberg Bible was bound and completed in Mainz, Germany. The Gutenberg Bible was the first complete book printed with movable type. The press produced 180 copies of the Bible.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Posted on August 23, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of American poet, novelist, and lawyer Edgar Lee Masters, born in Garnett, Kansas (1868). Masters’ father was a lawyer who struggled financially with his own practice. He moved the family to Lewiston, Illinois, situated not far from Spoon River, a place that would inspire Master’s best-known work, The Spoon River Anthology (1915).

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Posted on August 22, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of writer and wit Dorothy Parker (1893). She went to a Catholic elementary school, but she was asked to leave after she referred to the Immaculate Conception as “spontaneous combustion.” She sold her first poem to Vanity Fair in 1914, and she got offered a job as an editorial assistant for Vogue, which was owned by the same company. Two years later, she became a theater critic at Vanity Fair.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, August 21, 2023

Posted on August 21, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Robert Stone, born in Brooklyn (1937). He was raised by his mother, who was schizophrenic, and when she was institutionalized, he spent several years in a Catholic orphanage. Stone served as a correspondent in Vietnam for a British magazine, which quickly folded, but he got enough material to return home and write the novel Dog Soldiers (1974).

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, August 20, 2023

Posted on August 20, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Jacqueline Susann, born in Philadelphia (1918). She wanted to be an actress, so she moved to New York when she graduated from high school, but she never had much success. She did commercials, had bit parts in Broadway plays, and worked as a model. Her husband suggested that Susann write about her experience with the underbelly of show business. In 1966, she published Valley of the Dolls, about three ambitious young women who move to New York to try to make it big and end up destroying themselves.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, August 19, 2023

Posted on August 19, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of memoirist Frank McCourt, born in Brooklyn, New York (1930). He was the oldest of seven children born to an Irish immigrant couple, and they moved back to Limerick when McCourt was four years old, after the death of his baby sister. His childhood was marked by poverty, the deaths of half of his siblings, and his father’s alcoholism.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, August 18, 2023

Posted on August 18, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of Italian-born Viennese composer Antonio Salieri, born in Legnago, in the Republic of Venice (1750). Although he was quite popular in the 18th century, he probably wouldn’t be well known today were it not for the movie Amadeus (1984). The movie was based on Peter Shaffer’s play by the same name (1979), which was in turn based on a short play by Aleksandr Pushkin, which was called Mozart and Salieri (1830).

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, August 17, 2023

Posted on August 17, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of American soldier, politician, and folk hero David — better known as “Davy” — Crockett, born in Greene County, Tennessee (1786). He was first elected to the state legislature of Tennessee in 1821, and the U.S. House of Representatives in 1827, where he served three nonconsecutive terms in all.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Posted on August 16, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of the writer that The Washington Post called “the poet laureate of sour alleys and dark bars, of racetracks and long shots”: Charles Bukowski, born in Andernach, Germany (1920). He wrote more than 45 books of poetry and prose.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Posted on August 15, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

Permanent construction began on the Berlin Wall on this date in 1961. After World War II, Germany had been divided up by British, French, Soviet, and American occupying forces. The city of Berlin lay completely within Soviet territory, but it was also divided. Soviet forces controlled the eastern part of the city and the country, and they were increasingly concerned about locking it down against the democratic West. The border was porous after the war, and millions of East Germans emigrated west in search of greater opportunities. By 1961, they were leaving at a rate of a thousand per day.

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