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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Posted on September 16, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the children’s author and illustrator H.A. Rey, born Hans Augusto Reyersbach in Hamburg, Germany, in 1898. When Hans was a boy in Hamburg, he lived near a zoo, and he loved visiting the animals there — he would imitate their noises and paint them.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, September 15, 2025

Posted on September 15, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the Italian explorer Marco Polo, born in 1254. He grew up in Venice, and he was probably born there too. The Polos were a wealthy family of traders, and when Marco was just six years old, his father and uncle left to explore Asia together. For hundreds of years, Europeans hadn’t been able to travel farther east than the Mediterranean.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, September 14, 2025

Posted on September 14, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1901 that the then Vice President Theodore Roosevelt learned he had become the 26th president of the United States, after the death by assassination of President William McKinley. On September 6, 1901, less than a year into Roosevelt’s role as vice president, President McKinley was visiting the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, when an anarchist walked up to him and shot him in the stomach.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, September 13, 2025

Posted on September 13, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Roald Dahl, born in Llandaff, South Wales (1916). He was sent off to private boarding schools as a kid, which he hated except for the chocolates, Cadbury chocolates. The Cadbury chocolate company had chosen his school as a focus group for new candies they were developing.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, September 12, 2025

Posted on September 12, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1940 that four teenage boys discovered the Lascaux cave paintings, generally agreed to be the greatest works of prehistoric art ever found. The boys were looking for fabled buried treasure in the woods, and they stumbled upon a cavern, about 65 feet wide and 15 feet tall.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, September 11, 2025

Posted on September 11, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of William Sydney Porter, who wrote short stories under the pen name O. (Oliver) Henry, born in Greensboro, North Carolina (1862). As a young man in Austin, Texas, he worked as a teller at the First National Bank, where he was accused of embezzlement, convicted, and sentenced to five years at the penitentiary.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Posted on September 10, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1981 that Pablo Picasso’s famous painting “Guernica” was returned to Spain to hang in the Prado Museum in Madrid. The painting depicts the suffering in the city of Guernica, the capitol of Basque Spain, after a German bombardment in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Posted on September 9, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, born on his family’s estate in the province of Tula, near Moscow (1828). He led a wild life as a young man. Then in his mid-30s, he decided that it was time to get married.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, September 8, 2025

Posted on September 8, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday, in Washington, D.C., 1947, of writer Ann Beattie, the author of novels and short stories about Americans who came of age in the 1960s. Her first writings appeared in the early 1970s, when The New Yorker began accepting her short stories.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, September 7, 2025

Posted on September 7, 2025 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of singer and songwriter Charles Hardin “Buddy” Holly, born in Lubbock, Texas, in1936. By the age of 13, Holly was playing what he called “Western Bop” at local clubs. He was 19 when an agent discovered him and signed him to a contract with Decca records.

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