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Writer's Almanac

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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, March 19, 2024

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, March 19, 2024

It’s the birthday of Russian writer Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, born in Great Sorochintsy, Ukraine in 1809 (March 31st according to the Old Calendar). His mother was extremely devout, and his father was a bureaucrat who owned a vodka distillery on 3,000 acres and had more than 300 serfs working for him.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, March 18, 2024

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, March 18, 2024

It’s the birthday of novelist John Updike, born in Reading, Pennsylvania (1932). He went to Harvard and got married while he was still a student. His ambition was to be published in The New Yorker, and the year that he graduated from Harvard, he sold the magazine a poem and a short story.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, March 17, 2024

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, March 17, 2024

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, a day to celebrate all things Irish. The famous American director John Ford was of Irish heritage, and he also perpetuated Irish stereotypes in his films. He directed The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and American Westerns like Stagecoach (1939) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). Most of his films featured Irish or Irish-American characters, and his film The Quiet Man (1952) was set in Ireland.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, March 16, 2024

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, March 16, 2024

It’s the birthday of Alice Hoffman, born in New York City (1952). Growing up, she thought that her brother was the smart one, and that as a girl she couldn’t be a veterinarian or a writer, the two things she was most interested in, but should settle for life as a hairdresser. But she read a lot, and she said: “When I wasn’t reading science fiction, I read a lot of fairy tales and anything to do with magic.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, March 15, 2024

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, March 15, 2024

It was on this day in 1956 that the musical My Fair Lady opened on Broadway, starring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison. The musical was based on the play Pygmalion by the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Pygmalion is the story of Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics living in London.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, March 14, 2024

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, March 14, 2024

It’s the birthday of the man who said: “I’m not much with people, and I’m not a family man. I want my peace. I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts, the rest are details.” That’s the physicist Albert Einstein, born on this day in Ulm, Germany (1879).

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The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, March 13, 2024

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, March 13, 2024

It was on this day in 1881 that Henrik Ibsen’s play Ghosts opened on the London stage. Ghosts was considered a controversial play with references to incest and sexually transmitted diseases, and Ibsen refused to give his audiences the happy endings they were used to. The play had already been banned in St. Petersburg on religious grounds when it premiered in London.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, March 12, 2024

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, March 12, 2024

It’s the birthday of poet and author Naomi Shihab Nye. She was born in 1952 in Saint Louis, Missouri, to Miriam and Aziz Shihab. Nye’s late father was a Palestinian immigrant from Jerusalem, and her mother is German American. Nye grew up in Saint Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas. Nye’s literary work reflects her travels and her experiences in a family of mixed religions and cultures.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, March 11, 2024

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, March 11, 2024

It’s the birthday of poet who said, “Any time not spent on love is wasted.” That’s Torquato Tasso, born in Sorrento, Italy (1544), into a noble family. In 1581, he published his most famous work, La Gerusalemme liberata, or Jerusalem Delivered, an epic poem about the Crusades.

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The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, March 10, 2024

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, March 10, 2024

It’s the birthday of a man called a “lexicographical genius” by the London Times, Henry Watson Fowler, born in Tonbridge, England (1858), most famous as the author of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, which he published in 1926. His style guide — now generally referred to as “Fowler’s Modern English Usage” or even just “Fowler’s” — has sold more than a million copies.

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