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The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, April 15, 2024

Posted on April 15, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Henry James, author of 20 novels, 112 stories, 12 plays, and several books of travel and criticism, born in New York City (1843). His father was a friend of Thoreau, Emerson, and Hawthorne, and the family traveled throughout Europe. When James was in his 20s and writing short stories, he moved to Europe because he could live cheaply there and felt at home as an outsider.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, April 14, 2024

Posted on April 14, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1828 that Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language was published. Webster put together the dictionary because he wanted Americans to have a national identity that wasn’t based on the language and ideas of England. And the problem wasn’t just that Americans were looking to England for their language; it was that they could barely communicate with each other because regional dialects differed so drastically.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, April 13, 2024

Posted on April 13, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the man who said: “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” That’s Thomas Jefferson, born in Albemarle County, Virginia (1743). And he certainly lived by those words. He wrote the Declaration of Independence for the fledgling United States and then served as its minister of France, secretary of state, vice president, and president.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, April 12, 2024

Posted on April 12, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1633 that Galileo Galilei stood trial before the Roman Inquisition, to defend the publication of his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632). It is commonly thought that Galileo was called to defend his scientific beliefs before the Church, who insisted on their own version of the universe.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, April 11, 2024

Posted on April 11, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of Anne Lamott, born in San Francisco in 1954. Lamott was an alcoholic who went to rehab, became a Christian, started teaching writing, and published a journal of the first year of her son’s life, Operating Instructions (1993), to great acclaim.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Posted on April 10, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Posted on April 9, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

On this day in 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to the General of the United States Armies, Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the Civil War.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, April 8, 2024

Posted on April 8, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Barbara Kingsolver, born in Annapolis, Maryland (1955). She grew up in a house in an alfalfa field in rural Kentucky, where her dad was the county doctor. When she was seven, her father moved the family to the Congo for a year so he could work as a medical missionary, and she started keeping a diary.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, April 7, 2024

Posted on April 7, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

Today is the birthday of William Wordsworth, born in Cockermouth, England (1770). For two hundred years tourists have gone to England’s Lake District to see Wordsworth’s daffodils and other places he wrote about in his poems.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, April 6, 2024

Posted on April 6, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the Shoshone woman Sacajawea, born in Idaho sometime around 1789. She was kidnapped at age 10 by the Hidatsa tribe, sold into slavery, and bought by a French-Canadian trapper who made her one of his two wives.

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