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The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, May 18, 2024

Posted on May 18, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It is the birthday of comedy writer-cum-actress Tina Fey, born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania (1970). She was a high school honor student, a member of the drama club, and she performed in a summer theater group. She enrolled at the University of Virginia where she studied playwriting and acting, and after graduation in 1992 she moved to Chicago, where she took night classes at the improv training center The Second City, while working at a YMCA during the day. In 1994, she began performing with The Second City, traveling around the country and doing eight shows a week for two years. Three years later, she was hired as a sketch writer for Saturday Night Live and she quickly rose to head writer.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, May 17, 2024

Posted on May 17, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

The Supreme Court ruled that school segregation violated the Fourteenth Amendment on this date in 1954. An eight-year-old girl named Linda Brown in Topeka, Kansas, had to travel 21 blocks every day to an all-black elementary school, even though she lived just seven blocks from another elementary school for white children. Her father, Oliver Brown, asked that his daughter be allowed to attend the nearby white school, and when the white school’s principal refused, Brown sued.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, May 16, 2024

Posted on May 16, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It is the birthday of one of the first well-known female mathematicians of the Western world. Maria Gaetana Agnesi was born in Milan (1718). Her father, Pietro, was a wealthy businessman and her mother, Anna Fortunata Brivio, was an aristocrat whom her father married to raise his status in Milan society.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Posted on May 15, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of writer Katherine Anne Porter, born Callie Russell Porter in Indian Creek, Texas (1890). Her mother died when she was two years old, and her father didn’t pay much attention to young Callie or her brothers and sisters. She was raised by her grandmother, Catherine Anne Skaggs, in the town of Kyle, which had about 500 people. Catherine Anne Skaggs traced her family back to Daniel Boone.

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Posted on May 14, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1804 that Lewis and Clark departed on their journey. Even though this was the official start date of the trip, it had taken years of preparation. Lewis and Clark spent the winter before they departed near St. Louis at Camp Dubois, on the Mississippi River. They gathered supplies, recruited more people, and in the final days, packed the boats.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, May 13, 2024

Posted on May 13, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of novelist Daphne du Maurier, born in London (1907). She came from a family of actors and writers, and her first two big successes were books about her family — Gerald (1936), a biography of her father; and The Du Mauriers (1937), the story of her family beginning in the early 18th century. She was inspired to write about her family after she found a stack of old letters in a drawer, letters belonging to her “grandfather and his father before him.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, May 12, 2024

Posted on May 12, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

Today is Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day as we know it — where we celebrate our own mothers, with flowers, gifts, and cards — is relatively new, but annual celebrations to celebrate motherhood are an ancient practice. The motherhood festivities have historically been in spring, the season of fertility. In ancient Egypt, there were celebrations to honor Isis, the loving mother-goddess, who is often shown in Egyptian art with the baby Horus at her breast, much like Mary and Jesus in later Christian iconography.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, May 11, 2024

Posted on May 11, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1942 that Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner was published. It was a group of interrelated stories that made up a novel: “Was,” “The Fire and the Hearth,” “Pantaloon in Black,” “The Old People,” “The Bear,” “Delta Autumn,” and “Go Down, Moses.” Like much of Faulkner’s fiction, Go Down, Moses was set in Yoknapatawpha County, and the stories trace members of the McCaslin family from pre-Civil War slavery days until the 1940s.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, May 10, 2024

Posted on May 10, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1749 that the 10th and final volume of Henry Fielding’s novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling was published. The novel form was still very new in English — other fiction writers presented their work as if it were factual, or as a moral allegory, whereas Fielding just wanted to write a good story. He said, “I shall not look on myself as accountable to any court of critical jurisdiction whatever; for as I am, in reality, the founder of a new province of writing, so I am at liberty to make what laws I please therein.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, May 9, 2024

Posted on May 9, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of J.M. Barrie, born James Matthew Barrie in Kirriemuir, Scotland (1860). He was a shy boy and a shy man. His contemporary Charles Lewis Hind wrote: “Barrie is a little man, shy-looking and dark, with black hair, a dome-like forehead, pale as ivory, and eyes that look as if they always want to escape from what he is doing. […] He loves to spring surprises on rather a dense world.

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