It’s the birthday of child prodigy novelist Barbara Newhall Follett (1914 – ???), whose bestselling novel, The House Without Windows, was published when she was only twelve and who disappeared without a trace at the age of 26. The mystery of where she went or how she eventually died has never been solved. (Note to [...]
It’s the birthday of Pam Muñoz Ryan (b. 1951), author of more than forty children’s books ranging from picture books to YA novels and the 2018 U.S. nominee for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award, which award is a Big Hairy Deal in the world of children’s book awards. Muñoz Ryan was born Pamela Jeanne [...]
This is a re-post from two years ago. Today is the birthday of William Carols Williams (1883-1963), one of those people who thought he could be both a successful doctor and a brilliant poet and writer, and who turned out to be right. Among his accomplishments were becoming chief of pediatrics at a general hospital [...]
It’s the birthday of Charles Simic (b. 1938), one of today’s Great Living Poets of surrealist ilk (though he does grim realism as well), whose poetry “removes the safety nets from the everyday.” Simic was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) and spent his childhood fleeing the violence of WWII; he has said that “My [...]
It’s the birthday of Peggy Bacon (1895-1987, #nicelonglife), who was the author and/or illustrator of 60-some books and won great recognition for both her art and her writing, including an Edgar Allen Poe Mystery Award nomination for her novel The Inward Eye (1952). Margaret Frances Bacon was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut, to two artists; her [...]
This is a re-post from last year because this guy is inspiring! It’s the birthday of Jacques Futrelle (1875-1912, #diedtooyoung), lauded for his ingenious mysteries and best known for the oft-anthologized story “The Problem of Cell 13.” Futrelle’s career was unfortunately cut short when he went down with the Titanic, which he did bravely and [...]
A slightly rewritten re-post from two years ago. It’s the birthday of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen (b. 1805), who wrote plays, poems, novels, autobiographies, and more, but is most famous for his literary fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 150 languages. (Be honest: can you even *name* 150 languages?) Some of [...]
A re-post featuring my favorite short story author. Um, has anyone else noticed how hard it is to homeschool and get absolutely anything else done? No? Just me, then... It’s the birthday of Flannery O’Connor (b. 1925), one of the greatest American fiction writers and a master of the short story form. As both a [...]
Maybe one of my favorite posts, so I am re-posting. Stay well. It’s the birthday of Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier (1768-1830), brilliant mathematician but also—because how else are you going to spend your time when you’re not developing an eponymous infinite mathematical series—a brilliant Egyptologist responsible for the publication of the 10-volume Description de l’Égypte, one of [...]
Susan’s Almanac Project for March 18, 2020 Hello, everyone! Are you all okay out there and practicing social distancing? Stay well; we can do this! I'm hoping to do more original posts very soon, but this is a re-post from last year on one of the U.S.'s most prominent authors ever. If you're an Updike [...]
It’s the birthday of Frank Morrison Spillane, better known as Mickey Spillane, writer of the Mike Hammer detective series and mid-life convert to (I am not making this up) the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Spillane was born in 1918 in Brooklyn, New York, and after high school worked at various jobs: lifeguarding, performing with a circus, and [...]
It’s the birthday of internationally acclaimed writer Colum McCann (b. 1965), author of three story collections and six novels, including the international bestsellers Let the Great World Spin (2009) and Transatlantic (2013). McCann was born and raised in Ireland, where he started out as a journalist in The Irish Press. He moved to the U.S. [...]