It’s the birthday of Anton Chekhov (b. 1860), renowned short story author, playwright, and most popular answer ever to the question, “Who has influenced your writing?” (One of my favorite Sidney Harris cartoons makes this point best; see it here.) Chekhov broke with tradition to downplay plot for the sake of artlessly simple portrayals in [...]
It’s the birthday of one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1706, a man who may have done more to shape the (eventual) United States than any other single person. Franklin was a printer and publisher, author, statesman, diplomat, inventor, scientist, the first U.S. Postmaster General, [...]
It’s the birthday of Southern writer Anne Rivers Siddons (1936-2019), who wrote 19 novels, many of them bestsellers, and has been called “the Jane Austen of modern Atlanta” (critic Bob Summer). Siddons was born in the small town of Fairburn, Georgia, to parents who were a lawyer and a secretary and had a traditional Southern [...]
TRIGGER WARNING: If the copy of The Prophet given to you upon your high school graduation eons ago is dogeared and worn from constant use, go to a safe space before reading today’s post. Someplace with bubbles and puppies. It’s the birthday of Lebanese American author Khalil Gibran (1883-1931), best known to English readers for [...]
(While reading today’s post, whether silently or out loud, please pronounce all names with a heavy Italian accent.) It’s the birthday of Lorenzo de’ Medici (1449 – 1492), also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, ruler of Florence from 1478 to 1492 and a great patron of the arts during the Italian Renaissance, supporting the likes [...]