“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one;… Read More February 14th – Frederick Douglass
Hope follows on the heels of Faith. And the white-winged goddess—which is Hope—did not leave her, but prompted her to many little surreptitious acts of preparation in the event of the miracle coming to pass. “A Little Country Girl” Kate Chopin Author Kate Chopin was born Katherine O’Flaherty on February 8th, 1850, in St. Louis,… Read More February 8th – Kate Chopin
“In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.” Edith Wharton Author Edith Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones on January 24th, 1862,… Read More January 24th – Edith Wharton
“My six words of advice to writers are: ‘Read, read, read, write, write, write.’” Ernest Gaines Ernest Gaines, the author of the American classics Of Love and Dust, A Gathering of Old Men and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, was born on January 15th, 1933, on a plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. Over his career, he wrote eight books,… Read More January 15th – Ernest Gaines
“The world was hers for the reading.” Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, was born on December 15, 1896, in Brooklyn, New York. Her given name was Elisabeth Lillian Wehner. Her father, a first-generation American with German roots, was a waiter. She had a warm relationship… Read More December 15th – Betty Smith
“All the time that I am making beds and doing dishes and driving to town for dancing shoes, I am telling myself stories.” Shirley Jackson Shirley Jackson was born on December 14th, 1916, in San Francisco, California. Her family moved from California to Rochester, New York, during her senior year of high school. Jackson later… Read More December 14th – Shirley Jackson
“Nothing mattered … but writing books, and living the kind of life that made it possible to write them.” Willa Cather Willa Cather was born Wilella Sibert Cather on December 7th, 1873, in Gore, Virginia. She was the eldest of seven children, and when she was nine, the family moved from Virginia to Nebraska in… Read More December 7th – Willa Cather
“if one found some truths worth telling they should be told to the young in terms that were understandable to them.” Monro Leaf Wilbur Munro Leaf was born on December 4th, 1905, in Hamilton, Maryland. He grew up in Washington, D.C., and in 1927 graduated from the University of Maryland. In 1931 Leaf received his… Read More December 4th – Monro Leaf
“And poetry is music’s twin.” Eugene Redmond, Drumvoices Eugene Redmond was born on December 1st, 1937, in St. Louis, Missouri. His mother died in 1946, and his father was not around, so he was raised by his grandmother and friends from church in East St. Louis. He was an observant child, always writing things down,… Read More December 1st – Eugene Redmond
“Facts are just the bare bones out of which truth is made. “ Shelby Foote Shelby Foote was born on November 17th, 1916, in Greenville, Mississippi. His family moved a bit around the South, to Jackson, Vicksburg, Pensacola, and Mobile, with his father’s job. After his father died when he was six, he and his… Read More November 17th – Shelby Foote
Daily Inspirations for Writers and Readers 