If there is an occupational hazard to writing, it’s drinking Cormac McCarthy Author Cormac McCarthy was born on July 20th, 1933, in Providence, Rhode Island, and raised primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was the eldest of six children, and his father’s job as a lawyer for the Tennessee Valley Authority positioned them solidly in the… Read More July 20th – Cormac McCarthy
“Writing is one of the few professions in which you can psychoanalyse yourself, get rid of hostilities and frustrations in public, and get paid for it.” Octavia Butler Writer Octavia Butler was born on June 22nd, 1947. After her father died when she was seven, she was raised by her widowed mother in Southern California.… Read More June 22nd – Octavia Butler
“…without my brain the paper could not have lived and shown the signs of flourishing which it undoubtedly has.” Suffragist, Egoist, and Philosopher Dora Marsden was born on March 5th, 1882, in the village of Marsden in England. Her father, Fred, was a waste wool dealer, and after his business failed in 1890, he left… Read More March 5th – Dora Marsden
“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
“When I decided to write a novel, I had two full time jobs and three children under the age of six, so I don’t want anyone telling me they don’t have time to write a book….Basically, the only bottom line is you just keep writing.” Diana Gabaldon American author Diana Gabaldon (pronounced GAB-uhl-dohn – rhymes… Read More January 11th – Diana Gabaldon
We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be. Jane Austen, Mansfield Park Jane Austen was born on December 16th, 1775, in Stevenson, a small rural village in England. There is a plethora of biographical information about Jane Austen, so I’ll keep it brief… Read More December 16th – Jane Austen
“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
Daily Inspirations for Writers and Readers 