Weekend Edition, January 23–25, 2026

Today's Feature: The birthdays of Stendhal, Colette, Edith Wharton, Robert Burns, and Somerset Maugham.

Deep Dive:

• Stendhal & Colette: Two French masters of realism and sensory prose who defined the psychological novel.

• Edith Wharton: A Pulitzer-winning look into the aristocratic cages of Old New York.

• Robert Burns: Why the "Ploughman Poet" is still celebrated with a global supper 267 years after his birth.

• W. Somerset Maugham: Insights from the doctor-turned-author who prioritized work over inspiration.

• Writing Prompt: Edith Wharton often wrote about "the cage" of social expectations. Write a scene where a character is physically comfortable in a beautiful setting but feels entirely trapped by a specific social rule they must follow. What is the one thing they want to say, but can't?

• Poem: "A Red, Red Rose" by Robert Burns (Public Domain).

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Today's Feature: The 238th birthday of Lord Byron, the 177th birthday of August Strindberg, and a tribute to Virginia Woolf.

Deep Dive:

• Lord Byron: The original literary celebrity who balanced dark Romanticism with sharp social satire and invented the "Byronic Hero."

• August Strindberg: The Swedish playwright who pioneered naturalism, explored alchemy, and shifted the foundations of modern drama.

• Virginia Woolf: Remembering the legacy of the woman who captured the "flickering" of human consciousness and fought for women's intellectual independence.

• Poem: "She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron (Public Domain).

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Show Notes: Wednesday, January 21, 2026

Today's Feature: The 95th birthday of E.L. Doctorow, the 96th birthday of Derek Walcott, and the 76th anniversary of George Orwell's death.

Deep Dive:

• E.L. Doctorow: The master of historical fiction who compared the writing process to "driving at night in the fog."

• Derek Walcott: The St. Lucian Nobel laureate who bridged the gap between the Caribbean and the classical Western canon.

• George Orwell: Reflecting on the final, grueling days of the man who wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four from a hospital bed.

• Poem: "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost (Public Domain).

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