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John Steinbeck lit writing history and literature thought and opinion diaries creativity and innovation creativity

How Nobel laureate John Steinbeck, born on this day in 1902, used the diary as a tool of discipline and a hedge against self-doubt.

Anaïs Nin lit history and literature thought and opinion diaries

Anaïs Nin, born 114 years ago today, on how reading awakens us from the slumber of almost-living.

Italo Calvino civil rights Black History Month diaries lit history and literature thought and opinion culture and society

Italo Calvino’s little-known writings about racial justice, the early civil rights movement, and his unforgettable encounter with Dr. King.

May Sarton poetry diaries thought and opinion history and literature resist

May Sarton, writing on the cusp of WWII, on the artist’s duty to contact the timeless in troubled times.

Anaïs Nin lit history and literature writing diaries thought and opinion

Anaïs Nin on how reading awakens us from the hibernation of almost-living.

May Sarton diaries poetry thought and opinion anger culture and society lit history and literature

May Sarton on anger as creativity in reverse and how we use it as a safety valve against madness

Leo Tolstoy philosophy lit diaries history and literature thought and opinion

For Leo Tolstoy’s birthday, wisdom from the diaries of his youth.

Virginia Woolf Vita Sackville-West lit LGBT love history and literature diaries letters

She is both detached and human, silent till she wants to say something, and then says it supremely well.

How Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf fell in love – the true story behind “the longest and most charming love letter in literature"

Alfred Kazin philosophy thought and opinion diaries history and literature lit New York

These passages from Alfred Kazin’s journal about the power of perception and how the sacredness of human attention shapes our reality are the most hope-giving thing I’ve read in ages.

Henry David Thoreau philosophy lit diaries history and literature media and communication

There are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout.

Thoreau, born 199 years ago today, on how silence ennobles speech—immensely timely wisdom amid our culture of rampant shouting.

Anne Truitt thought and opinion marriage love art art and design diaries culture and society

When I saw how one of the Australian gum trees, the angophora, thrust out new branches, I saw how a marriage could work: a nub pushes out from a fork and as it grows into a branch (there are wide-branched trees) the bark of the tree’s trunk spreads smoothly over this rough, crude juncture so that it joins the other branches seamlessly, enhances the whole tree’s amplitude. The bark is purple, tan-pink-violet. There is warmth in its seal.

Artist Anne Truitt on love, loss, what makes marriage work, and the syncopation of grief and gladness – one of the most beautiful and truthful things I’ve ever read.

Leo Tolstoy thought and opinion lit diaries culture and society history and literature psychology philosophy

Young Leo Tolstoy on personal growth and how he found his purpose.

soren kierkergaard philosophy thought and opinion culture and society history and literature diaries

Kierkegaard (b. May 5, 1813) on our greatest source of unhappiness – even truer two centuries later.

John Steinbeck writing lit history and literature diaries

Just set one day’s work in front of the last day’s work. That’s the way it comes out. And that’s the only way it does.

The Grapes of Wrath was published on this day in 1939 – a timeless masterwork of social justice, a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, and a cornerstone of Steinbeck’s Nobel Prize. He wrote it in under five months, averaging 2,000 words a day. Here is how he used the diary as a tool of discipline and a hedge against self-doubt.

Susan Sontag lit history and literature culture and society thought and opinion writing diaries

Susan Sontag on writing.