The Writer's Almanac from Tuesday, June 18, 2013

The Writer's Almanac from Tuesday, June 18, 2013

"To Help the Monkey Cross the River" by Thomas Lux, from The Cradle Place. © Houghton Mifflin 2004.

ORIGINAL TEXT AND AUDIO - 2013

It is the birthday of musician and songwriter Paul McCartney (1942), born in Liverpool, England. When he was 14, he learned to play a left-handed guitar and met a local art student named John Lennon.

They formed a skiffle band called the Quarrymen in 1957, spending several years based in a small Liverpool club called The Cavern. After some success, they met Brian Epstein, who became their manager. He suggested they replace their current drummer, Pete Best, with a young man named Ringo Starr. By 1963, the band, which had changed its name to the Beatles, was the most popular rock and roll group in England. In February of 1964, they took America by storm with their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

The Guinness Book of World Records lists McCartney as the best-selling composer in popular music history. His song "Yesterday" is the most recorded ever, with 2,200 versions.

On this day in 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte lost his final major battle near Waterloo Village in Belgium. He is one of the most famous emperors of all time, and one of the only historical figures remembered by his first name. There are an estimated 45,000 books about him.

Waterloo was Napoleon's attempt at a comeback. He had been defeated by the British, and was in exile on the island of Elba, but he grew restless and devised a plan to march north with his army and attack the English and Prussian armies — he would split his forces to drive his allied enemies apart and defeat them separately. A heavy rain fell and delayed the attack, which allowed the Prussians to bring in reinforcements and help bring the English to victory, ending more than two decades of constant fighting in Europe.

Napoleon's army suffered 25,000 killed and wounded, 8,000 captured, and 15,000 missing. He abdicated and went to live on the island of St. Helena off the coast of Africa. The word "Waterloo" came to mean an impossible struggle or a decisive and final defeat.

It's the birthday of novelist Amy Bloom, born in New York City (1953). She was in her 30s, practicing psychotherapy and raising her two children, when she realized she wanted to be a serious writer.

She said, "I've spent a lot of time listening to people, and I am endlessly intrigued by relationships, particularly by the gap between what people say and what they truly feel, and the gap between what they do and what they really want." Her books include Love Invents Us (1998), Away (2008), and Where the God of Love Hangs Out (2010).

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®

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