• Friday, Jan 9: The 118th birthday of Simone de Beauvoir. A look at the "Mother of Second-Wave Feminism," her partnership with Sartre, and why her work was banned by the Vatican.

• Saturday, Jan 10: The 250th anniversary of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. How a 47-page pamphlet in plain English sparked the American Revolution.

• Sunday, Jan 11: The dual birthdays of William James and Alan Paton. One explored the psychology of the human mind; the other explored the moral conscience of a divided nation.

• Poem/Excerpt: From The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir (Public Domain).

• Writing Prompts:

  1. The Becoming: Simone de Beauvoir argued we "become" who we are. Write a letter to your past self describing one specific moment where you felt you "became" the person you are today.

  2. Common Sense: Identify a modern issue that feels overly complicated. Write a one-page "pamphlet" using only simple, forceful language to explain why a specific change is necessary.

  3. The Beloved Land: Inspired by Alan Paton, write a paragraph describing a landscape you love, focusing on how that landscape makes you feel responsible for its future.

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• Today's Feature: The 202nd birthday of Wilkie Collins, the 159th birthday of Emily Greene Balch, and the 1981 origins of Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits.

• Deep Dive:

  • The Laudanum Mystery: How Wilkie Collins invented the detective novel while battling opium-induced ghosts and Victorian morality.

  • The Scholar of Peace: Emily Greene Balch’s journey from a "fired" professor to a Nobel Peace Prize winner through her research on "global citizenship."

  • Allende’s Letter: The story of how a farewell letter to a grandfather in Chile became a masterpiece of magical realism.

• Poem/Excerpt: The opening to "The Woman in White" by Wilkie Collins (Public Domain).

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Today's Feature: The 135th birthday of Zora Neale Hurston, the 153rd birthday of Charles Péguy, and the philosophical legacy of Albert Camus.

• Deep Dive:

  • Zora Neale Hurston: A profile of the Harlem Renaissance icon who utilized her background in anthropology to preserve the richness of Black American folk traditions.

  • Charles Péguy: The French poet and mystic whose unique style of rhythmic repetition sought to capture the "eternity in the present moment" before his death in the early days of World War I.

  • Albert Camus: A reflection on the "Absurd" philosopher’s tragic death in 1960 and the discovery of his final, mud-stained manuscript in the wreckage of his car.

• The Reading: "The Invincible Summer" (Selection) by Albert Camus

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