Aug. 25, 2008: The Writer's Almanac

Monday's Poem: "The Sorrows" by Gary Fincke from The Fire Landscape: Poems. Monday's Literary Notes: It's the birthday of journalist and novelist Frederick Forsyth (1938), born in Ashford, Kent, England. When he was just a student in Kent, Forsyth learned to speak French, German, Spanish, and Russian. At 17, he quit school and left home to see the world. He learned to fly a plane and joined the Royal Air Force as England's youngest pilot. And he set out to write thrillers like The Day of the Jackal (1971), The Odessa File (1972), The Devil's Alternative (1980), and The Fourth Protocol (1984)...