Story of Writing August 31, 2024

Union forces attack Atlanta, Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his "navigable balloon," Russian and the UK carve up Persia, the U.S. asserts its neutrality, and German soldiers - dressed in Polish uniforms - attack a small town in Germany as a pretense to justify invading Poland and starting the Second World War. The birthday club includes Roger Dean, Van Morrison, and Itzhak Perlman - with a reading from Willa Cather's "Song of the Lark."