Category: Literature
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Will This New Author Prove a Second Conrad?
William McFee was the hot new author sensation in 1916, with his nautical-themed novels including Casuals of the Sea and Letters from an Ocean Tramp. He would go on to write dozens more novels for decades to come, through the early 1950s. But to answer the headline’s title question of whether McFee would come to be considered […]
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Is O. Henry a Pernicious Literary Influence?
William Sydney Porter, popularly known as O. Henry, is perhaps one of the most beloved short story writers in the American canon. (I would recommend the wonderful Christmas story The Gift of the Magi.) But not everybody loved him. The author Katharine Fullerton wrote: In the very shortest of Maupassant’s stories you find the people etched […]
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The Great American Novel Never Will Come
Huneker’s main point in this essay was not that America will never produce great novels, but that America was so varied that it would be impossible for merely one to represent the whole country. The question is, after all, an affair for critics, and the great American novel will be in the plural; thousands perhaps. […]
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Many Writers Not Helped by College Training
William Ellsworth had recently retired as president of the publishing house The Century Company — which in 1933 would merge with another company that would in turn merge with the present-day publishing company Prentice Hall. He worried that colleges were teaching people how to evaluate great literature rather than helping them produce it. He says: […]
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How We Look To The Young Woman Back Of The Desk In The Library
Ah, the librarian. In 2007 the Times noted that librarians are much hipper today than they used to be. Here’s a look at what the job was like for librarians in 1911. She must have a sense of humor — it is absolutely necessary. She must not only see herself as others see her, she […]
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When Mark Twain Nearly Changed His Literary Career
Here’s a first person account of Mark Twain’s reaction to a bad review. WHEN MARK TWAIN NEARLY CHANGED HIS LITERARY CAREER: A Disappointment That Incidentally Gave Him a Lifelong Yearning to Kill a Critic. (PDF) From July 30, 1911
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To Preserve The Home Of The Author Of “Little Women” As A Memorial
Orchard House is today a National Landmark, on the U.S. Register of Historic Places. You can visit the museum’s official website, and visit the house next time you’re in Concord, Massachusetts. TO PRESERVE THE HOME OF THE AUTHOR OF “LITTLE WOMEN” AS A MEMORIAL: “Orchard House,” Where Louisa M. Alcott Lived, Is to be Bought […]
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George B. Boynton, “The War Maker,” Tells His Adventures
Here’s a bit of good summer reading for you. The book The War Maker tells the supposedly true story of George B. Boynton, whose unlikely adventures sound like a 19th century Forrest Gump. You can download the book in a variety of ebook formats here at Google Books. The article gives a historic context for […]
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Seeking Bacon Manuscripts In The River Wye
The rest of this post is unwritten because I’m a brand new dad and need to focus on that for a bit. But please feel free to read the article and make your own comments. SEEKING BACON MANUSCRIPTS IN THE RIVER WYE: Dr. Orville W. Owen’s Curious Search to Prove That Bacon Wrote the Shakespeare […]
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Classics Of Literature Censored By A Sing Sing Convict
These reviews of classic literature by a Sing Sing convict are great. One of the most unique documents ever written by a convict in Sing Sing has just come to light. It was intended for the yes of convicts only — for the readers of prison books — and is penned in a slang that […]
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