Nov. 17: On this day in 1919 Sylvia Beach opened the doors to Shakespeare and Company, Paris’ first English-language bookstore and lending library.
Nov. 18: Sir Walter Scott meets the novelist Fanny Burney on this day in 1826, a woman he would describe in his journal as having a “gentle manner and a pleasing expression of countenance.
Nov. 19: Allen Tate, poet, born on this day in 1899 in Winchester, Kentucky and later founded the poetry magazine called The Fugitive, an advocate of Southern regionalism and agrarian values.
Nov. 20: Roderick Hudson (never heard of it? neither had many people) was the first novel published by Henry James on this day in 1875. It was a productive year for him; earlier he had published a short-story collection and a book of travel essays called Transatlantic Sketches.
Nov. 21: Two greats meet on this day and their friendship is tempestuous. Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev meet for the first time on this day in 1855.
Nov. 23: Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy’s novel of the love life of Bathsheba Everdene, is published on this day in 1874.
Nov. 24: The Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin is published on this day in 1859 and sells out almost immediately.
Nov. 25: Nathaniel West, who got into Tufts by doctoring his high school transcripts flunks out of the university on this day in 1921. Later while running a hotel, he gave free or cheap rooms to writers such as Dashiell Hammett and Erskine Caldwell. In 1933, his novella Miss Lonelyhearts is published.
