Literary History Today Jan 26: Thomas Wolfe leaps
The North Carolina born writer decides not to go to Connecticut with his oh-so-patient editor Max Perkins.
Literary History Today Jan. 25: Robert Burns Day
Poet Robert Burns, not Robbie as I was told often during my visit to Scotland last year, was born on this day in 1759 at the village of Alloway in South Ayreshire.
Today in Literary History Jan. 24: Edith Wharton born in NYC
It’s the sesquicentennial of the birth of Edith Wharton today. Born, as all the biographical info say, into an aristocratic New York family, Edith Newbold Jones lived in a refined and elegant world.
Literary History Today Jan. 23: Orwell dissects Kipling
Novelist and critic George Orwell reveals his five stages of Rudyard Kipling in a review published on this date in 1935.
Downton Abbey. Why reading is better than watching
The only thing that could make the very good Downton Abbey great would be to read about it.
Literary History Today Jan. 19: Patricia Highsmith born in Texas
The strange and talented Patricia Highsmith, who learned to read before she was two years old, was born on this day in 1921 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Literary History Today Jan. 17: Hunchback of Notre Dame finis
Victor Hugo finished writing Notre Dame de Paris on this day in 1831, the book that has since become better known as The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Literary History Today Jan. 16: Bard of the Yukon born
Visit Dawson City today and you can see the cabin once lived in by Robert W. Service, the Canadian poet who wroteThe Cremation of Sam McGee .
This Day in Literary History for Jan. 13: Swift gets ordained in Ireland
On this day in 1695, Jonathan Swift is ordained as an Anglican priest and given the post of Kilroot in Ireland where he will live from March of that year until May 1696.
Today in Literary History Jan. 12: Oscar Wilde writes about Henry James
On this day in 1899, Oscar Wilde, in a letter to Canadian journalist Robert Ross, believed to have been his first male lover, writes: “Henry James is developing, but he will never arrive at passion, I fear.”