What This 19th-Century Poet Knew About the Future
The Anthropocene requires a new history to explain how humans transform the planet. The work of poet John Clare is a good place to start.
The Fairytale Language of the Brothers Grimm
How the Brothers Grimm went hunting for fairytales, accidentally changed the course of historical linguistics, and kickstarted a new field of scholarship in folklore.
The Restoration’s Filthiest Poet (and Why We Need Him)
Creature of the court, royalist and fop, dandy and dilettante, John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, knew how to scandalize with verse.
The Lost Language of American Loggers
Logger slang may have coined terms like "punk," "haywire," and "pie in the sky." One lexicographer attempted to catalogue the industry's slang in 1942.
Revisiting the Messy Language of the Second Amendment
The debate over the Second Amendment is not just about guns—it's also about grammar.
What, Prithee, Is a Poetess?
The loss and recovery of a poetic genre shows how the canon of literary history treats women writers the moment they start to gain attention and approval.
The Privileged and Impoverished Life of Phillis Wheatley
The first African American of either gender to publish a book of poetry has remained a controversial figure in the black community.
The New Sameness of Leslie Jamison’s Addiction Memoir
Leslie Jamison's The Recovering is self-aware about being the same old story, recalling the redemption narratives of Rousseau and St. Augustine.
Clare Boothe Luce, the Conservative Politician Who Wrote an All-Female Play
Clare Boothe Luce was a socialite, an editor, a feminist playwright, a devout Roman Catholic, a Republican Congresswoman, an early LSD user, an ambassador, and, believe it or not, more.
