How Slaughterhouse-Five Made Us See the Dresden Bombing Differently
The bombing of Dresden, Germany, which began February 13, 1945, was once viewed as a historical footnote. Until Slaughterhouse-Five was published.
Edgar Allan Poe and the Power of a Portrait
Edgar Allan Poe knew that readers would add their visual image of the author to his work to create a personality that informed their reading.
Zadie Smith
Ever since the publication of White Teeth, Zadie Smith has made a career of writing about the actual experiences behind topics like race and immigration.
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison, the first African American writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, was born to working-class ...
James Joyce, Catholic Writer?
James Joyce remains a novelist whose characters are imbued with a Catholic world view, despite declaring himself to be a freethinking heretic.
George Orwell’s 1984
George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 finds itself at the top of the best-seller lists this week, the first of Trump’s presidency.
Very British Villains (and Other Anglo-Saxon Attitudes to Accents)
What do peoples' accents really reveal about them? The villainous British accent crystallizes the love-hate special relationship between the US and the UK.
Jack London’s Double
When London heard someone was impersonating him, he did exactly what you’d think he’d do: he tracked him down.
Voodoo and the Work of Zora Neale Hurston
Author Zora Neale Hurston, born on January 7, 1891, is perhaps best known for Their Eyes Were Watching ...