William Morris at age 53

William Morris, Anti-Capitalist Publisher

By drawing on traditional typefaces for Kelmscott Press, Morris showed that he was unwilling to yield to capitalism’s demands for speed and efficiency.
From the cover of the NYRB edition of Arabesques

Arabic Hebrew, Hebrew Arabic: The Work of Anton Shammas

Within the alienated and antagonist cultures inside Israel’s borders, Arabic and Hebrew—related, but mutually unintelligible languages—cross-fertilize each other.
Edgar Allan Poe with some seashell illustrations from The Conchologist’s First Book

Edgar Allan Poe (Sort of) Wrote a Book About Seashells

The American writer was an enthusiast of the sciences, which may explain his decision to “adapt” a text about seashells for publication under his own name.
An illustration of mermaids from Puck, 1911, by Gordon Ross

Mermaids: Myth, Kith and Kin

Ariel epitomizes mermaids now, but these beguiling creatures precede her by millennia, sparking imaginations the world over with a hearty embrace of otherness.
US infantrymen rest during their drive to follow armored units south from Normandy into Brittany, Villedieu, France. Some men sit and lean their rifles against a stone wall, while others lay on the ground, resting their heads on their backpacks.

Books on the Battlefield

During World War II, GIs battled boredom with novels provided by the Armed Service Division, raising questions about the “feminizing” effect of reading.
From the cover of Henry and June by Anaïs Nin

June Miller: More Than An Erotic Muse?

Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller, two writers in search of sexual and literary inspiration, modeled their most seductive characters on June Mansfield Miller.
A newspaper vendor reads an edition of the sports colum of a newspaper printed in Russian July 31, 2001 in downtown Baku, Azerbaijan. In accordance with a decree issued by President Heydar Aliyev last June, Azerbaijan had to change all its Azeric writing, including books, newspapers, and street signs from the old Soviet-era Cyrillic to Latin script on August 1.

Alpha. Bravo. Cyrillic.

Free from Russian dictates over language usage and education, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan prepare to embrace Latin lettering. It’s the latest chapter in the region’s fraught history of alphabet reform.
The Devonshire Manuscript facsimile 6v

The Devonshire Manuscript

The sixteenth-century handwritten collection of poetry and commentary offers a glimpse of intellectual life at the court of King Henry VIII.
The seven dwarves find Snow White asleep in their bedroom, from the fairy tale by the brothers Grimm, c. 1812

Children’s Fairy Tales and Feminine Beauty

Fairy tales, many of which associate women’s beauty with goodness, act as scripts that pass along specific messages about women’s bodies and attractiveness.
Phillip Vance Smith, II surrounded by covers of Nash News

What’s It Like to Be an Editor of a Prison Newspaper?

The incarcerated editor of The Nash News in North Carolina shares about the power of higher ed and his work at the prison newspaper.