Harriet Beecher Stowe George Eliot

When Harriet Beecher Stowe and George Eliot Were Penpals

These 19th-century novelists might seem to have little in common. But for 11 years they wrote each other letters, forging an unusual literary friendship.
Appalachian Mountains dialect

The Legendary Language of the Appalachian “Holler”

Is the unique Appalachian dialect the preserved language of Elizabethan England? Left over from Scots-Irish immigrants? Or something else altogether?
Photograph: a promotional image of Robert Preston in "The Music Man" (1962)


Source: http://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/boxofficeaprjun182boxo_0208

How a Beloved Musical Became a Cold War Weapon

The 1962 film The Music Man was seen as so all-American that some hoped it would help win the Cold War by transmitting American values abroad.
Colorful tabs marking pages in a book

Friendship, Stonehenge, and Making it to College

Well-researched stories from the Guardian, the Conversation, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Therapist communicating with man while sitting by book shelf at home office

How Storytelling Heals

Illness can challenge the notion of the self and disrupt patients' narratives about their own lives. Some scholars suggest that storytelling can help.
Colorful tabs marking pages in a book

Meat Allergies, McCarthyism, and World Leadership

Well-researched stories from the Conversation, Atlas Obscura, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Jane Austen Sanditon

What Exactly Is Jane Austen’s Sanditon?

An unfinished, fragmentary Austen novel is being adapted for television. Can we ever know what Austen meant for this book to eventually become?
Photo by _HealthyMond . on Unsplash

Maroon Societies, Down Syndrome, and Food Justice

New books and scholarship from academic publishers.
Summer Afternoon Asher Brown Durand

Summertime Poems and Paintings

Summery poems by Mary Oliver, Matthew Zapruder, and other poets, along with seasonal paintings by Claude Monet and other artists.
James Tiptree, Jr Alice Sheldon

The Woman Behind James Tiptree, Jr.

James Tiptree, Jr., was a beloved sci-fi writer known for masculine prose and universal themes. Then her real identity was revealed: Alice Bradley Sheldon.