Did North America’s Longest Painting Inspire Moby-Dick?
Herman Melville likely saw the panorama “Whaling Voyage,” which records the sinking of the whaler Essex, while staying in Boston in 1849.
W.B. Yeats Loved Tarot Cards
The august Irish poet was once a member of a secret occult order called The Hermetic Society of the Golden Dawn. He was also an avid student of the Tarot.
Wild and Finally Free in Lauren Groff’s Florida
Lauren Groff’s latest story collection explores the literary archetype of the Orphan.
How Lizzie Bennet Got Her Books
In Regency England, a novel cost about $100. Subscription-based circulating libraries became a way for women of modest means to gain knowledge.
Why Adults Love Comic Books
There's more to comic books than bright colors, gratiutious violence, and whimsy. Comics tells stories that are deeply significant to their readers.
What a Paragraph Is
On the controversial directive that a paragraph must contain a topic sentence, an idea that theorists, writers, and students have questioned for decades.
Harry Potter, the Arthurian Romance
Perhaps the Harry Potter stories are so potent because they rework the iconic hero stories of medieval French Arthurian romances.
The Bright Future of Bangladesh: Researching The Storm
An interview with Arif Anwar, whose debut novel covers sixty years of Bengali history in five love stories.
My Summer of Watching Little Women
What the author learned from her mother, a feminist academic doing a research project on film adaptations of Little Women.
When Reading Inspired Women to Change History
The "Friday Night" group was a cohort of prominent nineteenth century Baltimore women who met each week to read, write, and debate social issues.