Oscar Wilde’s Pamphlet: “Children in Prison and Other Cruelties of Prison Life”
Wilde's description is heart-wrenching, but that doesn't hold him back from the usual wit and drama that characterize his writing.
H.G. Wells’s Letters to Cora Crane
The correspondence between famous novelist H.G. Wells and Cora Crane, the partner of "The Red Badge of Courage" author Stephen Crane.
Upton Sinclair
Best known as the author of "The Jungle," Upton Sinclair had some thoughts about the American economy, which he shared in this 1906 essay.
Eleven Poems for Fall
Cozy up to autumn with verse from Dylan Thomas, Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert Frost, Rita Dove, and more.
The Folklorist behind Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
What was that book's deal, anyway?
Sor Juana, Founding Mother of Mexican Literature
How a 17th-century nun wrote poetry, dramas, and comedies that took on the inequities and double standards women faced in society.
The Lonely Hearts of the Algonquin Round Table
The "Vicious Circle" of the Algonquin Round Table included sharp-tongued wits like Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woollcott. But it wasn't always vicious.
Sorry, but Jane Eyre Isn’t the Romance You Want It to Be
Charlotte Brontë, a woman whose life was steeped in stifled near-romance, refused to write love as ruly, predictable, or safe.
The Periodicals That Shaped American Boyhood
19th-century "story papers" gave boys stories they liked, while also encouraging readers to contribute their own material and tell their own stories.
What The War of the Worlds Had to Do with Tasmania
H. G. Wells's famous science fiction novel imagines what would happen if Martians did to Great Britain what Europeans did to Tasmania.