Categories for Literature
Literature, Moderns
The Greatest Year in American Literature
Was 1929 the greatest year in American literature? I think so. 1850-1855 had a run that’s still unmatched: The Scarlet Letter (1850), Moby-Dick (1851), Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), Walden (1854), and… Read More
Literature, Moderns
The Story Behind the First Edition of Ulysses by James Joyce
The first edition of perhaps the greatest English book of the 20th century was published by a bookstore, in Paris, which had never printed a book before, and never would… Read More
19th Century, Literature
The Story: Walt Whitman’s First Edition Leaves of Grass
One of the world’s most important books of poetry may never have been published if the poet had not been a printer himself. I speak of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass,… Read More
19th Century, Literature
Mark Twain’s Controversial Masterpiece
Mark Twain is one of America’s greatest writers, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is his defining novel, popular and controversial from the time of its publication in 1885 to this… Read More