Rose Macaulay was on the cusp of breaking through both as an author and as a witty participant in post-First World War London literary society when she wrote “Dedicatory” for her friend Naomi Royde-Smith. Placed prominently at the front of her book of poems Three Days (1919), “Dedicatory” evokes an exotic, mythically nurturing persona who
Literature
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle explores the origins of a popular girls’ name with literary connections Did the girls’ name Wendy really originate with Peter Pan? The claim is often made. And the answer is both simple and not simple. There are a few given names whose origins can
Plague tore through Shakespeare’s London in what, until recently, felt like a bygone, pestilence-ridden era. That plague decimated the capital’s population with recurrent outbreaks and bringing with it the kinds of draconian measures with which we’ve become familiar in 2020, not least the closure of public venues. But while curtains remain down indefinitely in many
December 23, 2020, 2:40pm This holiday season is bittersweet for many: it’s been a year of grief, and many of us are forgoing holiday traditions and creating new ones in isolation. For those of us who can’t be with our families this season for COVID or other reasons, here are some books featuring memorable family
The following is from an introduction to American Geography, a selection of images from the permanent collection of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. We’ve lived for generations in America with our promising tomorrows waiting for us just up ahead. Despite world wars and ceaseless warfare, despite backbreaking (for some) economic depressions
From essays to interviews, excerpts and reading lists, we publish around 300 features a month. And while we are proud of all the 3,000+ pieces we’ve shared in 2020, we do have our personal favorites. Below are some of the pieces we loved best on Lit Hub from this very long year. “On the Language
The story of Theseus and the Minotaur is one of the most famous and enduring myths of ancient Greece. Among other things, the tale helped to inspire the central premise of one of the most popular series of dystopian novels and films of the twenty-first century (of which more below). But as so often with
Perhaps a little background is in order. In November 2019, I stepped away from my job at Skylight Books where I worked for seven years, six as events manager. I loved that job. I thought I was good at it too. But we had a kid, a three-year-old, my wife traveled constantly for work, and
December 22, 2020, 3:46pm Today, the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference (SVWC) announced that American author, essayist, and fiction writer Barry Lopez has been awarded its inaugural Writer in the World Prize, which recognizes and honors a writer whose work expresses a “rare combination of literary talent and moral imagination, helping us to better understand the world
December 22, 2020, 12:34pm This week, New York City’s public library systems released their annual top 10 checkouts lists. These lists are always an intriguing window into the literary tastes of Gotham’s denizens, but this year’s are of particular interest. Why? Well, I for one am curious to know just how New Yorkers chose to
December 21, 2020, 10:31am Some good news to close out the year! Recently, Roxane Gay announced on Twitter that she’s starting a book club, and anyone can participate. The Audacious Book Club will span at least one year, and the reading list for 2021 has already been finalized: Jenna Wortham and Kimberly Drew, Black Futures
‘Dark House, by Which Once More I Stand’ is one canto (the seventh) from a much longer work of poetry, In Memoriam A. H. H. by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92). The poem shows Tennyson revisiting the home of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, whose untimely death in 1833 inspired the poem. Before we proceed to
December 21, 2020, 12:24pm Continuing on the Barack Obama’s Favorite Media end-of-year march, the former President has released a 20-song playlist to accompany his memoir A Promised Land, composed of songs that recall memories of his time on the campaign trail and in the White House. There’s some Beyonce, some John Coltrane, some Sade, some
The year is at an end, and I think I speak for pretty much everyone when I say: good riddance. (While we don’t have any guarantee that 2021 will be an improvement, it seems like it would have to be.) Among the many unhappinesses of this year, we lost what seems like an unusually large
It seems appropriate for me to reflect first on the undistinguished chair I’m sitting in as I try to put together a few words to introduce you to this biography of Richard Nelson. I bought the chair long ago in a second-hand store, in Springfield, Oregon. I’ve had to repair it occasionally, to ensure its
2020 was a hard year for reading—it was a hard for so many things. Like wearing clothes some days. Or bathing. Or saying goodbye, or trying to mourn. It was a hard year for voting in public or for living with someone you love. It was a hard year in which to believe in the possibilities
TODAY: In 1903, the first of G. K. Chesterton’s short stories, “The Tremendous Adventures of Major Brown,” appears in Harper’s Weekly. The Ultimate Best Books of 2020 List (in which we read all the year-end lists so you don’t have to). | Lit Hub “As is so often the case, editorial passion conquered timid conventional wisdom, and
TODAY: In 1985, Vietnamese poet Xuân Diệu dies. In memoriam: some of the writers, editors, and great literary minds we lost this year. | Lit Hub Yarden Katz: AI systems are as much a tool of whiteness as any other system of power. | Lit Hub Tech The Best Reviewed Graphic Literature and Literature in Translation of 2020. | Lit Hub, Book Marks