Every Writer

The Shakespeare society of New York, which is really about the only useful literary organization in this country, is making vigorous efforts to redress an old wrong and atone for a long neglect. Sunday, Sept. 22, it held a meeting at the Poe cottage

I have just return’d from an old forest haunt, where I love to go occasionally away from parlors, pavements, and the newspapers and magazines—and where, of a clear forenoon, deep in the shade of pines and cedars and

  In 1857 Dickens is believe to have taken these walks. He walked the streets of London at 2 O’clock in the morning. It is said that he had a lot of turmoil in his life at this time. The look at the streets of London in those early days is fascinating. The night streets[…]

‘The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems is, I believe, the first volume of poems that Mr. Yeats has published, and it is certainly full of promise.  It must be admitted that many of the poems are too fragmentary, too incomplete.  They read like stray scenes out of unfinished plays, like things only half remembered,[…]

The Poet as Prophet James Russell Lowell Poets are the forerunners and prophets of changes in the moral world. Driven by their fine nature to search into and reverently contemplate the universal laws of the soul, they find some fragment of the broken tables of God’s law, and interpret it, half-conscious of its mighty import.[…]

This is a wonderful Intro to Wilfred Owens book of poems by  Siegfried Sassoon. If you haven’t read it, you should. It is a awesome little piece of history between 2 poets that had the greatest impact on all poetry that has been written after the Great War. Introduction In writing an Introduction such as[…]

“On Some Technical Elements of Style in Literature” from The Art of Writing and Other Essays by Robert Louis Stevenson There is nothing more disenchanting to man than to be shown the springs and mechanism of any art.  All our arts and occupations lie wholly on the surface; it is on the surface that we[…]

A moody child and wildly wise Pursued the game with joyful eyes, Which chose, like meteors, their way, And rived the dark with private ray: They overleapt the horizon’s edge, Searched with Apollo’s privilege; Through man, and woman, and sea, and star Saw the dance of nature forward far; Through worlds, and races, and terms,[…]

This is a Love Letter to Elibezabeth Barret from Robert Browning that was sent January 10 1845. They would be married in 1846. It is interesting to see how “forward” Robert is being. He is very much pushing for his soon to be bride to take him seriously. She did not believe he could love[…]

Here is section on literary journal from the book Curiosities of Literature by Isaac Disraeli  The earl of Beaconsfield. The book was published in 1881. We thought it might be interesting to get a 100 year old take on the state and purpose of literary journals. LITERARY JOURNALS. When writers were not numerous, and readers[…]

The critical faculty hesitates before the magnitude of Mr. Henry James’s work.  His books stand on my shelves in a place whose accessibility proclaims the habit of frequent communion.  But not all his books.  There is no collected edition to date, such as some of “our masters” have been provided with; no neat rows of[…]