Classic articles on writing art some of the most interesting and telling works by past authors. Here you will find articles from the past by authors that range from the famous to the obscure.
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… Keep Reading
If there is anything which should make an American sick and disgusted at the literary taste of his country, and almost swerve his allegiance to his flag it is that controversy between Mark Twain Keep Reading
I remember the astonishment I felt when I first read Shakespeare. I expected to receive a powerful esthetic pleasure, but having read, one after the other, works regarded as his best: “King Lear,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Hamlet” and “Macbeth,” not only did I feel no delight, but I felt an irresistible repulsion and tedium, and doubted… Keep Reading
A note from the editor Note from editor: I am going through and updating some of these classic articles/essays on writing. Some of these, are just so amazing. They are pieces of literary history. This particular piece is Robert Louis Stevenson’s review of Walt Whitman’s writing style. It’s a unique look from one famous mind… Keep Reading
The Art of Fiction by Henry James: I should not have affixed so comprehensive a title to these few remarks, necessarily wanting in any completeness, upon a subject the full consideration of which would carry us far, did I not seem to discover a pretext Keep Reading
This is Yeats meeting Wilde is probably one of the biggest literary meetings in history, but we forget. Writers today don't know what it means to read the greats sometimes. Keep Reading
This is a wonderfully short piece written by Walt Whitman. Honestly the more you know about Whitman the more interesting this subject becomes. The essay was written in 1892. Living in Brooklyn or New York city from this time forward, my life, then, and still more the following years, was curiously identified with Fulton ferry,… Keep Reading
To W. D. Howells, in New York: STORMFIELD, REDDING, CONN., Jan. 18, ’09. Dear Howells, I have to write a line, lazy as I am, to say how your Poe article delighted me; and to say that I am in agreement with substantially all you say about his literature. To me his prose is unreadable—like… Keep Reading
VIRTUE is like a rich stone, best plain set; and surely virtue is best, in a body that is comely, though not of delicate features; and that hath rather dignity of presence, than beauty of aspect. Neither is it almost seen, that very beautiful persons are otherwise of great virtue; as if nature were rather… Keep Reading
"All talk on modern poetry, by people who know," wrote Mr. Carl Sandburg in Poetry, "ends with dragging in Ezra Pound somewhere. He may be named only to be cursed as wanton and mocker, poseur, trifler and vagrant. Keep Reading
Whitman records their last meeting in journal entries are below. They are fascinating if you are a fan of American poetry. On September 17, 1881 Whitman goes to see Emerson. Keep Reading
Once again we have found a quip from Twain that we feel needs to be highlighted in the pages of history. Twain is one of our favorite writers, especially when it comes to writing about writing. Keep Reading
The beautiful but barren Hymettus—the whole coast of Attica, her hills and mountains, Pentelicus, Anchesmus, Philopappus, etc., etc.—are in themselves poetical, and would be so if the name of Athens, of Athenians, and her very ruins, were swept from the earth. But am I to be told that the “nature” of Attica would be more… Keep Reading
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 Keep Reading
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 Keep Reading
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… Keep Reading
This essay is a fascinating piece of writing that takes a look, by one of histories great authors, at what it takes to write a novel. Robert Louis Stevenson of course wrote 12 novels over his life time. He wrote the great novels Strange Case of Dr Jekyll… Keep Reading
‘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,… Keep Reading
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.… Keep Reading
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… Keep Reading
