by Mark Twain An Essay for Discussion, read at a meeting of the historical and Antiquarian Club of Hartford, and offered for the Thirty-Dollar Prize. Now First Published [Did not…
Poetry as a Study by William Wordsworth
With the young of both sexes, Poetry is, like love, a passion; but, for much the greater part of those who have been proud of its power over their minds,…
The Short Story by Robert Saunders Dowst (1918)
A story is a fiction with a plot, as distinguished from a tale, which is a string of incidents that happened to happen to the characters. In the story the events are linked together by the natures of the people concerned; personality influences event and event influences personality
Top 10 Horrible B-Horror Movies
Here are out Top 10 Horrible B-Horror Movies. I created this list a long time again, basically for fun, but you have to admire all of these for how truly bad…
On The Physiology of Laughter by Herbert Spencer
by Herbert Spencer Why do we smile when a child puts on a man's hat? or what induces us to laugh on reading that the corpulent Gibbon was unable to…
Writer’s Birthdays
3/12 Jack Kerouac 3/13 L. Ron Hubbard 3/14 Pam Ayers 3/18 John Updike 3/22 James Patterson 3/26 Tennessee Williams 3/26 Robert Frost …
What is Genius by Joseph Addision
—Cui mens divinior, atque os Magna sonaturum des nominis hujus honorem. Hor., Sat. i. 4, 43. On him confer the poet’s sacred name, Whose lofty voice declares the heavenly flame.…
Of Fools by Daniel Defoe
Of all persons who are objects of our charity, none move my compassion like those whom it has pleased God to leave in a full state health and strength, but…
The Dignity of Dollars by Jack London
Man is a blind, helpless creature. He looks back with pride upon his goodly heritage of the ages, and yet obeys unwittingly every mandate of that heritage; for it is…
From Mark Twain’s Autobiography (1906)
I was always heedless. I was born heedless; and therefore I was constantly, and quite unconsciously, committing breaches of the minor proprieties, which brought upon me humiliations which ought to…
Percy Bysshe Shelly on Beatrice Cenci by Guido Reni
On my arrival at Rome I found that the story of the Cenci was a subject not to be mentioned in Italian society without awakening a deep and breathless interest:…
A Mountain Town in France (1879) by Robert Louis Stevenson
Le Monastier is the chief place of a hilly canton in Haute Loire, the ancient Velay. As the name betokens, the town is of monastic origin; and it still contains…
Review Stephen Crane’s War is Kind by Willa Cather
This truly remarkable book is printed on dirty gray blotting paper, on each page of which is a mere dot of print over a large I of vacancy. There are…
Opportunity By Ambrose Bierce
THIS is not a country of equal fortunes; outside a Socialist's dream no such country exists or can exist. But as nearly as possible this is a country of equal…
Of Friendly Societies by Daniel Defoe
Another branch of insurance is by contribution, or (to borrow the term from that before mentioned) friendly societies; which is, in short, a number of people entering into a mutual…
The Ideal House by Robert Louis Stevenson
Two things are necessary in any neighbourhood where we propose to spend a life: a desert and some living water.There are many parts of the earth’s face which offer the…
The Turning-Point of My Life by Mark Twain
I understand the idea, the BAZAR invites several of us to write upon the above text. It means the change in my life's course which introduced what must be regarded…
My Letter to Thomas Nast Sells! by Mark Twain
This is from this morning's paper: Mark Twain Letter Sold. Written to Thomas Nast, it Proposed a Joint Tour. A Mark Twain autograph letter brought $43 yesterday at the auction…
Home-made Music Walt Whitman
August 8th.—To-night, as I was trying to keep cool, sitting by a wounded soldier in Armory-square, I was attracted by some pleasant singing in an adjoining ward. As my…
Falling in Love by Grant Allen (1889)
An ancient and famous human institution is in pressing danger. Sir George Campbell has set his face against the time-honoured practice of Falling in Love. Parents innumerable, it is true,…
Of Truth by Francis Bacon
What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be, that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting…
On Smoking by Mark Twain
As concerns tobacco, there are many superstitions. And the chiefest is this—that there is a STANDARD governing the matter, whereas there is nothing of the kind. Each man's own preference…
Americanism by H. P. Lovecraft
Laureate It is easy to sentimentalise on the subject of "the American spirit"—what it is, may be, or should be. Exponents of various novel political and social theories are particularly…