The following, reprinted from the editorial page of the New York Sun, was written by the late Mr. Frank P. Church: We take pleasure in answering at once and thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:Dear Editor: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends … [Read more...] about Is There a Santa Claus 1897
Historic Articles by Authors
The Sources of Hallowe’en
The Sources of Hallowe'en from the Book of Hallowe'en 1919 If we could ask one of the old-world pagans whom he revered as his greatest gods, he would be sure to name among them the sun-god; calling him Apollo if he were a Greek; if an Egyptian, Horus or Osiris; if of Norway, Sol; if of Peru, Bochica. As the sun is the center of the physical universe, so all primitive peoples … [Read more...] about The Sources of Hallowe’en
Walt Whitman on Thanksgiving
THE PLACE GRATITUDE FILLS IN A FINE CHARACTER by Walt Whitman From the Philadelphia Press, Nov. 27, 1884, (Thanksgiving number)Scene.—A large family supper party, a night or two ago, with voices and laughter of the young, mellow faces of the old, and a by-and-by pause in the general joviality. "Now, Mr. Whitman," spoke up one of the girls, "what have you to say about … [Read more...] about Walt Whitman on Thanksgiving
Shakespeare Sucks! by Leo Tolstoy
Shakespeare Sucks! (or Shakespeare not a Great Genius)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 … [Read more...] about Shakespeare Sucks! by Leo Tolstoy
Walt Whitman on the Significance of Edgar Allan Poe
EDGAR Allan POE'S SIGNIFICANCE By Walt Whitman 1880Jan. 1, '80.—Walt Whitman on the Significance of Edgar Allan Poe: In diagnosing this disease called humanity—to assume for the nonce what seems a chief mood of the personality and writings of my subject—I have thought that poets, somewhere or other on the list, present the most mark'd indications. Comprehending … [Read more...] about Walt Whitman on the Significance of Edgar Allan Poe
Interview with Mark Twain
This interview is from Hartford Daily Courant from May 30th 1888. Twain would have been 53 years old. He had just finished a new book.SHERIDAN'S MEMOIRS. Mark Twain Has the Book in the Works - The General Completed the Story Two Weeks Ago. AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW.A reporter for THE COURANT found Mark Twain at his home in this city, and asked him about General … [Read more...] about Interview with Mark Twain
Historic: My Interview With Mark Twain…
My Interview With Mark Twain by Rudyard Kipling From time to time we post historic articles. This famous interview has been on our site for a long while, but I thought I would bring it back to the front page for your enjoyment. It's rather long, but worth the read.You are a contemptible lot, over yonder. Some of you are Commissioners, and some Lieutenant-Governors, and … [Read more...] about Historic: My Interview With Mark Twain…
Evidence of Witches
Evidence of Witches For Halloween: The accounts and evidence against witches (those killed for being witches) are far more terrifying than the prospects of them being true witches. The idea that they can be tried, found guilty and put to death with little or no evidence (just testimonies from neighbors) scares me a lot more than a witch showing up at my house at night.Here … [Read more...] about Evidence of Witches
Mark Twain Plagiarized Oliver Wendell Holmes
Mark Twain Plagiarized Oliver Wendell HolmesThe truth here is that Mark Twain Plagiarized Oliver Wendell Holmes. 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. If he did everything he says he wanted to do in those times, most … [Read more...] about Mark Twain Plagiarized Oliver Wendell Holmes
Charlotee Bronte to William Wordsworth “Thanks A Lot”
So from time to time we love finding things like this. It's a little piece of history, and it makes us chuckle to think that context is everything. We think writers should know history, and I think it makes us feel closer to long dead famous writers who might have experienced a little adversity too. This is a letter from Charlotee Bronte to William Wordsworth. She seems to be … [Read more...] about Charlotee Bronte to William Wordsworth “Thanks A Lot”
Of Ambition by Francis Bacon
Of Ambition by Francis Bacon AMBITION is like choler; which is an humor that maketh men active, earnest, full of alacrity, and stirring, if it be not stopped. But if it be stopped, and cannot have his way, it becometh adust, and thereby malign and venomous. So ambitious men, if they find the way open for their rising, and still get forward, they are rather busy than … [Read more...] about Of Ambition by Francis Bacon
OLD POETS by Walt Whitman
Poetry (I am clear) is eligible of something far more ripen'd and ample, our lands and pending days, than it has yet produced from any utterance old or new. Modern or new poetry, too, (viewing or challenging it with severe criticism,) is largely a-void—while the very cognizance, or even suspicion of that void, and the need of filling it, proves a certainty of the hidden and … [Read more...] about OLD POETS by Walt Whitman
How Shakspere Came to Write the ‘Tempest’ by Rudyard Kipling
To the Editor of the Spectator.SIR:—Your article on ‘Landscape and Literature’ in the Spectator of June 18th has the following, among other suggestive passages:—“But whence came the vision of the enchanted island in the ‘Tempest’? It had no existence in Shakspere’s world, but was woven out of such stuff as dreams are made of.”May I cite Malone’s suggestion connecting … [Read more...] about How Shakspere Came to Write the ‘Tempest’ by Rudyard Kipling
III. ON THE ART OF POETRY By Aristotle
A third difference in these arts is in the manner in which each kind of object is represented. Given both the same means and the same kind of object for imitation, one may either (1) speak at one moment in narrative and at another in an assumed character, as Homer does; or (2) one may remain the same throughout, without any such change; or (3) the imitators may represent the … [Read more...] about III. ON THE ART OF POETRY By Aristotle
INTELLECT By Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every substance is negatively electric to that which stands above it in the chemical tables, positively to that which stands below it. Water dissolves wood and iron and salt; air dissolves water; electric fire dissolves air, but the intellect dissolves fire, gravity, laws, method, and the subtlest unnamed relations of nature in its resistless menstruum. Intellect lies … [Read more...] about INTELLECT By Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Story of a Speech by Mark Twain
An address delivered in 1877, and a review of it twenty-nine years later. The original speech was delivered at a dinner given by the publishers of The Atlantic Monthly in honor of the seventieth anniversary o f the birth of John Greenleaf Whittier, at the Hotel Brunswick, Boston, December 17, 1877.This is an occasion peculiarly meet for the digging up of … [Read more...] about The Story of a Speech by Mark Twain
The Poetry of Ezra Pound by T. S. Eliot
EZRA POUND HIS METRIC AND POETRY I "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. Or he may be classed as filling a niche today like that of Keats in a preceding epoch. The point is, he will be … [Read more...] about The Poetry of Ezra Pound by T. S. Eliot
Let’s Just Eat the Babies by Jonathan Swift
A MODEST PROPOSAL Dr. Jonathan Swift For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick.1729It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads and cabbin-doors crowded with beggars of … [Read more...] about Let’s Just Eat the Babies by Jonathan Swift
William Shakespeare’s Influence by William Dean Howells
William Shakespeare's Influence by William Dean HowellsThe establishment of our paper in the village where there had been none before, and its enlargement from four to eight pages, were events so filling that they left little room for any other excitement but that of getting acquainted with the young people of the village, and going to parties, and sleigh rides, and … [Read more...] about William Shakespeare’s Influence by William Dean Howells
Mark Twain is a Slob by Willa Cather
Mark Twain is a Slob by Willa CatherIf 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 and Max O’Rell, in which the Frenchman proves himself a wit and a gentleman and the American shows himself little short of a clown and an … [Read more...] about Mark Twain is a Slob by Willa Cather