Empowering Writers Since 1999
The Origin of the Werewolf Superstition by Caroline Taylor Stewart 1923 The belief that a human being is capable of assuming an animal’s form, most frequently that of a wolf, is an almost worldwide superstition. Such a transformed person is the Germanic werewolf, or man-wolf; that is, a wolf which is really a human…
Ambrose Bierce’s scathing 1911 essay demolishes literary criticism’s pretensions while offering insights relevant to today’s algorithm-driven
It’s been a few months since we featured a classic critical essay in our literary archive, and today, we revisit this popular series
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.
In the narrative of English witchcraft the story of the exorcists is a side-issue. Yet their performances were so closely connected
Christmas Eve (1895) by O. Henry Some Sights and Sounds Caught on Houston Streets and Elsewhere Houston is a typical Southern town
Mark Twain on First Getting Published (1906) My experiences as an author began early in 1867. I came to New York from San Francisco in the first month of that year and presently Charles H. Webb, whom I had known in San Francisco as a reporter on The Bulletin, and afterward editor of The Californian,…
This is a real account taking from eye witness testimony collected for the book Vampires and Vampirism published in 1919.
The following is taken from the book Short Story Writing: A Practical Treatise on the Art of the Story Story by Charles Raymond Barrett, Ph. B. (1898) Some of the advice still works, but it is a look at how different writing was in the late 1800s. Some say that the Short Story is the…
THE STORY-TELLER AND HIS ART by Sir Richard Steele I have often thought that a story-teller is born, as well as a poet. It is, I think, certain, that some men have such a peculiar cast of mind, that they see things in another light than men of grave dispositions. Men of a lively imagination…
Experience Stevenson’s brilliant analysis of Walt Whitman’s revolutionary style in this classic essay. Discover the literary conversation
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 free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits,…
I visit Central Park now almost every day, sitting, or slowly rambling, or riding around. The whole place presents its very best appearance this current month
How to Become a Werewolf AS I have already stated, in some people lycanthropy is hereditary; and when it is not hereditary it may be acquired through the performance of certain of the rites ordained by Black Magic. For the present I can only deal with the more general features of these rites (which vary…
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…