Advice on Writing a Novel by Joseph Conrad
Advice on Writing a Novel by Joseph Conrad “I have not read this author’s books, and if I have read them I have forgotten what they were about.” These words are reported as having been uttered in our midst not a hundred years ago, publicly, from the seat of justice, by a civic magistrate. The…
Poem: Weep Willow Reeds by Konstantin Nicholas Rega
Born in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, Konstantin studies British & American Literature and Creative Writing at The University of Kent in Canterbury, England. He has been published by The Claremont Review, Four Ties Lit Review, AOM, and has won the ZO Magazine Silver Prize for Poetry
Fenimore Cooper Sucks at Writing by Mark Twain
Fenimore Cooper Sucks at Writing by Mark Twain It seems to me that it was far from right for the Professor of English Literature in Yale, the Professor of English Literature in Columbia, and Wilkie Collins to deliver opinions on Cooper’s literature without having read some of it. It would have been much more…
POETRY TO-DAY IN AMERICA by Walt Whitman
POETRY TO-DAY IN AMERICA SHAKSPERE—THE FUTURE by Walt Whitman Strange as it may seem, the topmost proof of a race is its own born poetry. The presence of that, or the absence, each tells its story. As the flowering rose or lily, as the ripened fruit to a tree, the apple or the peach, no…
My First Typewriter Sucked by Mark Twain
THE FIRST WRITING-MACHINES (From My Unpublished Autobiography) by Mark Twain Some days ago a correspondent sent in an old typewritten sheet, faded by age, containing the following letter over the signature of Mark Twain: “Hartford, March 10, 1875. “Please do not use my name in any way. Please do not even divulge that fact…
On the Decay of the Art of Lying by Mark Twain
On the Decay of the Art of Lying 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 take the prize] Observe, I do not mean to suggest that the custom of lying has suffered…
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, a necessity soon arises of breaking the pleasing bondage; or it relaxes of itself;—the thoughts being occupied in domestic cares, or the time engrossed by…
Five Ways to Strengthen the Role of the Villian
One of the most important parts of writing a good action/adventure book usually involves a strong villain. Now when I say a villain, you don’t have to imagine Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty or Dr. Drakken from Kim Possible. The best part about making a villain is that you don’t have to follow the fairytale archetype,…
THE POETIC PRINCIPLE by Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49) was born in Boston, the child of actors who died while he was very young. He was adopted by a Virginian gentleman, Mr. John Allan,
Steampunk Art by Mike Savad
Mike Savad is a photographic artist. The images are designed to look like fine oil paintings, primarily in vintage and nostalgic themes.
I Am Not An Animal Expert! by Jack London
I Am Not An Animal Expert! by Jack London This is one of our historical articles from writers that we just had to publish. Jack London, one of our most beloved American writer’s seems to have shared the modern day views of the media. Apparently news people of his day mixed London up with either…
Mark Twain’s Meeting with Robert Louis Stevenson by Mark Twain
But it was on a bench in Washington Square that I saw the most of Louis Stevenson. It was an outing that lasted an hour or more, and was very pleasant and sociable
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
OF HAWTHORNE AND THE SHORT STORY by Edgar Allen Poe
The reputation of the author of “Twice-Told Tales” has been confined, until very lately, to literary society; and I have not been wrong, perhaps, in citing him as the example, par excellence, in this country,