Literature and Poetry

Joan L. Cannon writes: For readers who like adventure and macho behavior, subdued heroism with a dollop of basic cynicism, this will be a memorable experience. Descriptions are nothing short of brilliant, so vivid and evocative are they. For others who prefer some entertainment with a slice of terrible life, The North Water will be a trial in spite of its artistry. more »

The US Congress established the James Madison Memorial Foundation to teach the constitution in high schools across the country. In exchange for graduate school funding, students agree to teach history and civics a year after graduation. Discovery Education examines Upton Sinclair's muckraking novel, The Jungle. A Civil War course taught by Prof of American History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center Yale University, traces the Civil War from its antecedents to its effects in the late 1870s. The Buddhism course uses scriptural and informational readings to take readers into the complex matrix of art, devotional acts, and literary works that make up the ancient religion. more »

Joan L. Cannon writes: A writer doesn't write, darn it, for him or herself; that labor goes to satisfy a reader, or more accurately, multiple readers. Maybe we don't expect to make a living at it, much less get rich doing it, but we bother in the hope that there will be a few minds elsewhere that might crack open far enough to let us in, and if they do, that they may enjoy themselves or learn something from what that poor benighted scribe tapped out on a keyboard. The ultimate dream reward is to elicit a response. more »

How do we know Shakespeare's plays? For many of them, the answer is one book: the 1623 First Folio. Without it, 18 plays, including Macbeth and The Tempest, could have been lost. In 2016, First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare brings the First Folio to 50 states, Washington, and Puerto Rico. Just like with his birthday, Shakespeare's exact date of death is a mystery. It is commonly said that he died on April 23, 1616, but no record of his death exists, only a record of his funeral on April 25, 1616. more »