“Is the reason to have a home, as the narrator in Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation, asserts, ‘to keep certain people in and everyone else out’? Or does home, as the narrator in William Maxwell’s autobiographical novel So Long, See You Tomorrow suggests, work primarily as a scaffolding of known things — as a place to read, a place to stash the damp umbrella, a place to listen to the porch swing creak?” Beth Kephart on the literary significance of home.
Home Is Where the Story Begins
Still Neglected
In 1970 The American Scholar published a list of works that "distinguished men and women" deemed neglected. Now, inspired by a LitHub essay on "10 Great Writers Nobody Reads," the Scholar's editors are revisiting those neglected books to see if anything's changed. Pair their efforts with Claire Cameron's look at the unlikely rise of the once-neglected Stoner.
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The Hunt for Foul Balls
The town that named its football team after a famous American poem has outdone itself in terms of literature-sports crossovers: for their home opener tomorrow, the Baltimore Orioles will be wearing a special patch commemorating author Tom Clancy.
Mary Ruefle in Conversation
New Yorkers: don’t miss your chance to catch Madness, Rack, and Honey author Mary Ruefle in conversation with Alice Quinn. Also, be sure to read Ruefle’s essay, “I Remember, I Remember” if you haven’t yet done so.
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A Taste of Saudade
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Leviathan and the Blogosphere
At Big Questions Online, Alan Jacobs discusses the incivility that online discussions are prone to and suggests that this e-savagery is a symptom of our age's infatuation with justice rather than humility and charity.