Q: Who was Owen Hatteras? A: Owen Hatteras was the pseudonym adopted by H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan when, as editors of The Smart Set magazine in the […]
Fixing Holes in Literary History
We all know what happens to the losers in the canon wars: their works are relegated to the lowly position of “minor” literature. William Gilmore Simms, anyone? A nineteenth-century South Carolingian […]
Crows, Strays, Jays and Trees: Poet Stanley Plumly
Stanley Plumly will give the Turnbull Poetry Lecture this evening at 6:30 pm in Mudd Hall. The current Poet Laureate of Maryland, Plumly is on the faculty of the University […]
The Raven’s Shadow
January 19th marks the 202nd birthday of one of our most beloved national—and local—literary figures, Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is as widely known today for his bad reputation (“alcoholic madman […]
The Crisis!
Where would the African-American community be today without the mass-market magazines that developed in the late nineteenth century? Through articles, stories, letters, opinion pieces, pictures and advertisements, inexpensive magazines gave African-American […]
Reading the Peabody: Student Discoveries in Baltimore’s First Public Library
You may have noticed that the exhibit cases on M-level are filled with a new set of books. They come from the George Peabody Library in Mount Vernon, one of […]
African Writers
When the discipline of English was formed in the 19th century, to promote a sense of national belonging, literary studies were organized along national lines. Literature in English meant, first and […]
Thank You W. S. Merwin
For many years of wonderful poetry! The U.S. national poet laureate for 2010-2011—technically, the “Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry”—was appointed in July by the Librarian of Congress. It is William Stanley Merwin, who […]
Reading Writers/Writers Reading in Baltimore
When you think of a city with a rich literary history, you probably think New York or Chicago, or maybe London or Paris. Oh, and Baltimore. Baltimore? Yes! It turns out that Baltimore […]
“This is the last day of our acquaintance.”
No, it’s not really the last day of our acquaintance… but it is the last day of National Poetry Month. And there’s one final topic to take up: poetry in […]