It’s a good day to just sit around Menckin’
You may just have woken up hungry for bananas, because today marks the 137th anniversary of H.L. Mencken’s birth. A legendary journalist, critic, linguist, world-class cigar-chomper, bathtub counter-historian, real-life Gene Kelly character,… Read more »
Yours, Willa Cather
Because it’s always a good day to think about frontier novelist, American original, and Melville House author Willa Cather, may we recommend that you get yourself a mug of something, grab… Read more »
The grand tradition of American irrationality is alive and well in Texas
Alternative facts are all the rage these days—ditto fake news—and a lot of people seem to think we are entering a strange, new, post-truth era. Polarization in our politics, unbounded… Read more »
The Nation celebrates 150th anniversary
How does one of the nation’s leading magazines celebrate 150 years of publication? With appropriate pomp and circumstance. The Nation, the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States,… Read more »
Ten Nights On Long Island: The Great Gatsby’s early reviews
In its first year, The Great Gatsby sold a disappointing 21,000 copies, less than half of the first year sales for This Side of Paradise or The Beautiful and Dammed.… Read more »