Born from irritation and intrusion, luminous and complex, surprisingly durable: pearls are rich with symbolism and saturated with pain.
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Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, History, Nonfiction, Story
After World War I, Horror Movies Were Invaded By an Army of Reanimated Corpses
Were early horror films, with their long, angry processions of the undead, repeating the mass trauma of the First World War, or foreshadowing the coming of the Second?
Posted inArts & Culture, History, Science & Nature, Story
The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Perfume
Sometimes it takes a touch of darkness to create something alluring.
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story, Unapologetic Women
Ghost Writer: The Story of Patience Worth, the Posthumous Author
The most remarkable thing about Patience Worth wasn’t that she was dead. It was that all she wanted to do was write books.
Posted inArts & Culture, Essays & Criticism, Story
For Me, With Love and Squalor
After publishing her first book, Lauren Markham begins the long search for what she truly wanted after writing it.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books, Nonfiction, Story
Hellhound on the Money Trail
Standard recording contracts screwed Bluesmen out of royalties in the early 1900s, and the system was no different when Columbia released “Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings in 1990.”
Posted inNonfiction, Sports, Story
Losers’ Lunch
Dining out with courtsiders, a rogue, impish species in the tennis ecosystem.
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Story
Bending the Straight Line of Queer History
Recent novels by Alan Hollinghurst, John Boyne, and Tim Murphy experiment with the idea of progress over time.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story
Hiking With Nietzsche
An infirmed Friedrich Nietzsche hiked the Swiss Alps to work on his writing. Philosopher John Kaag followed Nietzsche’s trail, taking the great thinker’s ideas out of his books and into the world.
Posted inBooks, History, Nonfiction, Story, Unapologetic Women
The Ladies Who Were Famous for Wanting to Be Left Alone
The Ladies of Llangollen fell in love, ran away together, and lived a scholarly life of “delicious seclusion” — secluded, that is, except for all the visitors.
