Books stack themselves up around me (I don’t have the faintest idea how this happens). Some books I start and give up on; some I start and continue, though intermittently; and some I start and interrupt all other reading until I am well on the way to finishing. Joyce Carol Oates’ Jack of Spades is the current • Read More »
Archives: George Eliot
Fighting poets, the public domain, the genius behind what you read as a kid, and the American cult of ignorance: newsletter, January 4, 2019
January 7, 2019 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, journalism, newsletter.
This newsletter was sent to all of the subscribers on Jim’s list (2,940) on Friday, January 4, 2019. For me, the new year has seen the completion of at least one project, the continuation of several others, and the beginning of a new one. Here I’ll just talk about what’s been completed. Several years • Read More »
Becoming George Eliot (part 2): the progress of Mary Anne Evans
January 5, 2019 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, journalism, Women writers and journalists, writers, writing.
When Mary Anne Evans published her first work under the pen name of George Eliot in 1856, there is no evidence that she ever planned to reveal her identity. She was successfully hiding behind the general rumor that George Eliot must be some country parson because the next of her writings, Scenes from a Clerical Life, • Read More »
Becoming George Eliot (part 1): The progress of Mary Anne Evans
January 5, 2019 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, Women writers and journalists, writers, writing.Mary Anne Evans was one of the sharpest and most wide-ranging minds of the 1800s in London’s ground-breaking intellectual ferment of the mid-century. She mixed with the most radical and forwarding thinkers of the day and was the driving force behind the resurgence of the Westminster Review between late 1851 and 1853. Her title was assistant • Read More »
More literary deceptions, Artemus Ward, and JFK on open government: newsletter, Dec. 28, 2018
December 31, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, fiction, newsletter, writers, writing.
This newsletter was sent to all of the subscribers on Jim’s list (2,951) on Friday, Dec. 28, 2018. This is the last newsletter of the year and time, once again, to thank all of you newsletter readers for reading and responding. You have given me so many good tips about articles and books. • Read More »
Fanny Burney: paving the way for Jane Austen and the Brontes
October 31, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, history, Women writers and journalists, writers.
Before there was Jane Austen, before there was George Eliot, before there were Charlotte and Emily Bronte — before even women were supposed to be able to write in this new developing form called a novel — there was Fanny Burney (1752-1840). Burney, daughter of Dr. Charles Burney, a well-known scholar and music teacher of the second half • Read More »