Archives: Pliny the Younger

Leonardo’s journals; eyewitness to the biggest event of the first century; football art and the First Amendment; newsletter Feb. 9, 2018

February 12, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalism, newsletter, writing.

Cades Cove Sunday morning - 1

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (3,317) on Friday, Feb. 9, 2018. Hi,  This has been The Week of Interesting Things for me. Most of my weeks could take that moniker, but this one seemed especially full. I try to put a lot of interesting things I find into the newsletter, but I • Read More »

Eyewitness to Vesuvius: Pliny the Younger and reporting the event of the century

February 6, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalism, reporting, writing.

Pliny the Younger

The mountain exploded in August 79 AD. The ensuing lava flow engulfed two entire cities (Herculaneum and Pompeii) and smothered a third, Stabiae, with poisonous gas. The darkness that the clouds of dust and smoke created was, in the ones of an eyewitness, “. . . not the dark of a moonless or cloudy night, but as if the lamp had been put out in a closed room.”

Another painting giveaway; Amazon gift cards; Pliny the Younger, Rome’s great eyewitness reporter; newsletter, Feb. 2, 2018

February 5, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: books, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, newsletter, watercolor, writers, writing.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (4,222) on Friday, February 2, 2018. Hi, I watched a super moon, a blood moon, and a lunar eclipse this week. Not as spectacular as the solar eclipse we saw last summer but still pretty phenomenal. Nature has its moments — many of them, in fact, if we would • Read More »

Pliny the Younger: a top-notch Roman journalist, Part 1: An insight into the early Christian community

January 31, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | 1 Comment | Filed in: journalism, writers, writing.

Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Younger is never listed as a journalist, but he should be. This extraordinary Roman (he lived from 61 to about 113 A.D.) was a lawyer, politician, author, poet, and government official whose stated goal was to be famous and to be remembered. He was, indeed, all of those things. We would remember Pliny • Read More »