ON THE ART OF POETRY By Aristotle II. The objects the imitator represents are actions, with agents who are necessarily either good men or bad—the diversities of human character being nearly always derivative from this primary distinction, since the line between virtue and vice is one dividing the whole of mankind. It follows, therefore, that […]
Classic Articles on Writing
Origin of Printing by Frederick Saunders (1839)
Origin and Progress of Printing by Frederick Saunders (1839) (I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the ideals of an early publisher, a pioneer in modern printing of his day. Much like many of us are pioneers of modern web and digital printing. The text was written in 1839. I’m sure […]
The Story of a Speech by Mark Twain
An address delivered in 1877, and a review of it twenty-nine years later. The original speech was delivered at a dinner given by the publishers of The Atlantic Monthly in honor of the seventieth anniversary o f the birth of John Greenleaf Whittier, at the Hotel Brunswick, Boston, December 17, 1877. This is an […]
ARISTOTLE ON THE ART OF POETRY
Check back each day, over time we will publish the complete work of Aristotle on the Art of Poetry.
Byron’s Life Explained by Lord MaCaulay
The pretty fable by which the Duchess of Orleans illustrates the character of her son, the regent, might, with little change, be applied to Byron. All the fairies, save one, had been bidden to his cradle. All the gossips had been profuse of their gifts. One had bestowed nobility, another genius, a third beauty. The […]
Politics of American Authors by William Dean Howells
No thornier theme could well be suggested than I was once invited to consider by an Englishman who wished to know how far American politicians were scholars, and how far American authors took part in politics. In my mind I first revolted from the inquiry, and then I cast about, in the fascination it […]
Bio of Benjamin Franklin by Nathaniel Hawthorne
In the year 1716, or about that period, a boy used to be seen in the streets of Boston, who was known among his schoolfellows and playmates by the name of Ben Franklin. Ben was born in 1706; so that he was now about ten years old. His father, who had come over from England, […]
Confessions of a Humorist by O. Henry
There was a painless stage of incubation that lasted twenty-five years, and then it broke out on me, and people said I was It. But they called it humor instead of measles. The employees in the store bought a silver inkstand for the senior partner on his fiftieth birthday. We crowded into his private office […]
Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts by Thomas de Quincey
MURDER,CONSIDERED AS ONE OF THE FINE ARTS. by Thomas de Quincey DOCTOR NORTH: You are a liberal man: liberal in the true classical sense, not in the slang sense of modern politicians and education-mongers. Being so, I am sure that you will sympathize with my case. I am an ill-used man, Dr. North—particularly ill used; […]
Life and Writing by Arthur Christopher Benson
Life and Writing by Arthur Christopher Benson There is a tendency, not by any means among the greater writers, but among what may be called the epigoni,—the satellites of literature, the men who would be great if they knew how,—to speak of the business of writing as if it were a sacred mystery, pontifically celebrated, […]
The What and the How In Art by William Dean Howells
THE WHAT AND THE HOW IN ART by William Dean Howells One of the things always enforcing itself upon the consciousness of the artist in any sort is the fact that those whom artists work for rarely care for their work artistically. They care for it morally, personally, partially. I suspect that criticism itself has […]
Let’s Just Eat the Babies by Jonathan Swift
A MODEST PROPOSAL Dr. Jonathan Swift For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick. 1729 It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the […]
Review of Kipling’s Stories by Andrew Lang
MR. KIPLING’S STORIES The wind bloweth where it listeth. But the wind of literary inspiration has rarely shaken the bungalows of India, as, in the tales of the old Jesuit missionaries, the magical air shook the frail “medicine tents,” where Huron conjurors practised their mysteries. With a world of romance and of character at their […]
Life by Percy Bysshe Shelley
LIFE by Percy Bysshe Shelley Life and the world, or whatever we call that which we are and feel, is an astonishing thing. The mist of familiarity obscures from us the wonder of our being. We are struck with admiration at some of its transient modifications, but it is itself the great miracle. What are […]
A JULY AFTER-NOON BY THE POND by Walt Whitman
A JULY AFTER-NOON BY THE POND The fervent heat, but so much more endurable in this pure air—the white and pink pond-blossoms, with great heart-shaped leaves; the glassy waters of the creek, the banks, with dense bushery, and the picturesque beeches and shade and turf; the tremulous, reedy call of some bird from recesses, breaking […]