Literature
Shakespeare's Children: Tracing The Bard's Family Tree
March 5, 2022
William Shakespeare (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images) Considering the volume and significance of William Shakespeare's work, it's easy to...
Phillis Wheatley, America's First Published Black Poet
December 31, 2021
Phillis Wheatley, African-American author and poet. Engraved by Scipio Moorhead, 1773. (VCG Wilson/Corbis via Getty Images) Phillis Wheatley lived a remarkable li...
Maya Angelou: Life, Biography, And Stories About The Literary Titan
November 25, 2021
Maya Angelou circa 1970. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) Born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4, 1928, Maya Angelou was...
History Of The Vampire
October 4, 2021
Publicity still of Bela Lugosi for the 1931 Universal Studios film Dracula. (Bettmann/Getty Images) From the Asanbosum of southern Ghana to the Puechen of Chile to the jiangshi of Qing-dynasty C...
"Stealing My Thunder": The Dramatic Origins Of This Common Phrase
August 9, 2021
Drury Lane Theatre, London, built 1794. Detail based on watercolor reproduction by Edward Dayes showing the audience and stage, 1795. (Culture Club/Getty...
George Orwell: His Life And Cultural Influence
June 21, 2021
A poster with the famous words 'Big Brother is Watching You' from a 1965 B.B.C. T.V. production of George Orwell's classic novel 1984. (Larry Ellis/Express/Getty Images) ...
John Keats: Poet, Father Of Romanticism Who Peaked When He Was Young
March 31, 2021
Posthumous portrait of John Keats by William Hilton. (National Portrait Gallery/Wikimedia Commons) During his life, John Keats was far from the most...
Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch: The Father Of Masochism, Explained
June 28, 2020
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and Fanny Pistor Bogdanoff, c. 1870-1880 (note the whip). (Unknown author/Wikimedia Commons) Human sexuality is a vastly complica...
Chinua Achebe: 'Things Fall Apart' Author Wrote The First Major English Novel From An African P...
June 17, 2020
Prior to the 20th century, almost every English novel about Africa was written from the perspective of a white person...
Emily Dickinson: Things You Didn't Know About The Famous Writer, Horticulturist
May 28, 2020
Whether you're a fan of poetry or prefer HBO, you know Emily Dickinson, the poet from Amherst, Massachusetts who spent the 1800s writing...
The Invention Of Kryptonite: The Real Reason The Man Of Steel Needed A Weakness
May 22, 2020
There are a few things that everyone knows about Superman: He's faster than a speeding bullet, he can leap tall buildings in a single bo...
William Randolph Hearst: Father Of Yellow Journalism/Fake News Billionaire
April 29, 2020
There's never been an American character quite like William Randolph Hearst, the business tycoon, newspaper publisher, and politician who cre...
Shakespeare Hoarded Grains And Resold It For Profit During Famine
April 23, 2020
It's hard to think of William Shakespeare as anything but the author of some of the most stirring and populist plays of the 16th and 17th centuries, b...
The Origins Of Mermaids: Greek Mythology, Ghosts, And Christopher Columbus
January 9, 2020
Actress Glynis Johns as the title-role in the film Miranda, 1948. (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images) Mermaids...
Where Does The Phrase "Pie In The Sky" Come From? A Song By The Wobblies
January 2, 2020
Even if you haven't ever referred to an idea as being a "pie in the sky," you've definitely heard the phrase. On its face, it's unclear why an airbo...
Auld Lang Syne: Song Meaning, History, And Why We Sing It On New Year's Eve
December 27, 2019
An onlooker holds a glass of champagne at a New Year's Eve celebration on Sydney Harbour in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Ryan Pierse\City of Sy...
Santa Claus And Father Christmas Used To Be Two Completely Different Characters
December 25, 2019
Today, we tend to think of Santa Claus and Father Christmas as one and the same, along with Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, and every other na...