“Now I Become Myself” is a beloved poem by May Sarton (1912 – 1995) that captures the spirit of a well-examined life.
How often do we, especially women, show up to life as someone other than our true self? We’re taught to be people-pleasers, so we wear the face and show the demeanor we think others will expect, instead of being who we truly are.
May Sarton was an American poet, novelist, and memoirist who spent a lifetime learning who she was. Read More→
Untold Millions by Laura Z. Hobson was this distinguished (and fairly forgotten) author’s twelfth book. Published in 1982, it was the last novel by Hobson, remembered foremost for Gentleman’s Agreement. It came out nearly four decades earlier, and made a splash both in book form in as an award-winning film the following year (1947).
Untold Millions was described by its publisher as “a warm, touching and beautiful love story, is unlike any other novel she has written, and proves once again that Laura Z. Hobson is a master storyteller, a novelist of fine perceptions and great flair.” Read More→
From the 1964 Random House edition of First Papers: This hugely satisfying and moving novel, First Papers by Laura Z. Hobson, author of Gentleman’s Agreement, takes place during the six years that take us into the First World War.
The story centers around the triumphs and tragedies of an unforgettable family living on long Island during those critical years, but its powerful themes of freedom of speech and the ambiguities of patriotism speak more strongly to us today than ever. Read More→
The Tenth Month by Laura Z. Hobson is a 1970 novel telling the story of a single woman who, believing herself to be unable to conceive, becomes pregnant. The story mirrors some elements of the author’s own life as single mother by choice.
In 1937 Laura adopted a son, who she named Michael Z. Hobson. This was quite unusual for an unmarried woman at that time. In 1941 she gave birth to another son, who she named Christopher Z. Hobson.
Not wanting Michael to feel stigmatized as the adopted child of the family, she kept her pregnancy secret, giving birth under an assumed name so she could then adopt Christopher using her own name. Read More→
From the original review of The Golden Notebook in the Tucson Daily Citizen by John Barkham, June 1962: Doris Lessing has long impressed as an underrated novelist. Her stories of southern Africa, The Grass is Singing, and of lower-class English life in Five, combine form with expression in a manner perfectly suited to the respective environments.
The Golden Notebook is far and away her most ambitious work to date — a long and complex novel which draws on all the talents and insights of this gifted woman.
It is no ordinary work of fiction, either in manner or matter. The publisher compares its heroine, Anna, with the “new woman” of Ibsen and Shaw. This is going further than I would, but unquestionably The Golden Notebook is going to be debated and analyzed by students of the novel for a long time to come. Read More→
Dear Literary Ladies,
It’s important for someone who wants to be a good writer to be a good reader, right? Do you have any thoughts on becoming a more effective reader?
There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag — and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement. Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty-and vise versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you. Read More→
Poets House is a must-visit destination for poetry lovers visiting (or living in) New York City. While not at all hard to find, this literary haven far enough off the beaten to make it unlikely that you’d stumble upon it. When you arrive, you’ll be delighted not only by this treasure of a space, but also by its location.
The organization describes itself as “a place for poetry — Poets House is a national poetry library and literary center that invites poets and the public to step into the living tradition of poetry.”
Their mission is to be “a comfortable, accessible place for poetry — a library and meeting place which invites poets and the public to step into the living tradition of poetry. Poets House seeks to document the wealth and diversity of modern poetry, to stimulate dialogue on issues of poetry in culture, and to cultivate a wider audience for poetry.” Read More→
Dame Rebecca West (1892 – 1983) was one of the most respected and prolific intellectual minds of the twentieth century. At her death in 1983, William Shawn, then the editor of The New Yorker said of her:
“Rebecca West was one of the giants and will have a lasting place in English literature. No one in this century wrote more dazzling prose, or had more wit, or looked at the intricacies of human character and the ways of the world more intelligently.”
A prolific author of essays, novels, and weighty books of nonfiction, she was a force to be reckoned with and shouldn’t be forgotten. Here are some thought-provoking quotes by Rebecca West: Read More→
