By Nava Atlas | On August 25, 2018 | Updated December 28, 2023 | Comments (0)
In the American colonies and early days of the Republic, for a woman to dare enter public discourse was a radical act of rebellion. Following is an introduction to six of the most prominent early American women writers, all of whom deserve to be rediscovered and read.
To write and be published at a time when women had few legal or economic rights was just short of miraculous. To avoid censure, some occasionally wrote under pseudonyms, while others used their own names, consequences be damned!
In 1650, The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung Up in America, a collection of poems by Anne Bradstreet, was the first publication in the colonies. From then on, women who wrote were criticized for being unwomanly and going against God’s teachings. Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On August 12, 2018 | Updated May 28, 2022 | Comments (1)
What is it about horse stories that kids, and dare we say especially girls, love so much? There’s something grounding and down to earth about the bond between the beautiful animals and humans devoted to their welfare when illuminated in fiction. Here, we’ll take a quick look at four of the most enduring classic horse stories by women authors.
The novels Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, National Velvet by Enid Bagnold, My Friend Flicka by Mary O’Hara, and Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry seem to have all stood the test of time.
Though they’re now classified as children’s books, they were intended by their authors to be enjoyed by “children of all ages.” Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why they were all adapted to film, reaching wide and appreciative audiences. Read More→
By Hannah Brown | On July 26, 2018 | Updated November 22, 2025 | Comments (9)
The two intellectuals known as the mother of modern feminism and father of existentialism shared a half-century partnership that defied the conventions of their time and ours.
From 1929, when Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre met in the same elite graduate program in philosophy, to when they were buried side by side in the Cimetiere du Montparnasse, they shared each other’s work and lives without ever sharing a home.
De Beauvoir and Sartre were classmates and competitors at the Sorbonne in 1929, studying for the aggregate in philosophy, a prestigious graduate degree. Although Sartre’s marks surpassed de Beauvoir’s, she was, at 21, the youngest person ever to pass the exam. Read More→
By Aiyana Edmund | On July 2, 2018 | Updated September 4, 2026 | Comments (2)
Sylvia Plath (1932 – 1963) was a gifted poet who seemed to have it all: ambition, brains, and beauty. Following are some fascinating facts about Sylvia Plath, a brief portrait of this beloved poet’s life, work, and struggles.
Plath’s lifelong struggles with depression, which led to her taking her own life at the age of thirty, are well known.
Because most of her work was published after her untimely death, she wasn’t able to enjoy the fruits of her labors. Yet her place in the American literary canon is well deserved. Read More→
By Carol J. Adams | On June 8, 2018 | Updated April 15, 2022 | Comments (0)
I first read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in the spring of 2005, while my mother-in-law recuperated in rehab from a broken leg. A year earlier she moved in with my husband Bruce and me.
It had been a difficult year, and she was soon to return. I wanted to make things easier for all of us, and was earnestly making lists of how to do that. “This time it will be different,” I told myself. And I turned back to Pride and Prejudice.
Flo Gibson narrates the Pride and Prejudice audio book. Flo (I think of her as Flo) pronounces the famous opening sentence: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” And off we went again. She never tired of reading to me and I never tired of listening. Read More→
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