By Nava Atlas | On May 30, 2017 | Updated October 4, 2022 | Comments (0)
“Overnight sensations”—authors whose first books are smash successes—are a rarity, if they exist at all; for even a stellar first effort is most often preceded by years of false starts, sweat, and toil that become invisible once the book is perched on the bestseller list.
What’s more common resembles Louisa May Alcott’s experience—years or decades of steady effort until success seems to “suddenly” arrive.
That’s how it happened for Alcott with Little Women. As we’ve come to find out, she cranked out thrillers, gothic novels, plays, sketches, and more than eighty articles before penning her autobiographical (if highly idealized) novel. Read More→
By Emma Ward | On May 26, 2017 | Updated October 17, 2022 | Comments (0)
Zora Neale Hurston was a popular figure throughout the era of the Harlem Renaissance as a writer and anthropologist. She made waves as the first Black student at Barnard college and one of the first people to conduct studies with a true folk-lore perspective.
Even as she had many professional connections and had a confident and humorous personality, Hurston struggled with economic stability throughout her life.
“Financial dependency is the thread that sewed a cloud over Hurston’s life, from the time she left home as a maid at 14 to the day of her death” — from Alice Walker’s introduction to I Love Myself When I am Laughing
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By Nava Atlas | On May 20, 2017 | Updated November 16, 2025 | Comments (2)
The Brontë sisters — Charlotte, Emily, and Anne — went through an arduous process in seeking publication for their first works — The Professor, Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Grey, respectively (The Professor was Charlotte’s first full novel, written before Jane Eyre, but published only after her death). Here’s the story of the Brontë sisters’ path to publication, steered by Charlotte’s unwavering persistence.
Before attempting to publish novels, Charlotte, who seemed to be the front person for the trio of sisters, undertook the task of finding a home for a collaborative book of poems. They took masculine, or at least indeterminate, noms de plume. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On May 19, 2017 | Updated January 12, 2026 | Comments (0)
A Quiet Passion, the film biopic of beloved poet Emily Dickinson’s life was released in April of 2017 to nearly unanimous glowing reviews.
Directed by Terence Davies and starring Cynthia Nixon in the title role, here are snippets from the top reviewers — interestingly, more of the critics who fell in love with this film are men.
Viewers, especially true Emily Dickinson aficionados, have been much more divided, as you can see in the Amazon reviews. Some object to how she and her family are portrayed in the film, feeling that it took too many liberties. If you’re a literature lover, don’t miss this film — and decide where you stand. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On May 18, 2017 | Updated January 1, 2025 | Comments (0)
Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë might be linked by their early 19th-century British backgrounds and legions of devotees. They had some similarities in their backgrounds and paths to publication, yet many differences. This isn’t a Jane Austen vs Charlotte Brontë competition; they were both brilliant writers!
Perhaps they’re often compared because they were among the group of British women writers who made an immense contribution to literature in the first part of the 1800s. Read More→
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