By Hannah Wright | On January 29, 2024 | Updated March 17, 2026 | Comments (0)
Presented here are fascinating facts about Harper Lee (1926 – 2015), the American author best known for the 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Considered one of the Great American Novels, To Kill a Mockingbird is the story of a small southern town embroiled in a racially charged trial, told from the perspective of a precocious young girl, Scout Finch.
This now-classic novel drew inspiration from Lee’s upbringing in Monroeville, Alabama and has sold tens of millions of copies worldwide. It’s still frequently taught in American classrooms, though it has never been without some controversy.
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” That’s one of the moral lessons that the almost too-saintly Atticus Finch conveys to his young daughter.
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By Alex Jansen | On December 10, 2023 | Updated June 19, 2026 | Comments (0)
South African author Dalene Matthee (1938 – 2005) was best known for her four “Forest novels” presenting stories of the Cape Knysna Forest and its inhabitants. In 2023, I had the good fortune of interviewing Hilary Matthee, one of Dalene Matthee’s three daughters, for an issue of the Afrikaans magazine Taalgenoot.
Matthee’s writings have been translated into multiple languages, including French, German, Icelandic, and English. Matthee would usually translate the first versions of her work into English, believing that it was important to make sure the emotion came across in a “reserved” language.
In 1970, Matthee published her debut children’s novel The Twelve o’ Clock Stick. She published a collection of short stories next, The Judas Goat, in 1982. Several of her works have been adapted to film, including Circles in a Forest (1989), Fiela’s Child (1988 and 2019), and Dreamforest. Read More→
By Alex J. Coyne | On November 3, 2023 | Updated June 22, 2026 | Comments (0)
Nadine Gordimer (1923 – 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist and Nobel Prize-winning author. Following is an overview of the banning of Nadine Gordimer’s novels and other writings, and her legacy as one of the most prominent and outspoken authors of the anti-apartheid movement.
Gordimer was born in Springs, South Africa to Jewish immigrant parents. Her early experiences informed the rest of her life, including witnessing a raid on her family home where a servant’s letters and diaries were confiscated.
Her first novel, The Lying Days, was published in 1953 when apartheid-era censorship by the South African government was at its height. Read More→
By Diane Denton | On September 16, 2023 | Updated September 21, 2023 | Comments (0)
Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830 – 1894) is among the most important female poets of the 19th century. Presented here are fascinating facts about Christina Rossetti, the Victorian English poet whose work continues to resonate and inspire.
Her popular works, including “Goblin Market,” “Remember,” “In an Artist’s Studio,” “Who Has Seen the Wind,” and “In the Bleak Midwinter,” are a small part of her prolific output.
The American author Elbert Hubbard wrote in Christina Rossetti , “Christina had the faculty of seizing beautiful moments, exalted feelings, sublime emotions … In all her lines there is a half-sobbing tone.” Read More→
By Elodie Barnes | On July 22, 2023 | Updated April 9, 2025 | Comments (9)
Sisters Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell collaborated artistically, influenced each other’s work, shared friends, and were central figures in the Bloomsbury Group. They were also at the heart of one another’s family stories.
Their relationship was a deep and unusual one: powerful, interdependent, with unsettling periods of jealousy and hostility, yet characterized by mutual support and devotion throughout their lives. Virginia was one of the most influential English authors of the twentieth century; Vanessa was a noted painter.
The sisters lived close to one another until Virginia’s death in 1941. Infusing both her writing and her life, it was the relationship that influenced Virginia more than any other except that with her husband, Leonard Woolf. Read More→
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