Sylvia Plath (1932 – 1963) was a gifted poet who on the surface seemed to have it all: ambition, brains, and beauty. But she was beset by a lifelong struggle with depression that led to her taking her own life at the age of thirty.
Following are fascinating facts about Sylvia Plath, some known well, others less so, but all contributing to a portrait of this beloved poet’s brief life.
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→
For Octavia E. Butler (1947 – 2006), writing speculative and science fiction wasn’t merely a vehicle for escaping into fantasy, but a means to explore universal issues. This is certainly true of Kindred, the 1979 novel that is arguably her most iconic.
Butler’s deep and abiding interest in and observation of human nature — even within fantastical realms — is what makes her work so compelling and complex.
And yet her storytelling is flowing and natural. Her novels are tightly plotted page-turners; many of her protagonists are strong, believable Black women. Read More→
Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) was an esteemed British author known for six distinguished novels that secured her legacy in literary history. Her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, appeared in 1811 under the nom de plume “A Lady.” Read on for beloved quotes from Sense and Sensibility, demonstrating Jane Austen’s trademark wisdom and subtle wit.
Sense and Sensibility is an exquisitely crafted portrait of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood who are forced to leave their home after their father’s death. Like other women of their time and class, they must make good marriages.
Along the way they encounter meddling matriarchs, conniving rakes, and competitive contemporaries, all standing in their path to love and security. Read More→
In “The Gilded Six-Bits,” a short story, as well as her other works of fiction and essays, one sees Zora Neale Hurston’s wide scope as a writer.Following is an analysis of “The Gilded Six-Bits,” and you can read the full text of the story here.
Hurston was a key player in the Harlem Renaissance. She took on various topics from marital bliss to the national welfare, writing as a gifted author of fiction, a knowledgeable anthropologist, and a rigorous critic.
Always unconventional, she struck many as overly conservative, as she actually promoted southern segregation for a while, arguing that forced integration was an insult to the African-American community. Read More→
Miles Franklin (1879 – 1954) is best known for her first novel, My Brilliant Career. Published in 1901, when the author was just 21, it’s an atmospheric story of a teenage girl growing up in the Australian bush who longs to break free from societal expectaions, as live as her own person.
Just after the novel’s publication and early success she wrote only sporadically, having become involved in World War I efforts and the woman suffrage cause.
During this period, she wrote a sequel to My Brilliant Career titled My Career Goes Bung, finishing it around 1915 – 1916. But it proved too far ahead of its time and wasn’t published until some decades later. Read More→
Vita Sackville-West (March 9, 1892 – June 2, 1962), was a British poet, novelist, and garden designer. Born at Knole Park, a 365-room ancestral home, her writing career was launched with the publication of Poems of East and West (1917).
She’s known for her private life and as a master gardener perhaps as much as her literature. She was bisexual and concurrent with her happy marriage with Harold Nicolson (also bisexual) had many affairs with women.
It’s widely believed that Vita was the inspiration for the title character of Virginia Woolf’s novel, Orlando. Read More→
Five Children and It was the first of a trilogy by E. Nesbit (1858 – 1924), followed by The Phoenix and the Carpet and The Story of the Amulet.
In these books, readers meet Robert, Anthea, Jane, Cyril, and the baby called The Lamb.
The following description of Five Children and It is by Mary Noel Streatfeild, adapted from an introduction she wrote for Nesbit’s autobiography Long Ago When I was Young (Franklin Watts, 1966). Streatfeild herself the author of a classic children’s book series known as the “shoes” books, which began in 1936 with Ballet Shoes. Read More→
Dickey Chapelle (March 14, 1919 – November 4, 1965) was a pioneering American war correspondent and photojournalist who covered world conflicts from World War II to Vietnam.
Born Georgette Louise Meyer, she was fascinated by air travel throughout her childhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She renamed herself after the explorer Admiral Richard “Dickey” Bird.
Even as a child, Georgie Lou, as she was called, marched to her own drum. She was short and nearsighted, and always quirky and precocious. From a young age, she dreamed of flying planes. She was patriotic — always saluting the flag on her way to school. “I believed I could do anything I wanted to do, and I still believe it.” Read More→
