Archive for October, 2009

Dear Mrs. Wharton

“I applaud, I mean I value, I egg you on in, your study.” On this day in 1900, Henry James wrote his first letter to Edith Wharton.

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A stick to beat writers with

The transformation of “historical fiction” into a pejorative term signals a misunderstanding of history and contempt for its uses, says Hilary Mantel.

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Inside the lunatic asylum

Christopher Payne’s Asylum, a photographic history of state mental hospitals, depicts soaring ceilings, and rows of toothbrushes left hanging. (See also.)

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