Victorian Smackdown: Five Little Peppers v. Four Little Women, Part 2

Last week, I speculated about possible tension between Louisa May Alcott and Harriett Lothrop (“Margaret Sidney”), who, along with Nathaniel Hawthorne, lived in The Wayside in Concord, Massachusetts during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the week between that first post and this, I was delighted to discover a book by Patricia West, Domesticating […]

Victorian Smackdown? Five Little Peppers v. Four Little Women: Part 1

September 23, 2015 · by Kate Gilbert | in The Story of Books | tagged Famous Writers of Concord Massachusetts, Hard Times for Louisa May Alcott's Family, Harriett Lothrop aka Margaret Sidney, Harriett Lothrop and The Five Little Peppers, Harriett Lothrop and the Hawthorne Family, Harriett Lothrop Social Climber, Harriett Lothrop vs. Louisa May Alcott, Margaret Sidney and Her Dream of a "Little Brown House", Orchard House and the Alcotts, The Alcott Family and Little Women, The Alcott Family of Concord, The Hawthorne Family of Concord, The Wayside aka Hillside, The Wayside and its Famous Residents | 15 Comments

On the road from Lexington to Concord, Massachusetts, midway between the welter of orange-striped traffic barrels on the outskirts and the boutiques and pricey restaurants downtown, two old wood-framed houses sit side by side. One of these, Orchard House, is famous as the place where Louisa May Alcott wrote some of her best-known books. The […]

“The More Mysterious Life”: Jewish High Holiday liturgy, Leonard Cohen songs, and Geraldine Brooks’ new novel

September 16, 2015 · by JS Epstein | in Book Reviews, Poets/ Poetry/ Performances | tagged " David and Bathseba, " Torah, Abraham and Isaac, Geraldine Brooks, Geraldine Brooks' The Secret Chord, Jewish and Moslem versions of the Abraham sacrifice story, Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen's "The Story of Isaac, Leonard Cohen's "Who by Fire?", Liturgy and song, Psalms and songs, Rosh Hashanah, Songs that inspire books, Songs that tell stories, The prophet Natan, The Unetaneh Tokef, Yom Kippur | 6 Comments

As summer turns to fall, the season rolls into a celebration of Jewish holidays, one stacked upon another. This week is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, and it begins a ten day period known as the days of repentance. A traditional prayer, the Unetaneh Tokef, said during both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, acknowledges […]

From Heart to Page: Lancing the Boil of Grief

September 9, 2015 · by Janet Hogan Chapman | in Poets/ Poetry/ Performances, The Writing Life | tagged Five Stages of Grief, Grief from Loss of a Child, Jay Chapman Memorial Fund, Poetry and Grief, Poetry as Grief Therapy, Writing as Therapy | 5 Comments

Do not stand at my grave and weep; I am not there. I do not sleep…. Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there, I did not die. (Excerpts from “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep” by Mary Frye) Once upon a time I would have found this poem […]

From And to Or: How Does Writing Change the World?

September 2, 2015 · by Eve Shulmister | in Beyond Books | tagged Hub-and-spoke awareness, Jack Goody and Ian Watt, Leonard Shlain, Linear thinking, Marshall McLuhan, Memory Palace, Memory-keepers, Minoan culture, Nonlinear thinking, Oral vs. written culture, Preliterate people, Right brain vs. Left brain, Sensual vs. abstract perception, The effect of writing on an oral culture, The fallibility of memory, Walter Ong | 9 Comments

The trouble with oral cultures is they leave so little behind. Apart from ruins and religious art there isn’t much we can use to get inside their minds. Take the Minoans, whose entire civilization rose and fell nearly 1500 years before the birth of Jesus. What remains suggests a culture that prized women and may […]