Anna Marie Hahn was one of the most notorious serial killers of her time. There was even a rumor circulating that she “had spread arsenic on her ample breasts, which her male... Read More

“Modern American literature begins … with Moby-Dick,” asserts novelist E. L Doctorow in the lead essay of this book. Certainly, no book has a better claim to the title... Read More

Readers whose only exposure to Herman Melville was an assigned reading of Moby Dick in college may be surprised to learn that Melville also wrote poetry. Almost certainly, some... Read More

While eating dinner with Herbert Woodward Martin, the author was surprised to see the renowned poet squirreling away packets of restaurant sugar. Certainly the bard of Dayton... Read More

On October 6, 1951, the author was captured by the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army while fighting in the Korean War. He spent twenty-two months as a prisoner, one of 7,245... Read More

Writers have been turning murder into literature since Cicero documented his own work in ancient Rome as a criminal advocate. Nevertheless, In Cold Blood is a far cry from The... Read More

“Disinterestedness is success; integrity is success; Christian fortitude is success.” This is how James Monroe defined a worthy life. The author, a member of the history... Read More

“I can see no business avocation, in which woman, in her present dress, can possibly earn equal wages with man—and [I] feel that it is folly for us to make the demand until... Read More

Theodore Roosevelt accused President McKinley of having “no more backbone than a chocolate éclair” because he viewed the President as being overly cautious about committing... Read More

If English Romantic poets still dominate the landscape of modern poetry, it is because theirs was the first to dramatize the mind’s interior act of self-creation, of the... Read More

The University Press syndrome of “publish or perish” quite frequently dooms author/professors to an early grave, or should. Nelson deserves to write another day. Dr. Nelson... Read More

Larry Gara was a war resister when it wasn’t fashionable. World War II is widely seen as “the good war,” a triumph of righteousness over evil with little of the moral... Read More