The Lesson of the Master Archives -

Litstack Rec: The Lesson of the Master and A Land More Kind Than Home

The Lesson of the Master, by Henry James Colm Tóibín, in his introduction to the 2007 edition of Henry James’ classic novella, cites a note James made in 1888—an idea that came to him after reading the memoir of a colleague: “…it occurred to me that a very interesting situation would be that of an [….]

LitStack Rec: The Lesson of the Master & In Great Waters

Birthdays

On this day, December 10, in 1930, Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. Perhaps poetry’s most famous recluse, most of her friendships came through correspondences. While many knew she was a writer, only about a dozen of her poems were published during her lifetime and those were drastically edited to fit literary conventions of the time. After her death in 1886 (at age 55, most likely of kidney disease), her younger sister found almost 1,800 poems tucked away at her residence. The first collection of her poems was published four years later – but again, heavily edited. It was not until 1955 that her poems began to become available in unedited form.