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Arts & Humanities > 19th Century US History History of the American Pledge of Allegience: 1 of 4
In commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America, the nation's largest weekly circulation magazine, The Youth's Companion, published a 22-word recitation for school children. Published on September 8, 1892, the original version was: I pledge allegiance to my Flag, and to the Republic for which it s... More..
Hobbies & Games > Antiques & Collecting (Other) The Pirated Editions of James M. Barrie: 1 of 1
The American pirated edition is often the centerpiece of a collection. For many years the auction record for a paperback book was held by a book that the author never intended nor acknowledged, A Tillyloss Scandal, by James M. Barrie. The lovable and slightly disreputable American pirated edition is often the true first appe... More..
Arts & Humanities > British Literature The murders in the Strand: 1 of 1
In July of 1891, The Strand Magazine opened the floodgates and poured the genre we now call mystery into an unsuspecting world with the publication of "A Scandal in Bohemia." The advent of the great Sherlock Holmes rocked the world and within a few years time virtually no general audience magazine lacked a mystery, or a fict... More..
Arts & Humanities > American Authors A trinity of shadows in literature and film noir: 1 of 1
The hardboiled detective and the perfect crime, a focus on the seamy side of life and dark shadowy images across a movie screen; the postman, who always rings again, and a black bird are all part of a film and literary tradition that began with three writers. The first was a former private detective, who was influenced to be... More..
Arts & Humanities > Literary Themes & Ideas The censor versus the pacificist: 1 of 1
Many books have been banned for advocacy of pacifism. Two of the best known are Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got his Gun and Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. The justifications for this range from a somewhat grim conclusion that war and hence self-defense is inevitable, to a radical, rah-rah form of patriotis... More..
Arts & Humanities > European History Savanarola: Lighter of the bonfire of the vanities: 1 of 1
If there had been television back in 1497, Girolamo Savanarola would have followed "Praise the Lord," on the Christian channel. A Dominican monk, he was a powerful speaker and a popular reformer. He stood on street corners and before the altars of the churches of Florence and demanded the Church reform itself. He harangued t... More..
Arts & Humanities > British Literature The genius of Aubrey Beardsley: 1 of 1
Born in 1872, Aubrey Beardsley died in 1898. In those twenty-five years he managed to do something to art from which it has never recovered. He never went to art school, never painted a single large canvas; he was never exhibited; he was dead before his twenty-sixth birthday, and yet of all the artists of 1890s, he is the gr... More..
Arts & Humanities > US History (Other) Bernarr Macfadden: Challenging censorship in American society - 1873 to 1907: 1 of 1
Burning books is a long standing favorite of reformers, politicians and tyrants. No society has ever escaped it, but, may I say with a certain amount of misplaced pride, an American did it best. His name was Anthony Comstock, and he was born in 1844 in Connecticut. After a stint as a soldier in the Civil War, he became a dry... More..
Arts & Humanities > American Literature Grosset and Dunlap - From pirates to publishing kings: 1 of 1
When the American Publishing Company closed its doors for the last time in 1898, Alexander Grosset and George T. Dunlap were outside the doors. Newly unemployed, with the plates of a couple dozen books originally pirated by John Lovell. Standing out on Sixth Avenue with boxes of supposedly worthless printing plates, these tw... More..
Religion & Spirituality > Catholicism The Index: Fighting treason against God: 1 of 1
The censorship of books has been a feature of the Christian Church almost from its inception. The First Ecumenical Council of Nicea (325) condemned not only Arius personally, but also his book entitled Thalia.The Emperor Constantine commanded that the writings of Arius and his friends should be burned, and that concealing th... More..