Mary Oliver: At Home in the Natural World.

The recent date of September 10, 2014 marks the seventy-ninth birthday of the distinguished poet Mary Oliver, born on September 10, 1935 in Maple Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. She is one of America’s most popular and best-selling poets, and she has accumulated numerous honors, having won the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize,…

Read More

Harlan Hatcher: Buckeye Extraordinaire.

The author Harlan Hatcher was born 116 years ago today on September 9, 1898 in Ironton, Ohio. He lived for nearly a century, dying at the age of 99 in 1998. Harlan Hatcher was a true man of letters: a novelist, editor, historian, and literary critic, as well as a teacher who became a successful…

Read More

Chicago……

“Great industries were moving in. The huge railroad corporations which had long before recognized the prospects of the place had seized upon vast tracts of land for transfer and shipping purposes. Street-car lines had been extended far out into the open country in anticipation of rapid growth. The city had laid miles and miles of…

Read More

Published 100 Years Ago: Theodore Dreiser’s “The Titan.”

This year marks the centennial of Theodore Dreiser’s novel The Titan. Dreiser published The Titan in 1914 with the John Lane Company. It is the second volume in his trilogy sometimes called The Trilogy of Desire. The trilogy follows the commercial and amorous adventures of ruthless businessman Frank Cowperwood, a character based on real life…

Read More