John Dos Passos on Eugene Debs: “Lover of Mankind”

The novelist John Dos Passos (1896-1970) gave us one of the great fictional treatments of the United States coming of age during the early twentieth century in his trilogy U.S.A., which consists of The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1932), and The Big Money (1936). The trilogy follows a series of characters through the early years…

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The James Whitcomb Riley Home in Greenfield, Indiana

As a child, the poet James Whitcomb Riley liked to watch the westward bound wagons, stagecoaches and carriages traveling on the National Road past his home. He’s still doing it today. The horse-drawn vehicles have been replaced with pickup trucks, SUV’s and cars, but he still sits watching. The Riley who watches now is a…

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May 22, 1868: The Reno Gang Makes Outlaw History

May 22, 1868. The darkness of the backcountry night has settled around a train stop where the Jefferson, Madison & Indianapolis train takes on wood and water. In this outpost near Marshfield, Indiana, seven men wait for the train. They lurk beneath trees or behind bushes. Frank Reno, the leader of the men, kneels down…

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President Lincoln: Master of American Prose

February 12 marks the birthday of President Abraham Lincoln, who is not only one of our greatest Presidents—perhaps the greatest American President—but one of the great leaders in world history. Lincoln is also arguably the greatest writer among the Presidents. All of our Presidents have left behind a body of writing, usually consisting of policy…

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Published 110 Years Ago: Gene Stratton-Porter’s “Freckles”

For the book-reading public of 1904, the name Gene Stratton-Porter was as familiar to them as the names Jodi Picoult, Stephen King, and Nora Roberts are to the one of today. In her time, Stratton-Porter, an Indiana native, was a best-selling novelist who later recognized the profit potential of film adaptations and moved to Los…

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Nero Wolfe creator Rex Stout born December 1, 1886.

Rex Todhunter Stout, creator of the famous detective Nero Wolfe, was born on December 1, 1886 in Noblesville, Indiana. After a stint in the U.S. Navy (serving aboard the Presidential yacht during Teddy Roosevelt’s administration), Stout worked a series of odd jobs and wrote four novels of contemporary life before turning his hand to detective…

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Published 70 Years Ago: Ernie Pyle’s “Brave Men”

There was no shortage of outstanding reporters in World War II. In the United States alone, journalists such as William L. Shirer, Edward R. Murrow, John Hersey, Quentin Reynolds, Martha Gellhorn, and Richard Tregaskis are still read today for their reporting of this titanic conflict of the twentieth century. Literary lights also served as war…

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