Published 70 Years Ago: Thomas Merton’s “Thirty Poems”

The renowned writer and Trappist monk Thomas Merton became known to the broader reading public with his famous spiritual autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain in 1948. The book struck a chord with the reading public in the aftermath of World War II and the onset of the atomic age with is persistent threat of total…

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Published 90 years ago: Louis Bromfield’s “The Green Bay Tree”

The distinguished novelist and conservationist Louis Bromfield published his first novel, The Green Bay Tree, ninety years ago on March 18, 1924. It was the first in a tetralogy (a collection of four works) examining the lives of people, principally women, as they strive to find some kind of steady ground on which to stand…

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Merry Christmas–and Happy Rod Serling’s birthday!

Merry Christmas! And Happy Rod Serling’s birthday! The noted screenwriter and television show host was born on December 25, 1924 in Syracuse, New York. His family moved to Binghamton, New York two years later and he attended local schools before enlisting in the U.S. Army, where he served with the 511th Parachute Regiment of the…

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Thomas Merton’s Christmas-themed poem “The Flight Into Egypt”

The great spiritual writer and Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote a number of poems in connection with various liturgical days, saints, and Biblical themes and figures. Merton (1915-1968) was a member of the Trappist monastery at the Abbey of Gethsemani near Bardstown, Kentucky. It has been seventy years now since Merton’s first collection of poetry—Thirty…

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A Christmas poem by Vachel Lindsay

Here’s a Christmas poem from Vachel Lindsay’s The Congo and Other Poems, published one hundred and three years ago in 1914. It’s also an introductory poem to the first half of the third section of the book. It’s entitled “This Section Is a Christmas Tree.” “This Section Is a Christmas Tree” This section is a…

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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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