Writings
Ohio and Ohio Valley writers and writing, literary and cultural history with occasional ventures into the greater Midwest and Upper South.
Cincinnati’s Books By The Banks: October 11, 2014
The eighth annual Books By The Banks: Cincinnati USA Book Festival will be held from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 11 at the Duke Energy Convention Center in downtown Cincinnati. More than 100 authors will be there to sign copies of their books and talk with interested readers. Categories of books represented…
CONTINUE READINGMary 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,…
CONTINUE READINGHarlan 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…
CONTINUE READINGChicago……
“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…
CONTINUE READINGPublished 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…
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“American Giant:” Theodore Dreiser
Despite a famously ponderous prose style, novelist Theodore Dreiser, born August 27, 1871 in Terre Haute, Indiana, remains one of our most impressive American novelists. The distinguished American critic Irving Howe wrote that Dreiser is “among the American giants, one of the very few American giants we have had.” Although best known for his novels…
CONTINUE READINGBorn August 23, 1868: Edgar Lee Masters
Because this blog touches on larger topics—Midwestern literature in general, and to some degree the literature of the upper South and Appalachia—I’ve decided to occasionally venture beyond the geographical boundaries of the Ohio Valley region. Today is such an occasion. August 23 is the birthday of poet, novelist, and biographer Edgar Lee Masters, who was…
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