C a r o l y n D a u g h t e r s

Back in the day I used to refer to literature as “lit,” and I usually got smacked for it. (“I am confused, Caroline. Are you trying to tell me you set something on fire?” That’s what one of my English professors used to ask me before marking my paper down a third of a letter grade.)

The professor in question was a Southern belle through and through. She introduced me to Lee Smith, Flannery O’Connor, Harper Lee, Carson McCullers, Faulkner, and Mark Twain. (On a side note, you can refer to “William Faulkner” as “Faulkner,” but don’t refer to “Mark Twain” … Continue Reading

A Dickens Dream, Robert William Buss

It’s the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens’ birth, people. He was born at midnight on February 7, 1812.

In a recent Time article, Radhika Jones says when Dickens, “began writing his first novel—in 1836, the year before Victoria took the throne—the literacy rate in England was less than 50 percent. By the end of her reign, in 1901, it was 97 percent. … Dickens helped close that gap. He did it by publishing stories that … Continue Reading