Anecdotal Evidence

After reading the February 3 post on “euphonious” words, a reader in the UK writes, “I wondered whether any particular dictionary definitio...

Among my sub-specialties as a newspaper reporter was writing profiles of people who collected things. I collected collectors, including men ...

Marianne Moore died on this date, February 5 in 1972 at age eighty-four. She is a genuine homegrown American eccentric, writing in a manner ...

Long ago, during a telephone conversation with the late poet and dear friend Helen Pinkerton, I asked about her friendship with another poet...

A former colleague at the university asked if I would proof a paper he had written before he sent it to an academic journal. That’s part of ...

  Dana Gioia has written, produced and posted a much-needed video about the curious life and work of the American poet Weldon Kees. Wait for...

In his Notebooks, 1922-86 , Michael Oakeshott titles an entry from March 1955 “The True Believer”:   “Before he became a member of the Par...

Almost the only thing I ever write down so I don’t forget it is the grocery list. Sporadically I kept a diary when younger but each time the...