Anecdotal Evidence

“It is only about the contents of a book that I care, not its shape, its date, or the number on its flyleaves.” Spoken like a reader, not ...

On the morning of August 5, 1763, Dr. Johnson accompanied Boswell on the stage-coach that would carry him to the port of Harwich. Then twent...

“Some day I shall compile an Oxford Book of Depressing Verse , which shall contain nothing but the most magnificent expressions of melanchol...

What has disappeared? Ambrose Bierce, Weldon Kees, Jimmy Hoffa. Aristotle’s second book of Poetics , three-decker novels, rhupunts. Typewrit...

Too often style is judged filigree applied after the house is built. It’s cosmetic, inessential to the building’s structural integrity. Can ...

Eccentricity in books is a tricky quality. It can be charming and inspire lifelong devotion. Take Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy ...

It was April or early May and the snow was going or gone. A low wall of fieldstones surrounded the cemetery in Schoharie County, N.Y. – one ...