Modern Lit: Capote in Kansas, by Kim Powers

Metaphor
Capote in Kansas is a ghostly story, in which a pair of childhood friends attain tremendous literary fame, only to have their relationship destroyed by their success. The novel opens as both Truman Capote and Harper Lee are nearing the ends of their respective lives. Each has been a “one book wonder” of a [...]

Watch This: Julie and Julia

Delightfully delicious
In 1949, Julia and Paul Child moved to Paris. For a while, newly unemployed, Julia flounders about for something to do, and finally hits upon cooking. It’s France, after all. In 2004, Julie and Eric Powell moved to Queens, NY. Julie thought she’d become a writer, but has become stalled in a [...]

Historical Fiction: The Last Van Gogh, by Alyson Richmond

Giving and taking
Marguerite is 21 when Vincent Van Gogh arrives at her father’s door for medical/psychological treatment. Dr. Gachet practices from his home, so Marguerite has ample opportunity to interact with the artist. She is drawn to Vincent, who is enormously talented but emotionally fragile, and in a very short time, they fall [...]

Romantic Lorenzo Dow

After Peggy died, Lorenzo became acquainted with a young woman named Sally, from the Colchester, CT area. One night he took her for a buggy ride and tried to get her to accept his marriage proposal. He had already made arrangements with the Rev. John Whittlesey to marry them as soon as the girl said [...]

How Lorenzo Dow raised the devil

Quoted from Legendary Connecticut by David E. Phillips
Once there was this crazy preacher named Lorenzo Dow who was travelling in the northern part of Vermont, when he got caught in a terrible snowstorm. He managed to make his way to the only light he could see. After repeated knocking at the door of the humble [...]

Biography: Shakespeare’s Wife, by Germaine Greer

A new Ann Hatheway
For centuries, admirers of the Bard have been wondering why he married Ann Hatheway only to leave her for most of the rest of his life. Historically, scholars have almost universally blamed Ann, primarily through the mechanism of applying passages from Shakespeare’s works to his wife, particularly if they are [...]

Biography: A Memoir of Jane Austen, by James Edward Austen-Leigh

The original
Jane Austen (as is so cogently noted in this volume) gained little notice or fame during her regrettably short life. Likewise, other than her six novels and some letters, little primary evidence exists to enlighten her admirers. Alas, it was common in the 19th century for families to burn all materials believed [...]

Bad Girls: Mary Surratt

Mary Surratt was the first woman ever executed by the governement of the United States. What did she do to gain this distinction? Historical opinion is divided.
Mary Jenkins was born in May or June of 1823 in Waterloo, Maryland. She attended a private Catholic girls’ academy and married young,  at age 17, to John Surratt, [...]

Watch This: Miss Potter, with Renee Zellweger

Classic

Reading Peter Rabbit and company to children is one of life’s simple pleasures, as was watching Chris Noonan’s treatment of the middle years of author Beatrix Potter’s life. Not content to become the wife of a “suitable” man to fulfill the expectations of Edwardian society, Miss Potter remained single until well into her forties. [...]

Biography: The Journals of Louisa May Alcott

Louisa by Louisa
It’s a difficult task to review a diary or journal, as these materials were rarely meant for public consumption. Louisa May Alcott’s personal “scribblings” reveal much about her motivations, professional and personal choices, and beliefs. What becomes clear is that she wrote not only as an outlet for her imagination and [...]