An evening reading for November 5: “The American Crisis,” Thomas Paine. Today in the almanac: https://longhandlit.com/almanac/11-5-ida-tarbell/

Keats, September 1819: “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.” Us, the first week of November: season of it being pitch dark before dinner. From the almanac: https://longhandlit.com/almanac/11-5-ida-tarbell/

For Ida Tarbell, who put Standard Oil's secrets in print. “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” — Louis D. Brandeis, Other People’s Money, 1914

Born on this day in 1857: Ida Tarbell. Tarbell's History of the Standard Oil Company, first published in installments from 1902 to 1904, exposed how John D. Rockefeller built his monopoly. It is a founding work of investigative journalism.

Ida Tarbell · The Longhand Almanac

Tarbell's History of the Standard Oil Company, first published in installments from 1902 to 1904, exposed how John D. Rockefeller built his monopoly. It is a founding work of investigative journalism.

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An evening reading for November 4: “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” Wilfred Owen. Today in the almanac: https://longhandlit.com/almanac/11-4-wilfred-owen/

“I walked beneath the sky, Muse, and I was yours.” Arthur Rimbaud wrote “My Bohemia” at sixteen, in 1870. Our translation, with Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1. https://longhandlit.com/

“My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.” — Wilfred Owen, draft preface to his poems, 1918

Died on this day in 1918: Wilfred Owen. Owen was killed leading his men across the Sambre–Oise Canal in France, one week before the Armistice. His parents received the telegram on Armistice Day.

Wilfred Owen · The Longhand Almanac

Owen was killed leading his men across the Sambre–Oise Canal in France, one week before the Armistice. His parents received the telegram on Armistice Day. Only a handful of his poems were published in his lifetime; "Dulce et Decorum Est" and the rest came after.

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An evening reading for November 3: “Thanatopsis,” William Cullen Bryant. Today in the almanac: https://longhandlit.com/almanac/11-3-william-cullen-bryant/

“To him who in the love of Nature holds / Communion with her visible forms, she speaks / A various language.” — William Cullen Bryant, “Thanatopsis,” 1817

Born on this day in 1794: William Cullen Bryant. Bryant began "Thanatopsis," his meditation on death, as a teenager, and its publication in 1817 made his name as a poet. He went on to edit the New York Evening Post for about half a century.

William Cullen Bryant · The Longhand Almanac

Bryant began "Thanatopsis," his meditation on death, as a teenager, and its publication in 1817 made his name as a poet. He went on to edit the New York Evening Post for about half a century.

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An evening reading for November 2: “Piano,” D. H. Lawrence. Today in the almanac: https://longhandlit.com/almanac/11-2-the-lady-chatterley-trial/

Robert Frost, "My November Guest" (1913). His Sorrow loves the bare trees and thinks he doesn't. He does: "Not yesterday I learned to know The love of bare November days Before the coming of the snow"

"My November Guest" · Robert Frost, 1913

A poem for the gray days, from Frost's first book. A writer, a book or a moment from literary history, every day.

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“Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically.” — D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, 1928

On this day in 1960: Lady Chatterley's Lover goes free. After a two-week trial at the Old Bailey, a jury found Penguin Books not guilty of obscenity for publishing D. H. Lawrence's novel in full.

Lady Chatterley's Lover goes free · The Longhand Almanac

After a two-week trial at the Old Bailey, a jury found Penguin Books not guilty of obscenity for publishing D. H. Lawrence's novel in full. Writers including E. M. Forster testified for the defense, and the verdict opened the way for far freer publishing in Britain.

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An evening reading for November 1: “In the Desert,” Stephen Crane. Today in the almanac: https://longhandlit.com/almanac/11-1-stephen-crane/

Dickens sold his novels in monthly parts, a shilling each, every one ending on a hook. Bleak House came out in 20 of them. Same energy as waiting for Friday’s episode. https://longhandlit.com/almanac/11-1-stephen-crane/

“It is not down in any map; true places never are.” Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, 1851. https://longhandlit.com/

“None of them knew the color of the sky.” — Stephen Crane, “The Open Boat,” 1897

Stephen Crane · The Longhand Almanac

Crane had never seen a battle when he wrote The Red Badge of Courage (1895), the Civil War novel that made him famous. He packed a whole career of fiction, poetry and journalism into a short life, dying at 28.

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Born on this day in 1871: Stephen Crane. Crane had never seen a battle when he wrote The Red Badge of Courage (1895), the Civil War novel that made him famous. He packed a whole career of fiction, poetry and journalism into a short life, dying at 28.

Stephen Crane · The Longhand Almanac

Crane had never seen a battle when he wrote The Red Badge of Courage (1895), the Civil War novel that made him famous. He packed a whole career of fiction, poetry and journalism into a short life, dying at 28.

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An evening reading for October 31: “To Autumn,” John Keats. Today in the almanac: https://longhandlit.com/almanac/10-31-john-keats/

John Keats was born on Halloween, 1795. He asked for no name on his grave. His friends had other ideas. From the almanac: https://longhandlit.com/almanac/10-31-john-keats/

Gothic classics as Halloween candy, ranked. Happy Halloween! 🎃 What did you get in your pillowcase? https://longhandlit.com/

“Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.” — John Keats, letter to his brothers, 1817

John Keats · The Longhand Almanac

Keats wrote his great odes, to a nightingale, to autumn and on a Grecian urn, mostly in 1819. Two years later he died of tuberculosis in Rome at 25, asking that his gravestone carry no name, only the words "Here lies one whose name was writ in water."

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Born on this day in 1795: John Keats. Keats wrote his great odes, to a nightingale, to autumn and on a Grecian urn, mostly in 1819. Two years later he died of tuberculosis in Rome at 25, asking that his gravestone carry no name, only the words "Here lies one whose name was writ in water."

John Keats · The Longhand Almanac

Keats wrote his great odes, to a nightingale, to autumn and on a Grecian urn, mostly in 1819. Two years later he died of tuberculosis in Rome at 25, asking that his gravestone carry no name, only the words "Here lies one whose name was writ in water."

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Just listed: charming ancestral home with original features. Some structural notes. Happy Halloween from Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839). 🏚️ https://longhandlit.com/

Last-minute literary Halloween costumes, ranked by how much effort they take. The Invisible Man is the move. https://longhandlit.com/

An evening reading for October 30: “The Graveyard by the Sea,” Paul Valéry. Today in the almanac: https://longhandlit.com/almanac/10-30-paul-valery/

Paul Valéry, born on this day in 1871, gave up poetry in his twenties. A quarter of a century later he came back with a 512-line poem. From the almanac: https://longhandlit.com/almanac/10-30-paul-valery/

“The wind is rising! We must try to live!” — Paul Valéry, “The Graveyard by the Sea,” 1920 (translated for Longhand)

Paul Valéry · The Longhand Almanac

Born in the French port town of Sète, Valéry wrote poems as a young man, then largely stepped away from poetry for about twenty years.

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