The Monstrosity Gazette: A Weekly Smattering of All Things Literary...

"All books are divisible into two classes: the books of the hour, and the books of all time."

-John Ruskin

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Today in Literary History...

On this day in 1898 William S. Porter -- the drug store clerk, cowboy, fugitive, bank teller, cartoonist and future "O. Henry" -- began a five-year prison sentence for embezzlement. Porter had published several stories prior to his prison term, but the fourteen written behind bars represented a new style and quality, and began his rise to fame.


For more literary history, visit Today in Literature.

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Bookish Art Love:

© 1995 David Small

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Book on My Radar: 

Stephen Foster & Co.: Lyrics of the First Great American Songwriters
By Stephen Foster; Ken Emerson (editor)
Hardcover, 200 pages
Library of America

 Summary in a Sentence:

Contains the annotated lyrics to thirty songs by nineteenth-century songwriter Stephen Foster, including "Old Folks at Home," "Beautiful Dreamer," and "Little Brown Jug."

• Listen to an interview with author Ken Emerson at NPR.org.