L. D. Mitchell

I suspect that most of us have vices that we occasionally rue.  Mine is the so-called political novel.

How familiar are you with the literature of Christmas?

Below are snippets from five Christmas "classics." Can you identify the book or short story from which each is excerpted? Can you identify each work's author? What about each work's original date of publication?

Answers will be found at the end of this post. Have a safe and joyous holiday!

Tradition has it that eighty-six years ago today, on 28 November 1925, 78-year-old fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson went into the 5th-floor radio studio of the National Life & Accident Insurance Company

Two hundred years ago today, on 30 October 1811, the London publisher Thomas Egerton released to the public a three-decker which, its title page noted, had been authored "By a Lady." The novel,

Judith Krug founded Banned Books Week in 1982 to honor and promote Americans' right to read whatever we choose, a right guaranteed by the First Amendment. (For an alternative

Sometimes, battling sexism in the normal way just won't do. Sometimes, you must don a gorilla mask, adopt the name of a dead female artist and send estrogen pills to the White House. -- Heather Svokos, Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader.

In 1821, Charles Knight -- who one day would attain a modest measure of fame as publisher of works like The Pictorial Shakespeare (parts, 1838-1841) and the 8-volume Popular History of England (1856-62) -- had recently

Printing came late to my adopted state. 

It wasn't until 1834 that the-state-now-known-as-California could lay claim to the black art, thanks to the efforts of a former provisional governor, Agustin Vicente Zamorano.  Even then, residents had to wait an additional year

If past ceremonies are any guide, there are going to be a lot of unhappy people at the conclusion of this evening's broadcast of the 83rd Annual Academy Awards.

After all, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is the group that awarded the 1941

...the single best collection I've ever seen--and my job has given me the chance over many years to see a number of very fine collections--was formed by people who knew things I did not and built a collection that it would never have occurred to me to suggest.
--Daniel Traister,