Monthly Archives: December 2013

Anyone can make an embarrassing mistake. During one of my read-throughs of the draft of my novel, I caught a mortifying blunder. “Trent caught only a few words at a time, like taps of MORRIS code echoing through an empty … Continue reading →

“Infancy is a fair page upon which you may write–goodness, happiness, heaven, or–sin, misery, hell. And the words once written, no chemical art can erase them. the substance of the paper itself must be rubbed through by the file of … Continue reading →

Moderation is the moral gauge, the moral regulator, and should be president of the debating society of the passions, propensities, sentiments and virtues. Moderation is to the heart what reason is to the head. Moderation is just precisely that hair … Continue reading →

Harpagon. …you must clean my coach, and hold the horses in readiness to drive to the fair… Jacques. Your horses, Sir? Upon my word, they are not at all in a fit state to go. I will not tell you … Continue reading →

“Mere publicity will get an artist nowhere. It is a waste of time and money. It may give him a moment’s notoriety, like that of a Channel swimmer or a marathon race. But such reputations are like a bonfire on … Continue reading →

“Gaslight the way we knew it just before the arrival of the electric light was rather nice. But the gaslight of the [eighteen] thirties and forties was a terrible comedown after the candles of the Baroque and Rococo. It tried … Continue reading →

In 1791, composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died of exhaustion from overwork. He was penniless and buried at public expense. In his 1937 book, The Arts, Hendrik Willem von Loon describes this sad funeral, one that no one would wish upon … Continue reading →