Happy birthday, Edgar! To celebrate your 212th birthday, I’ve compiled a list of the six most interesting facts about America’s most angsty literary figure. 6. He was the first to use the term “short story” Or at the very least, Poe’s use of the term is the earliest known record that has yet to be uncovered, dating all the way back to the year 1840, specifically in his book Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, where he wrote, “I have written five-and-twenty short stories whose general character may be so briefly defined.” Poe pioneered the short story format, where he …
Happy National Hat Day! Yes, this is a real, federally recognized holiday, and to celebrate the world’s oldest head covering (fun fact: the first known pictorial depiction of a hat is a straw hat on a tomb in Egypt dated around 3500 BCE) I’ve compiled a list of the greatest hats in literary history. 9. the cat in the hat I think all of you knew this anthropomorphic feline was going to make an appearance. Making his debut appearance in The Cat in the Hat in 1957, he quickly rose to stardom as one of the most iconic characters in all …
Stan Lee’s passing has affected every Marvel fan, and I think I speak for all of us when I say that the MCU will never be the same without his patented cameos. Yet the myriad of movies to come out of the MCU are far from the only Marvel properties he made an appearance in, and so, to honor the late comic book writer on his birthday, I’ve compiled a list of his lesser known Marvel cameos, for it’s important for us to remember that Marvel isn’t just a single chronology run by Kevin Feige, but an expansive multiverse spanning …
The Thief, acclaimed YA novel written by author Meghan Whalen Turner, has been optioned by Disney to make a live action adaptation. Published in 1996, the fantasy is the first of the Queen’s Thief series, and follows a boy named Gen who, after being released from prison for stealing the King’s seal, a magus recruits him to steal a precious stone called Hamiathes’ Gift, which will allow the magus to claim the country of Eddis for his king. In exchange, he offers Gen worldwide renown, and threatens him with beheading if he attempts to escape. Brian Duffield, who wrote such films …
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published today! Authored by Mark Twain (whose real name was Samuel Clemens, for those of you who will appreciate that fun fact) and perhaps one of the most banned novels in school curriculums, Huckleberry Finn is one of the most iconic characters in all of American literature, and his story has been rolling off the printing presses since 1885. Yet don’t blame the “snowflakes” for the backlash to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, for it didn’t take a month after the novel’s initial publication for librarians in Concord, Massachusetts to deem it “trash” and “suitable only …
