"...beneath the rule of men entirely great, the pen is mightier than the sword..."
#OTD in 1856.
English actor Henry Irving makes his stage début at Sunderland as Gaston, Duke of Orleans, in Bulwer Lytton's play Richelieu.
The play has become best known for its line "The pen is mightier than the sword", spoken by the Cardinal in Act II, Scene II.
Books by Edward Bulwer Lytton at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/761
“No Extra Words“ – The Scottish Poet Norman MacCaig (1910–1996)
16 Dec, free online
Anette Degott looks at the life & work of Norman MacCaig
via Scotland HUB at Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz
@litstudies
Mirror, mirror on the wall
show me in succession all
my faces, that I may view
and choose which I would like as true…
—“Through the Looking Glass”, by Veronica Forrest-Thomson (1947–1975) – born #OTD, 28 Nov
published in COLLECTED POEMS (Shearsman Books, 2008)
1/3
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/143680/through-the-looking-glass
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury #WomenWriters #postmodern
“[P]ay attention to the moments of contradiction and uncertainty threaded through character dialogue and self-reflection […] Watch his tone. Watch his humour. For me, that’s where the sharpest lessons are.”
—Bethany Jacobs on the worldbuilding of Iain M. Banks
#Scottish #literature #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture #ScienceFiction #Scifi #worldbuilding
jollymerry
hollyberry
jollyberry
merryholly
happyjolly
jollyjelly
jellybelly
bellymerry
hollyheppy
jollyMolly
marryJerry
merryHarry
hoppyBarry
heppyJarry
bobbyheppy
berryjorry…
—Edwin Morgan, “The Computer’s First Christmas Card”
first published in THE SECOND LIFE (Edinburgh University Press, 1968)
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #concretepoetry #20thcentury #EdwinMorgan #Christmas #ChristmasCard #computer
Oot behind a lorry,
Peyin nae heed,
Ablow a doubledecker,
A poor wean deid…
—James Copeland (1918–2002), “Black Friday”
Actor & writer James Gordon Copeland’s much anthologised poem “Black Friday” packs tragedy, compassion, & a sense of close community into nine short verses
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury #Glasgow #Scots #Scotslanguage
Arthur Conan Doyle explored men’s mental health through his Sherlock Holmes stories
Many of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories examine male characters facing emotional catastrophe, betrayal and moral dilemmas.
by Emma Linford
Conan Doyle at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/69
#OTD in 1914.
Arthur Machen's short story "The Bowmen" is published in The Evening News (London).
In this story, written and published during World War I, the ghosts of archers from the battle of Agincourt, led by Saint George, come to the aid of British troops. This is cited as the origin of the Angels of Mons legend.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Machen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_of_Mons
The Angels of Mons: The Bowmen and Other Legends of the War at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14044
“From Scotland to the World”: The Poetry of Hope Mirrlees, Helen Adam, Muriel Spark, & Veronica Forrest-Thomson
—Dorothy McMillan, HUMANITIES 8/4, 2019
Dorothy McMillan discusses four 20th-century women writers “poised… between Scotland and Modernism”
@litstudies
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/8/4/184
#Scottish #literature #poetry #20thcentury #womenwriters #modernism
#OTD in 1909.
Franz Kafka's short story "The Aeroplanes at Brescia (Die Aeroplane in Brescia)", based on a real event, is published in the Prague newspaper Bohemia, as the first description of airplanes in German literature.
It describes an airshow near the Italian city of Brescia, which Kafka saw with two of his friends (Max and his brother Otto Brod) during their journey to Italy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aeroplanes_at_Brescia
Full transcription here:
https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Die_Aeroplane_in_Brescia
Typographica Scoto-Gadelica: Scottish Gaelic Typographic Visual Identity through Print & Book Culture
3 Dec, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Skye, & online – free
Visual identity of language – the use of distinct characters, diacritics, & conventions – is a key factor in cultural identity & national heritage. This talk will explore Scottish Gaelic’s contemporary visual identity.
https://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/edwin-pickstone/?lang=en
#Scottish #literature #Gaelic #Gaidhlig #BookHistory #printing #typography #identity #design
Hoy Sound Unscrolled
a poetry reading with Heather H. Yeung
9 Dec, Stromness, ticketed
On the 9th anniversary of the creation of her 9-metre-long scroll-poem KENNINGS, Orkney poet Heather Yeung (楊希蒂) launches the book version of her poem/artefact
So on the bus through late November running
by yellow lights tormented, darkness falling,
the two girls sang for miles and miles together…
—Iain Crichton Smith, “Two Girls Singing”
Published in DEER ON THE HIGH HILLS, ed. by John Greening (Carcanet, 2021)
https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781800170940/deer-on-the-high-hills/
The Many Primes of Muriel Spark
First broadcast in 2018. Available on BBC iPlayer until 27 December.
Kirsty Wark celebrates the life and work of Dame Muriel Spark, author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and one of the twentieth century’s most enigmatic cultural figures.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09qlx14
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #MurielSpark
Creative Conversations: Kristie de Garis
1 Dec, University of Glasgow & online – free
Kristie de Garis’s Drystone: A Life Rebuilt is unflinchingly honest and unexpectedly funny. A story about the weight of the past, resilience and the hard work of living on your own terms.
Some things may never change. What matters is the life you build anyway.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creative-conversations-kristie-de-garis-tickets-1828297881179
#OTD in 1886.
The "Symbolist Manifesto" is placed in the French newspaper Le Figaro by a Greek-born poet Jean Moréas, who calls Symbolism hostile to "plain meanings, declamations, false sentimentality and matter-of-fact description," and intended to "clothe the Ideal in a perceptible form" whose "goal was not in itself, but whose sole purpose was to express the Ideal."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolist_Manifesto
Symbolism at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Symbolism&submit_search=Search
"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful."
The History of Rasselas
British author, linguist & lexicographer Samuel Johnson was born #OTD in 1709.
Johnson’s most famous achievement is his Dictionary, which was the first major comprehensive dictionary of English. It became the standard reference work for decades and influenced the way dictionaries were compiled.
Samuel Johnson at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/297
English philosopher, painter, and critic William Hazlitt died #OTD in 1830.
He is considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history of the English language. He is also acknowledged as the finest art critic of his age. His works includes "On the Pleasure of Hating" (1826), "The Fight" (1822), "On the Fear of Death" (1822), "Characters of Shakespeare's Plays" (1817).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hazlitt
Books by William Hazlitt at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/800
American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, poet and political activist Katherine Anne Porter died #OTD in 1980.
Her 1962 novel Ship of Fools was the best-selling novel in America that year, but her short stories received much more critical acclaim. In 1966, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the U.S. National Book Award for The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter.
Reading Scotland with Margaret Bennet
Why Scotland Celebrates St Andrew's Day
2 Dec, online – free
Dr Margaret Bennet talks about the relevance of celebrating St Andrew’s Day today & dives into the origins of this national holiday
The Little White Rose
(To John Gawsworth)
The rose of all the world is not for me.
I want for my part
Only the little white rose of Scotland
That smells sharp and sweet—and breaks the heart.
—Hugh MacDiarmid, “The Little White Rose”
A poem for St Andrew’s Day 🏴
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46800/the-little-white-rose
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury #Scotland #HughMacDiarmid #StAndrewsDay
"He's not quite blue yet, but that will come, you shall see!"
#OTD in 1908.
Maurice Maeterlinck's L'Oiseau bleu is premièred, at Konstantin Stanislavsky's Moscow Art Theatre.
The French composer Albert Wolff wrote an opera (first performed at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1919) based on Maeterlinck's original play, and Maeterlinck's inamorata Georgette Leblanc produced a novelization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Bird_(play)
The Blue Bird at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/8606
100 years on, T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men is a poem for our populist moment
His 1925 poem "The Hollow Men," published 100 years ago, bridges the nihilism of "The Waste Land" (1922) and his spiritual rebirth, reflecting his evolving faith journey.
by Luke Johnson
Eliot at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/599
Literary Maps: Real Maps for Imaginary Places
https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2025/12/literary-maps-your-imaginary-guide-to-famous-fictional-places/
Treasure Island at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Treasure+Island
Let’s Not Forget Charles Dickens’s Other Christmas Ghost Stories!
He loved writing these. There are very many.
By Olivia Rutigliano
https://crimereads.com/lets-not-forget-charles-dickenss-other-christmas-ghost-stories/
There are several editions of Christmas Carol in the PG collection:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19337
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24022
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30368
