Lit Hub Daily: March 3, 2022

TODAY: In 1873, the US Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” books through the mail. Above, the symbol of Comstock’s New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.  

• Stanislav Aseyev on life in occupied Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, circa 2015. | Lit Hub Politics

• “I was 36 when I realized that not everyone in their twenties and thirties was in pain all the time.” Megan O’Rourke considers the self-dissolving difficulty of chronic illness. | Lit Hub Health

• Their own nightmare alley: Sharon DeBartolo Carmack tells the story of a fake spiritualist medium’s encounter with a Scientific American editor. | Lit Hub

• Christiane Bird revisits “bad-boy celebrity photographer” Robert Mapplethorpe and his years on West Twenty-Third Street. | Lit Hub Photography

• “New heroes can always be rediscovered in the historical record, especially in an era sorely in need of them.” J.D. Dickey recommends five essential voices from the abolition movement. | Lit Hub History

• How to bring the National Book Awards to your classroom and engage in some “authentic reading.” | Lit Hub Teaching

• Leanne Kale Sparks with six thrillers guaranteed to make even the steeliest readers squeamish. | CrimeReads

• Natalie Walker on method acting, Ryan Ruby on translingual writing, Lily Meyer on the Bolaño mythos, and more of the Reviews You Need to Read This Week. | Book Marks

• “Ulysses is a symbol for all the wrongheaded and frustrating ways we talk and think about the way art is made and received and appreciated.” Jessa Crispin on the creation(s) of Ulysses. | The Baffler

• Lydia Kiesling talks to Nicole Chung about establishing a freelance career, revision, and fleeing her home to finish a novel. | The Atlantic

• A new series of Dr. Seuss-inspired books will feature diverse authors and illustrators. | AP

• Srikantha Reddy considers the overlooked brilliance of the poet Margaret Danner, the first Black woman on Poetry’s editorial staff. | Poetry

• Brian Boone breaks down the best comedy books of 2022 (so far). | Vulture

• Remembering Shirley Hughes, whose work in children’s literature made her a “a warm and benevolent presence in the lives of uncountable numbers of children.” | The Guardian

• From Sula to Purple Rain and family photos, Marlon James lists some of his favorite things. | Wall Street Journal

Also on Lit Hub: On the shaky foundations of America’s Constitution • Instructions for dating a fellow writer • Rebecca Kauffman’s latest novel, Chorus

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