TODAY: In 1846, poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning elope.
- Jason Stanley on Trumps’s attacks on so-called “political correctness,” and how fascist activists try to use accusations of hypocrisy and censorship to undermine academia. | Lit Hub
- Never mind the Stasi, here’s the teenage girl who became East Berlin’s first punk (and an enemy of the state). | Lit Hub
- Look inside the FBI file of government-classified “subversive,” Susan Sontag. | Lit Hub
- “In real life, our actions are constrained, produced by, and funneled through our experiences, identities, and options”: Eric Thurm on Better Call Saul’s nuanced morality. | Lit Hub
- Rakesh Satyal writes about the momentum inherent to great writing and great comedy, and the importance of reading your work out loud. | Lit Hub
- Nothing says “books are my religion” than a reading series in a church (and maybe a tote bag. One that says “Books are my religion”). | Lit Hub
- This week in Secrets of the Book Critics: Tim Riley on Altamont, Faulkner, and George Bernard Shaw’s music criticism. | Book Marks
- The Great American Read—PBS’ eight-part series that explores and celebrates the power of reading, told through the prism of America’s 100 best-loved novels—is back. | Book Marks
- From Beowulf, to Murder on the Orient Express, to The First Wives Club, Jo Jakeman looks at the appeal of fictional vengeance for the marginalized, and recommends 10 books where bad guys get their comeuppance. | CrimeReads
- “The Village Voice made me a writer.” Vivian Gornick, Gary Indiana, Robert Christgau, and others reflect on the end of the iconic alt-weekly. | Artforum
- The BBC has already ordered a second series of their adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, while the first is still in production. Hope it’s good. | Vulture
- “That sense that we’re in ordinary life and it’s very familiar, then it suddenly is not familiar is what I wanted to capture.” An interview with Olivia Laing. | Longreads
- Interested in architecture (or just like looking at buildings)? Read one of the 116 best books on the subject. | Arch Daily
- “Something was growing in me, this urgency that felt gangrenous, and I couldn’t locate it.” Sally Field on writing her memoir In Pieces and excavating the abuse she endured as a child. | The New York Times
- “The emergence of the young lady—her body scrutinized by doctors, her desires pored over by novelists—was accompanied by the invention of a space for her, a cloistered, protective space.” Read an excerpt from The Bedroom: An Intimate History. | Lapham’s Quarterly
- When a regular customer wins his favorite bookshop in a raffle. A raffle! | The Guardian
Also on Lit Hub: Kristen Arnett’s advice on library school ∙ Fall’s best books about pop culture ∙ Read from What Luck, This Life
