Milton, Wolfe, and the Angels

August 10: On this day in 1637 Edward King, a college friend of John Milton’s, drowned at sea. Milton published “Lycidas” three months later, giving the elegiac tradition one of its most famous poems and, three centuries later, giving Thomas Wolfe...

The Measures Between Us

Three Boston families cope with an impending hurricane, cataclysmic flooding and their own destructive secrets in Ethan Hauser’s impactful debut novel.

Touring Walden

August 9: Henry David Thoreau’s Walden was published on this day in 1854. Thoreau planned a lecture tour, hoping to showcase his new book, but he was forced to cancel because of disinterest. This was mutual, judging by his journal: “To read to a...