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Category: Literature
Born January 3, 1892, J. R. R. Tolkien reshaped English by restoring its ancient memory and mythic power. Through philology, epic fantasy, and invented languages, he proved English could sustain deep history, moral gravity, and timeless imagination, speaking with the authority of myth rather than modern novelty and collective memory.
Birth of J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) – The Writer Who Reforged the English Language into Myth
Born January 2, 1920, Isaac Asimov transformed English into a language of clarity. Through science fiction, popular science, and essays, he proved that complex ideas need not intimidate. His prose taught English to explain the future with precision, logic, and confidence—making knowledge accessible without sacrificing depth.
Birth of Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) – The Writer Who Taught English How to Explain the Future
Anthony Hopkins proves that spoken English is a disciplined music. By honoring syntax, meter, and pause, he makes complex writing audible, precise, and alive. His performances teach that clarity comes from structure, emotion from grammar, and authority from restraint—English realized, not approximated, through decades of stage and screen mastery alone.
Birth of Anthony Hopkins (1937– ) – The Actor Who Taught English How to Be Spoken with Absolute Precision
For the second leg of my attempt to read Saul Bellow’s novels – or, as I’ve read several already, should I say to enjoy Saul Bellow’s novels – in fact, as I’m not that ambitious, make that to get Saul Bellow’s novels – I thought I would go for one that’s even thinner than Dangling […]
Saul Bellow: Seize the Day
The New Year has always been a merry holiday in my family, even in the worst of times. A decade ago, when I was still editing the Los Angeles Review of Books (which celebrates its fifteenth anniversary this year!), I invited my Belarusian friend Sasha Razor and the brilliant scholar of Soviet media David MacFadyen […]
“Board the Troika of the Past”: Alexander Voloshin Rings in the New Year
When Romain Rolland died in 1944, English lost a moral voice it had never owned, yet deeply absorbed. Through translation, his pacifism and ethical clarity shaped how English writers spoke of conscience, war, and responsibility—teaching the language restraint, seriousness, and the courage of principled dissent.
Death of Romain Rolland (1866–1944) – The Moral Conscience Heard Through English
Born December 29, 1809, William Ewart Gladstone shaped nineteenth-century English prose through moral argument and classical discipline. His speeches and essays demonstrated how complex sentences could carry ethical weight, intellectual rigor, and persuasive force, defining a serious register of English that influenced political, academic, and public discourse.
Birth of William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) – The Statesman Who Gave English Prose Its Victorian Gravity
Categories
Small Change
excerpt Tunnel VisionI WAS UP BEFORE DAWN, excited, but my sense of adventure was shaded by vague misgivings. There had been something in Buster’s voice I couldn’t quite identify, something everyone else understood, and their knowing smiles had made me uncomfortable.I shrugged off the memory, slipped out of my pyjamas which I left in a […]
Small Change
Born in St. Petersburg in 1872, Teffi (Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya) went on to become a celebrated writer in early 20th-century Russia, publishing poems, short stories, satirical sketches and plays to great acclaim. In the autumn of 1918, with the Russian Civil War intensifying around her, Teffi was persuaded to leave Moscow for a short series of […]
Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea by Teffi (tr. R Chandler, E Chandler AM Jackson & I Steinberg)
penwithlit 