The Public Domain Review

Magic by Return of Post: How Mail Order Delivered the Occult

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:15:00 GMT

What allowed occultism to blossom in the United States at the turn of the 20th century? Linotype machines, cheap pulp paper, and newly improved postal networks. Allan Johnson investigates the forgotten history and (still living) world of mail-order magic.

Pulex irritans: The Attack of the Monster (1885)

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:13:00 GMT

Lantern slide of man battling bug.

“A Beautiful Purplish Hue”: Frank Dudley Beane’s Experience with Ergot and Cannabis Indica (1884)

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 10:24:00 GMT

An early contribution to drug literature, in which a man came to be fashioned out of wood.

Introducing PDR Press Minis

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 14:50:00 GMT

Announcing an exciting new book series!

Broken Ground: The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 13:39:00 GMT

A modernist adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe. One of the first avant-garde films from America.

Songs from the Commons: A Q&A with Simon Close about the Public Song Project

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 19:02:00 GMT

The creator of WNYC's Public Song Project on creativity, copyright, and the public domain.

The Great Majority: Body Snatching and Burial Reform in 19th-Century Britain

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 11:57:00 GMT

As populations flocked to city centres in the 19th century, church cemeteries began to overflow with the dead. Roger Luckhurst exhumes the history of this period, when anatomists fuelled a body-snatching trade led by “resurrection men” and reformers sought alternatives to the toxic urban graveyards and their pestilent fumes.

Elizabeth I’s Manuscript Copy of Pierre Boaistuau’s Histoires Prodigieuses (1559)

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 13:15:00 GMT

Marvels, wonders, and monstrosities: something between a medieval bestiary and a scientific treatise on birth defects.

“Wretches, Speak Evil of Me”: Goethe and Schiller’s Xenions (1896 edition)

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 14:07:00 GMT

One of the most elaborate works of literary insult ever written.

Doing Impressions: Monet’s Early Caricatures (ca. late 1850s)

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 13:37:00 GMT

Moneymaking caricatures by a teenage Monet, before he turned to Impressionism.

Fear and Fragility: The Glass Delusion and Its History

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:56:00 GMT

In early modern Europe, around the time when lenses began to bring the world (and heavens) into newfound focus, patients started appearing in medical records with a particular ailment: a firm belief that they were made of glass. Tamara Sanderson investigates the source and manifestation of this delusion, and finds a psychological idiom that once carried the weight of what could otherwise not be said.

Calicornication: Postcards of Giant Produce (1909)

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 13:22:00 GMT

"Tall-tale" or "exaggeration" postcards illustrating the bounties of California.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland (1915)

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 09:30:00 GMT

A utopian novel where men are no longer necessary.

Wayang Kulit: Raden Soelardi’s Illustrations of Javanese Puppets (1919)

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 11:54:00 GMT

Illustrations of Javanese wayang kulit puppets with vivid colour and gilding.

The Blinkered Flâneur: Walking with Franz Hessel in 1920s Berlin

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 14:05:00 GMT

Does the flâneur, that curiously modern figure who wanders metropolitan streets, have a political consciousness? For Franz Hessel — author of Spazieren in Berlin, “a memorization while strolling” that Walter Benjamin called “thoroughly epic” — the answer seemed to be no. Paul Sullivan explores Hessel’s perambulations through Berlin and the achievements and limitations of his vision.

Unbridled Passions: The Eight Horses of King Mu, Son of Heaven (ca. 1300)

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 16:14:00 GMT

Unruly steeds from King Mu’s mythology, cavorting across a silk scroll.

Pigeons Transmogrified: Hannah Glasse’s Art of Cookery (1751 edition)

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 16:13:00 GMT

A bestselling 18th-century cookbook, containing the first recipe for curry in English.

Snail Homes, Bog Bodies, and Mechanical Flies: Robert Testard’s Illustrations for Les secretz de l’histoire naturelle (ca. 1485)

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 16:59:00 GMT

A wondrous illuminated manuscript, which gathers and illustrates the marvels of the world and beyond.

Sekka Zusetsu: A Book of Snowflakes (1832)

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 16:12:00 GMT

Observations of “snow flowers” made by microscope in Edo-era Japan.

Typing for Love or Money: The Hidden Women’s Labor behind Modern Literary Masterpieces

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 16:12:00 GMT

Taking dictation, revising manuscripts, typing copies, literary amanuenses often labour for little compensation and even less recognition. Christine Jacobson explores the neglected efforts of women like Theodora Bosanquet, Véra Nabokov, and Valerie Eliot, who — through their work as typists, editors, and champions — had a profound impact on modern literature.

Sara Weiss’ Journeys to the Planet Mars (1903)

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:28:00 GMT

A forgotten bridge between Spiritualism and UFO encounters.

Autobiography of a “Jeep” (1943)

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 16:07:00 GMT

A WWII propaganda film narrated as an "auto"-biography

Cybernetic Attention: All Watched over by Machines We Learned to Watch

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 15:25:00 GMT

Before the attention economy consumed our lives, “pursuit tests” devised by the US military coupled man to machine with the aim of assessing focus under pressure. D. Graham Burnett explores these devices for evaluating aviators, finding a pre-history of the laboratory research that has relentlessly worked to slice and dice the attentional powers of human beings.

Flights of Fancy: The Nine Birds of Jacques de Fornazeris (1594)

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 15:20:00 GMT

Etchings of birds in a somewhat theatrical style.

A Prophet of the Weather: Lantern Slides by Clement Lindley Wragge (ca. 1900–22)

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 16:25:00 GMT

Slides from twenty years of lecturing about the workings of the universe and the fate of the soul.

Peter Kropotkin’s Memoirs of a Revolutionist (1899)

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 11:47:00 GMT

The memoirs of an aristocratic man revolutionised into an anarchist communist.

Happy Public Domain Day 2026!

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 13:50:00 GMT

Each January 1st is Public Domain Day, when a new crop of works have their copyrights expire and become free to share and reuse for any purpose. Here's our highlights for 2026.

A Thousand and One Nights in Italy: The Moorish Fantasias of Cesare Mattei and Ferdinando Panciatichi

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 15:47:00 GMT

In mid-19th century Italy, two eccentric aristocrats set forth on parallel projects: constructing ostentatious castles in a Moorish Revival style. Iván Moure Pazos tours the psychedelic chambers of Rochetta Mattei, optimised for electrohomeopathic healing, and Castello di Sammezzano, an immersive, orientalist fever dream.

Nature Morte: Chaïm Soutine’s Still Lifes (ca. 1920s)

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 15:46:00 GMT

Still lifes by the artist who seemed to bridge expressionism with the baroque.

Deceit and Disrobing: The Schefer Maqāmāt (BNF Arabe 5847, ca. 1237)

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 17:40:00 GMT

Illustrations of Abū Zayd and his adventures in double meaning.

Luke Howard’s Essay on the Modification of Clouds (1865)

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 15:34:00 GMT

First cloud taxonomer and a poem by Goethe.

The Launch of Our End-of-Year Fundraiser!

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 15:21:00 GMT

Our End-of-Year Fundraiser is launched, and the new postcards theme will be Attention.

“Quaint Dessert Dishes” in American Homes and Gardens (1911)

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 15:47:00 GMT

Bizarre sweet treats that resemble human and animal forms.

Henri Rivière’s Thirty-Six Views of the Eiffel Tower (1888–1902)

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 15:47:00 GMT

French lithographs of the Eiffel Tower and its environs, in the style of Japanese woodblock prints.

Art in Art: Cabinets of Curiosity and the Rise of the Gallery Painting

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 15:11:00 GMT

In the 17th century, emanating from Antwerp, a new genre of artwork came on the scene: paintings of paintings, works populated by a lush array of meta-images. From its origins in picturing private curiosity cabinets to its later use in documenting increasingly public collections, Thea Applebaum Licht charts the course of this alluring aesthetic tradition.

Too Computerised? Too Cold?: 1999 A.D. (1967)

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 15:57:00 GMT

A past vision of the future. Domestic utopia? Or sanitised hell?

New T-Shirts (Now in 100% Organic Cotton) and New Mugs in Our Shop!

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 15:52:00 GMT

Adorn your body and coffee in PDR goodness! We’ve just added 8 new T-shirts and 13 new mugs to our online shop.

Roma Lister, Aradia, and the Speculative Origins of a Witchcraft Revival

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 13:32:00 GMT

In 1899, Charles Godfrey Leland published Aradia, “the gospel of the witches”, containing a goddess-orientated creation and saviour narrative, purported to descend from an ancient, hermetic tradition of witchcraft in Italy. A. D. Manns explores this text via an enchanting conjecture: that the writer, medium, and witch Roma Lister played a pivotal role in the formation of both Aradia and, therefore, a new form of paganism called Wicca.

Last Order Dates for the Holiday Season - 2025

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 13:15:00 GMT

The recommended cut-off dates to order from our shop by to ensure delivery in time for Dec 25th.

Perverse, Grotesque, Sensuous, Inimitable: A Selection of Works by Aubrey Beardsley

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 15:10:00 GMT

Selections from an artist whose phantasmagoric works defined an era.

Animal Costumes from the 1862 Fairytale Ball of the Jung-München Artist’s Association

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 11:41:00 GMT

Photographs from a costume ball featuring fairytale fables.

PDR's Halloween Reader

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 17:29:00 GMT

This Halloween week, a devilish dive into our archives to unearth some supernatural treats...

“That’s Why We Become Witches”: Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Lolly Willowes (1926)

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 15:28:00 GMT

A novel about a woman who throws off the yoke of patriarchy to become a witch.

Hooked on Sonics: Experimenting with Sound in 19th-Century Popular Science

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 13:22:00 GMT

Of all the senses cultivated throughout the 19th century, it was the sense of hearing that experienced the most dramatic transformation, as the science of sound underwent rapid advancement. Lucas Thompson delves into a particular genre of popular acoustics primers aimed at children and amateurs alike, which reveal the pedagogical, ludic, and transcendental strivings of Victorian society.

A Treatise on the All-Healing Qualities of Earth Bathing (1790)

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 14:09:00 GMT

A medical tract on the health effects of burying oneself alive in mud.

Paramaribo and the Plantation: Gerrit Schouten’s Dioramas of Suriname (1810–30)

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 13:20:00 GMT

Dioramas avant la lettre that depict local life in Suriname.

The Nature of the Beast: Charles le Brun’s Human-Animal Hybrids (1806)

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 13:40:00 GMT

Illustrations of supposed physiognomic affinities between humans and animals.

The Adventures and Experiences of the First Slovak Novel

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 12:02:00 GMT

Partially banned upon publication and translated into English for the first time this year, René, or: A Young Man’s Adventures and Experiences (1783–85) found new readers in the communist era thanks to its critiques of feudalism, capitalism, and the Catholic Church. Dobrota Pucherová introduces us to this hybrid work, which mixes the bildungsroman with the philosophical novel, the romance, the adventure story, the travelogue, the history book, and the orientalist fantasy.

Vertiginous Accounts: Travels in the Air (1871 edition)

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 09:58:00 GMT

Expedition accounts of aeronauts bravely venturing into the heavens on hot-air balloons.

Birth of the Pearl (1901)

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 14:53:00 GMT

A "living picture" film staging Botticelli’s Birth of Venus with a twist.

The End of the World as We (Didn’t) Know It: Now and Then #5

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 10:48:00 GMT

A Rapture that wasn’t, in 2025 and 1844.

The Shadow of Desire: Painting the Origins of Art (ca. 1625–1850)

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 14:13:00 GMT

Paintings illustrating Pliny the Elder’s account of the origins of art.

“You Think Me a Bold Cheat”: Mary Carleton, Counterfeit Princess

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 12:11:00 GMT

Accused of posing as foreign royalty to lure her young suitor into a bigamous marriage, Mary Carleton was the subject of dozens of pamphlets and broadsides published in the mid-17th century, including by Carleton herself. Investigating the fraudster’s life, Laura Kolb finds a self-fashioning figure who both influenced the emergence of the English novel and serves as a strange precursor to our modern-day fascination with conwomen and counterfeits, like the heiress manqué Anna Delvey.

A Collection of Old English Customs, and Curious Bequests and Charities (1842)

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 12:09:00 GMT

A compilation of historical gifting traditions in England, with a focus on the peculiar.

Ivan Aivazovsky’s Miniature Seascapes (ca. 1887)

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 13:20:00 GMT

Identical photographs of the artist, each with a unique miniature painting at the centre.

The Cat’s Maew: Thai Treatise on Auspicious Felines (19th Century)

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 13:06:00 GMT

A manuscript that pairs illustrations of cats with poetic descriptions and notes on what mystical benefits their owners might hope to accrue.

Watching the World in a Dark Room: The Early Modern Camera Obscura

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 14:57:00 GMT

Centuries before photography froze the world into neat frames, scientists, poets, and artists streamed transient images into dark interior spaces with the help of a camera obscura. Julie Park explores the early modern fascination with this quasi-spiritual technology and the magic, melancholy, and dream-like experiences it produced.

Cannibal Modernity: Oswald de Andrade’s Manifesto Antropófago (1928)

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 14:55:00 GMT

A modernist manifesto inspired (controversially) by the Tupi people of Brazil.

Flowers of Fealty: Wilhelm Dilich’s Commemoration of the Christening of Elisabeth of Hesse (1598)

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 16:20:00 GMT

Commemorative manuscript featuring illustrations of pageants, costumes, and fireworks, later further illustrated by a separate artist, with floral motifs.

Breaking the Celestial Ceiling: Now and Then #4

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 14:10:00 GMT

Female astronomical first, in 2025 and 1787.

Through the Magnifying Glass: The Cheese Mites (1903)

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 15:29:00 GMT

A trick film in the peepshow vein, involving magnification and mites on a block of cheese.

Splitting Hairs: Chinese Immigrants, the Queue, and the Boundaries of Political Citizenship

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 13:37:00 GMT

As Chinese immigration to California accelerated across the 19th century, the hairstyle known as the queue — a long, braided pony tail — became the subject of white Americans’ fascination, disgust, and legal regulation. Sarah Gold McBride explores why hair served as an index of political subjecthood, and how the queue exposed cracks in American norms regarding gender, economy, and citizenship.

The Mowing-Devil (1678), or, the Earliest Known Depiction of a Crop Circle

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 09:53:00 GMT

A crop circle sighting tinged with Christian morality.

Perspiration, Bilocation, and Plagiarisation: “The Heat Wave” (1929)

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 14:09:00 GMT

Time travel and murder during a New York heat wave.

The “Private” Photographs of Bolette Berg and Marie Høeg (ca. 1895–1903)

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 13:45:00 GMT

Excerpts from a dazzling image collection, discovered in a Norwegian barn in the 1980s, that experiments with the presentation of gender.

Dancing Naked on the Head of a Pin: The Early History of Microphotography

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 14:08:00 GMT

In 1853, John Benjamin Dancer achieved a feat of seemingly impossible scale: he shrunk an image to the size of a sharpened pencil tip. Anika Burgess explores the invention of microphotography and its influence on erotic paraphernalia and military communications.

Trojan Pig: Tiny Cryptic #11

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 14:07:00 GMT

Eleventh instalment in our series of extremely small and free-form cryptic crossword puzzles, themed on our latest essay.

The Language of Form: Lothar Schreyer’s Kreuzigung (1920)

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 14:07:00 GMT

The sole example of a Bauhaus workshop’s arcane theatrical scoring system, combining colours, words, and complex symbolic notation.

Strings Attached: Helen Haiman Joseph’s A Book of Marionettes (1920)

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 11:46:00 GMT

The first comprehensive history of marionette artistry in the English language.

Off with Their Heads: Illustrations of Blemmyes (ca. 1175–1724)

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 16:34:00 GMT

Depictions of the mythical creatures known as Blemmyes: humanoids whose eyes, nose, and mouth are embedded in their breast.

Imagining an Idle Countess: George Wightwick’s The Palace of Architecture

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 11:21:00 GMT

In 1840, British architect George Wightwick published a world history of architecture in the Romantic mode, inviting readers to enter a vast garden where Buddhist iconography rubs shoulders with Greek temples and Egyptian pyramids gaze upon Gothic cathedrals. His intended audience? Idle women. Matthew Mullane revisits this visionary but ultimately unpopular text, revealing the legacy of attempts to gatekeep the realms of imagination and fantasy pertaining to the built environment.

Under Construction: Tiny Cryptic #10

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 11:19:00 GMT

Tenth instalment in our series of extremely small and free-form cryptic crossword puzzles, themed on our latest essay.

Drawing on Tradition: Elena Izcue’s Peruvian Art in the School (1926)

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 11:18:00 GMT

A set of drawing workbooks embroiled in debates about the Indigenist aesthetic movement.

Charles Davy’s Conjectural Observations on the Origin and Progress of Alphabetic Writing (1772)

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 11:04:00 GMT

A series of conjectures about the primal scene of writing.

Bernard Sleigh’s Anciente Mappe of Fairyland (ca. 1920 edition)

Wed, 28 May 2025 11:58:00 GMT

A stunning six-foot-long map that joins the worlds of various myths and stories for the childhood adventurer.

The Old, Old, Very Old Man: Thomas Parr and the Longevity Trade

Wed, 21 May 2025 14:16:00 GMT

As the story goes, Old Tom Parr was relatively healthy for being 152 until a visit to noxious, polluted London in 1635 cut his long life short. Katherine Harvey investigates the early modern claims surrounding this supercentarian and the fraudulent longevity business that became his namesake in the 19th century.

Old Tricks: Tiny Cryptic #9

Wed, 21 May 2025 14:12:00 GMT

Ninth instalment in our series of extremely small and free-form cryptic crossword puzzles, themed on our latest essay.

“The Great Enigma of Our Times”: Henry George’s Poverty and Progress (1881 edition)

Wed, 21 May 2025 14:11:00 GMT

A landmark work of social reform — proposing a land value tax — that helped usher in the Progressive Era.

In the Penal Colony: Now and Then #3

Wed, 21 May 2025 14:10:00 GMT

French overseas imprisonment, in 2025 and 1852.

Gilded Fish: Illustrations from Histoire naturelle des dorades de la Chine (1780)

Thu, 15 May 2025 10:52:00 GMT

Stunning illustrations from the first monograph on goldfish published in Europe.

Charles Butler’s The Feminine Monarchie, or the History of Bees (1634 edition)

Tue, 13 May 2025 13:45:00 GMT

The earliest full-length work of apiculture published in English, which popularised the discovery that bee colonies have queens instead of kings.

As Bright as a Feather: Ostriches, Home Dyeing, and the Global Plume Trade

Wed, 07 May 2025 15:28:00 GMT

In the 19th century, dyed ostrich feathers were haute couture, adorning the hats and boas of fashionistas on both sides of the Atlantic. Whitney Rakich examines the far-reaching ostrich industry through a peculiar do-it-yourself-style book: Alexander Paul’s The Practical Ostrich Feather Dyer (1888), a text interleaved with richly colored specimens.

Warburg’s Werewolf: An Anamnesis

Wed, 07 May 2025 15:27:00 GMT

Aby Warburg spent his life finding forms that could hold their own against the flow of time. All the while, as Kevin Dann explores, he was churning on the brink of madness with the sense that he himself was changing — into a terrifying animal. What kind of history would a werewolf write?

Mudpots and Fumaroles: Lithographs of Yellowstone’s Thermal Springs (1883)

Wed, 07 May 2025 15:26:00 GMT

Images gathered during a survey by Ferdinand V. Hayden, who was responsible for the designation of Yellowstone as a national park.

Feather Tickler: Tiny Cryptic #8

Wed, 07 May 2025 15:11:00 GMT

Eighth instalment in our series of extremely small and free-form cryptic crossword puzzles, themed on our latest essay.

A Popeless Situation: Now and Then #2

Wed, 07 May 2025 15:10:00 GMT

Papal elections begin, in 2025 and 1268.

Tangled Dürer: The Six Knots (ca. before 1521)

Tue, 06 May 2025 13:11:00 GMT

Woodcut knots likely inspired by Mamluk decorative metalwork.

Nikolai Agnivtsev’s Little Screw (1925)

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 14:55:00 GMT

A 1925 Soviet Children’s book about a little screw whose importance is overlooked.

Confessional Boxes: Tiny Cryptic #7

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 11:33:00 GMT

Seventh instalment in our series of extremely small and free-form cryptic crossword puzzles, themed on our latest essay.

“I Am Making the World My Confessor”: Mary MacLane, the Wild Woman from Butte

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 11:32:00 GMT

In 1902, a woman named Mary MacLane from Butte, Montana, became an international sensation after publishing a scandalous journal recording life at the age of 19. Rereading this often-forgotten debut, Hunter Dukes finds a voice that hungers for worldly experience, brims with bisexual longing, and rages against the injustices of youth.

Oskar Kokoschka, Hermine Moos, and the Alma Mahler Doll

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 13:07:00 GMT

Photographs of the life-size doll that Kokoschka had made to resemble his ex-lover Alma Mahler.

Photographs of the Samaritan Passover on Mount Gerizim (1917)

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 14:00:00 GMT

Images from a ritual practised for 127 generations.

Sea Monsters Unmasked and Sea Fables Explained by Henry Lee (1883)

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 13:05:00 GMT

Pamphlets on sea beasts produced for the International Fisheries Exhibition of 1883.

Modern Babylon: Ziggurat Skyscrapers and Hugh Ferriss’ Retrofuturism

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 14:29:00 GMT

In the early twentieth century, architects turned to a newly discovered past to craft novel visions of the future: the ancient history of Mesopotamia. Eva Miller traces how both the mythology of Babel and reconstructions of stepped-pyramid forms influenced skyscraper design, speculative cinema in the 1910s and 20s, and, above all else, the retrofuturist dreams of Hugh Ferriss, architectural delineator extraordinaire.

Zig-a-zig-ah: Tiny Cryptic #6

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 10:06:00 GMT

Sixth instalment in our series of extremely small and free-form cryptic crossword puzzles, themed on our latest essay.

Sheet Mewsic: Moritz von Schwind’s Katzensymphonie (1868)

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 13:26:00 GMT

Sheet music whose notes have been replaced by rambunctious cats.

“The Form of a Demon and the Heart of a Person”: Kitagawa Utamaro’s Prints of Yamauba and Kintarō (ca. 1800)

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 16:38:00 GMT

Edo-era prints of a loving demon with adopted or biological son.

Uncommon Sense: Edward B. Foote’s Plain Home Talk (1896 edition)

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 20:02:00 GMT

An encyclopedic tome of health advice that unpicks the biases of its time.

Jack London, Jack Johnson, and the Fight of the Century

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 11:07:00 GMT

Held in Jim Crow–era Nevada on the 4th of July, the 1910 World Heavyweight Championship was slated to be a fight to remember. Moonlighting as a boxing journalist, novelist Jack London cheered on Jim Jeffries — ringside and on the page — as the “Great White Hope", a contender to take back the title from Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight champion. Andrew Rihn examines the contradictions of London’s racial rhetoric, which is more complex and convoluted than it may initially appear.