Ala Faco

Sociologist and founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois, born...

Words to Ponder “Information is endlessly available to us; where shall wisdom be found?” Harold Bloom “A blank page is actually a whitewashe...

Cover of the first English edition of 1793 of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography An autobiography (from the Greek, αὐτός-autos self + ...

Literary critic and teacher Harold Bloom was born in New York City (1930) to Jewish immigrants. His first language was Yiddish, and he st...

By the road to the contagious hospital under the surge of the blue mottled clouds driven from the northeast—a cold wind. Beyond, the wa...

The wayfarer  Perceiving the pathway to truth, Was struck with astonishment. It was thickly grown with weeds. “Ha,” he said, 5...

*A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things. *If you can get nothing better out of the world, get a good dinner out...

Poet, playwright, and statesman Archibald Macleish, born in Glencoe, Illinois (1892). He did his best writing in the 1920's and 30...

Correcting an Unbalance I never listen to commercials, Father said. They're aimed at trying to sell me something I don't need. If I ...

At recess a boy ran to me with a pink rubber ball and asked if I would kick it to him. He handed me the ball, then turned and ran and ran an...

In the fall of 1995, after resigning from my last academic post, I decided to indulge myself and fulfill a dream. I chose seven of my best a...

*The following passage is not for the general reader, but for the particular idiot who, because he lost a fortune in some crash, thinks he ...

"Jerry" by Carl Sandburg, from Billy Sunday and Other Poems Six years I worked in a knitting mill at a machine And then I married ...

The novelist Vladimir Nabokov, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia (1899). He described himself as "a perfectly normal trilingual chi...

The man who wrote "Call me Ishmael," one of the most famous first lines in literature: Herman Melville, was born in New York Ci...

Poet Walt Whitman was born in West Hills, Long Island, New York (1819). He grew up in Brooklyn and lived in New York City for most of his...

John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California (1902). He is the author of the epic novel The Grapes Of Wrath (1939) and also Of Mice and ...

Valentine's Day was last week. The day on which we celebrate love and especially romantic love. This day is linked to Greco-Roman Februa...

Short story writer and novelist LEONARD MICHAELS was born in New York City, 1933. He grew up in the Lower East Side, the son of immigrant...

“The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence; not in silence, but restraint” “Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with...