Still Farther South: Poe and ‘Pym’s’ Suggestive Symmetries

Detail from an 1853 pilot chart of the South Pacific, drawn by Matthew Fontaine Maury. / Image courtesy of Biblioteca Virtual de Defensa, Public Domain The shape of art in Edgar Allan Poe’s 18th-century fictional travelogue as the United States began its Exploring Expedition to the South Seas in 1839. By Dr. John TreschMellon Professor in Art History, History of Science, and Folk PracticeThe Warburg Institute This article, Still Farther South: Poe a...

Unspooled and the Racist Legacy of Gone With the Wind

Unspooled and the Racist Legacy of ‘Gone With the Wind’ I sometimes get obsessed with certain podcasts, and one of my recent favorites is "Unspooled," a podcast that, on each episode, examines a movie from the American Film Institute’s top 100 list and discusses whether or not it deserves to be there. I was shocked and saddened when the show got to "Gone with the Wind." While the podcast hosts differed on how racist the film was, both of them had plenty of praise for it and agreed it belonge...

Authors on the Importance of Writing the Final Chapter First

Authors on the Importance of Writing the Final Chapter FirstBy Alison NastasiJune 30 2013Share:Writing isn’t necessarily a linear process. History shows that authors frequently composed their novels by writing or conceptualizing the final chapter or sentence first. Today marks the 77th anniversary of the publication of Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. She famously wrote her best-selling story of the Old South backwards, penning the saddest parts of the Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara...