Author Archives: John Mark Ockerbloom

“For generations of women– and men– on their own difficult passages to sexual self-discovery, The Well of Loneliness became a beacon” writes Hephzibah Anderson on Radclyffe Hall’s 1928 novel, which joins the US public domain in 7 weeks. One of … Continue reading →

I was interested to scroll through the Goodreads reviews of Robert Nathan’s The Bishop’s Wife, a book not as well known or as much loved as its film adaptations (the 1947 movie of the same name, and the 1996 movie … Continue reading →

“My experiences in the First World War have haunted me all my life and for many days I have, it seemed, lived in that world rather than this.” Edmund Blunden wrote that over 40 years after he published Undertones of … Continue reading →

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of … Continue reading →

Not everyone was a fan of The House at Pooh Corner. An infamous review of the book ran in the Constant Reader column of the October 20, 1928 issue of The New Yorker, in which Dorothy Parker pronounced “Tonstant Weader … Continue reading →

Everyone’s lives are disrupted in The House at Pooh Corner. Newcomer Tigger bounces routines off-kilter; Owl’s house falls; Piglet moves in with Pooh; Christopher Robin goes away to school. Ryan Britt writes “Pooh was not intended to be… on an … Continue reading →

Victor Yarros wrote of Charles Beard’s The American Party Battle “Why do parties survive issues and die morally while pretending to carry on?… [Those] who would like to know what has happened to republicanism or democracy are confidently referred to … Continue reading →

In Grace Taber Hallock’s fantasy The Boy Who Was, Nino, a boy given eternal youth by the Sirens, relates what he’s seen and done in his Italian coastal town over thousands of years, from the time of Odysseus to 1927. … Continue reading →

The posters for the silent drama Love read “John Gilbert and Greta Garbo in LOVE”, playing off both the on-screen and off-screen romance of its two stars. The movie, based on Anna Karenina, was filmed with two endings, one where … Continue reading →

Esther Forbes is best known for her books on colonial New England, winning a Pulitzer prize for her biography of Paul Revere, and the Newbery for her novel Johnny Tremain. Her first book on that era, A Mirror for Witches, … Continue reading →