Author Archives: John Mark Ockerbloom

Strong Poison introduces Harriet Vane as an accused murderess. Lord Peter Wimsey quickly falls for her, but Harriet refuses the detective’s suit. Victoria Janssen discusses how each eventually finds the other a worthy match over several more books, and how … Continue reading →

Generations of stargazers and astronomy students learned about the universe from Robert H. Baker. The University of Illinois Observatory director published and revised astronomy textbooks and popular books into his 80s, with revisions by others continuing into the 1970s. His … Continue reading →

The slapstick comedy team once known as Ted Healy and His Southern Gentlemen started in vaudeville, but got their big break in pictures in the 1930 feature film Soup to Nuts. Ted had top billing, but Moe, Larry and Shemp … Continue reading →

In 47 days, Agatha Christie’s first novel starring Miss Marple joins the US public domain. The Murder at the Vicarage, which also introduces her home village of St Mary Mead, is not the spinster detective’s most popular case, partly because … Continue reading →

Cimarron was 1930’s best-selling novel in the US, but more people now remember its movie adaptations than the story Edna Ferber wrote. As Taylor Jasmine notes, passages she meant as satire were taken as straight-up Western storytelling. And, while Ferber … Continue reading →

Blondie Bumstead (née Boopadoop) and her family and friends have appeared every day in newspapers for over 95 years. Created by Chic Young in 1930, and still overseen by his son Dean, Blondie has stayed relevant by changing with the … Continue reading →