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Posted by: Amber Paranick
During the 19th century, people read serialized novels the way we watch episodic TV. Momentum was built with each installment and readers tuned in each week (or month) to find out what happened after the last cliffhanger. This is part 1 of a 3-part series that spans the history of serialized fiction in periodicals.
Posted in: Digitized Newspapers, Newspapers, Walt Whitman
Posted by: Arlene Balkansky
In 1860, the 3rd edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass received a wildly varying reception in newspapers. At opposite ends of the spectrum, it was advertised as “America’s First Distinctive Poem” and reviewed as “armless, witless, pointless.” The advertisement was from the volume’s …
Posted in: Digitized Newspapers, Newspapers, Walt Whitman