Uh. Is that what I think it is?

Where famous writers delivered their first (and last) words.

The Caustic Cover Critic on Tutis, a publisher that takes public domain works and puts “ridiculously inappropriate covers on them” (see left), via The Second Pass.

The five stages of grief publishing.

Seven books that changed the world, if only they actually existed.

“I can’t control the kittens. Too many whiskers! Too many whiskers!” This and more from a husband who talks in his sleep, broadcast to the world by his adoring wife. Via The Millions.

The WSJ discusses the death of the slush pile, and M. A. Orthofer of The Literary Saloon responds.

Oh, this is sad. An anonymous visitor who is known to leave roses and cognac on Edgar Allen Poe’s grave for the writer’s birthday has broken tradition for the first time in over sixty years.

Lit 101 class in 3 lines or less, via HTMLGIANT.

Aaaand just for kicks, the Spampersand: Read more »

This week: writers say the darndest things, Americans buy the darndest books, and also some zombies. Read more »

Did you know that Edgar Allen Poe considered himself not just an accomplished writer but THE BEST CRYPTOGRAPHER EVAR??? He loved to dedicate his genius to solving ciphers, puns, riddles, you name it, and he was known to boast that “nothing can be written which, with time, I cannot decipher.” Oh, and he also liked to remind people that “Edgar Poe” is an anagram for “a God Peer.” Nice.

In 1841, Poe challenged readers of Graham’s Magazine, where he was an editor, to solve a devilishly difficult puzzle a friend had sent him. He promised to post the answer in the next month’s issue, but flaked (could it be that he couldn’t solve the puzzle himself??). Today, The New Yorker is giving readers the chance to match wits with the self-declared puzzle master by offering that same puzzle. Read the text full of jumbled letters and numbers, and with the help of a few cryptic clues, find out for yourself if Poe was nearly as brilliant as he thought he was. [The New Yorker]