Just came across a delightful bit of (historical) literary gossip: the Italian novelist Italo Svevo, after the failure of his first 2 novels, briefly gave up on writing and ended up hiring James Joyce (yes, the Ulysses guy) as an English tutor! They ended up becoming friends and devoted readers of each other’s work. And Joyce ended up ch…

I really appreciated this essay by Peter Coviello (an English professor at a public university) on what it takes to give students a high-quality humanities education.

It’s just so elegantly and passionately written—you really sense the affection Coviello has for his students and peers—and he makes a strong case fo…

So basically they’re artists —