This April marks the 175th anniversary of the publication of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders of the Rue Morgue. It was the first of the three stories to feature C. Auguste Dupin, the first literary detective. Later writers, including Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, would cite Poe and Dupin as their inspiration. Fitting, as it is…
FOR WORD NERDS: THE ETYMOLOGICON & HOROLOGICON
Mark Forsyth has vindicated word nerds the world over with these two books. Far from being dry reference books, Forsyth brings the dead back to life by digging up the circuitous history of the words we use every day. The Horologicon arranges the entries around the hours of the day. The chapters include Commute, The…