Literary History

Pieces on the literary past as it bears on the literary present — recoveries, reconsiderations, and the long arguments between contemporary writing and the writing it inherits.

2 articles

Literary History

The Quiet Art of the Short Author Photograph: What Portraits Tell Us About Writers

The author photograph is a small genre with its own history and its own conventions. The contemporary author photograph reveals more about…

Edmund Whitfield May 11, 2026 8 min read

Literary History

The Recovery of Penelope Fitzgerald: How Her Reputation Caught Up With Her Achievement

Fitzgerald began publishing fiction in her late fifties and was, for two decades, an almost-private writer despite winning the Booker. The recovery…

Edmund Whitfield May 11, 2026 8 min read