A Sinking Island: The Modern English Writers CAROLYN HEILBRUN'S review of Lyndall Gordon's Virginia Woolf: A Writer's Life (The New York Times Book Review, Feb. 10, 1985) was--so I thought at the time--a truly representative screed: a specimen of contemporary "literary" "culture."...

A Brief History of Modern Japanese Theatre After the Meiji Restoration and the opening of Japan to the West, the Japanese theatre underwent a series of transformations. The cultural, economic, and political changes in the nation fundamentally altered the traditional theatres of...

Today is Saturday, Oct. 6, the 279th day of 2007. There are 86 days left in the year.Today's Highlight in History:On Oct. 6, 1927, the era of talking pictures arrived with the opening of "The Jazz Singer," a movie starring Al Jolson which featured both...

Perhaps we all felt we knew Arthur Miller, for to know a man's plays is to be on friendly terms with the man. I wouldn't pretend to have known Miller personally, but we met a number of times and talked by phone, and each time...

Starts with the premise that Modern English (1500-up to now) began with the establishment of printing in England. Considers the changes in vocabulary since then. Describes how new inventions and new scientific discoveries, new products and social relationships lead to new words being invented or introduced in society.