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Journalist and author
The Line of Thought
. . . to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream.
--Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
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On this day in 1808. . .
One hundred and fourth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Jane Austen, it seems, took a rather jaundiced...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 2, 2025
On this day in 1798. . .
Ninety-eighth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Mary Lloyd was a friend of Jane and Cassandra Austen...
Deborah Yaffe
Dec 2, 2024
On this day in 1808. . .
Ninety-sixth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Janeites do not always take Jane Austen at her word when it...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 7, 2024
On this day in 1801. . .
Ninety-first in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. A curious—and curiously contemporary--passage appears in the...
Deborah Yaffe
Jan 25, 2024
On this day in 1808. . .
Eighty-ninth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Novelists are a ruthless bunch. They find grist for their...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 16, 2023
On this day in 1796. . .
Eighty-eighth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. The British have a well-documented penchant for discussing...
Deborah Yaffe
Sep 18, 2023
Edward Knight, publican?
Edward Knight, Jane Austen’s third-oldest brother, was a husband, a father, a landowner, and the man who provided one of England’s...
Deborah Yaffe
Jun 12, 2023
On this day in 1811. . .
Eighty-fourth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. It’s traditional to envision Jane Austen as a homebody, and...
Deborah Yaffe
Apr 20, 2023
On this day in 1813. . .
Eighty-first in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Sometimes you read a famous author’s correspondence and...
Deborah Yaffe
Nov 3, 2022
On this day in 1798. . .
Eightieth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Nowadays, an unpublished writer can upload her...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 24, 2022
On this day in 1811. . .
Seventy-sixth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Jane Austen’s novels famously contain few detailed...
Deborah Yaffe
Jun 6, 2022
Another mansion for sale
Once again, it’s time for every Janeite’s favorite sport: eying up palatial real estate with tangential Jane Austen associations. Today’s...
Deborah Yaffe
Nov 18, 2021
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