The poet Walt Whitman visited Germantown on a number of occasions. Perhaps his most noteworthy visit was recorded by Katherine […]
John Rossi: Philly sports writers, a biased opinion
Philadelphia has had an inferiority complex towards New York. The city never seemed to get over being bypassed in the […]
Thom Nickels: The pretzel, the pain, and the prose — Pete Dexter’s Philadelphia years
For a writer, the ability to entertain readers doesn’t require a pronounced accent or a certain pose while smoking a […]
Thom Nickels: 19th-century Philadelphia’s macabre, union-organizing novelist
Lippard makes Poe look like Mother Goose.
By Thom Nickels
Thom Nickels: Daniel P. Mannix and Peter the Python
The Mannix farm was a legendary place in an area that was then called Bacton Hill. It was known as […]
Thom Nickels: Philadelphia’s grande dame of the essay
In the heart of Center City Philadelphia there is a small graveyard alongside the church of Saint John the Evangelist. […]
Thom Nickels: The strange world of book signings
What attracts an audience to hear an author talk about a book is anybody’s guess.
By Thom Nickels
