This view of Scranton, Pennsylvania, shows the new roundhouse of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad. The painting was commissioned by the president of the railroad ca. 1856. I love the way the train…
A favorite quote on reading, from Francis Bacon (1561-1626): Crafty men condemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise men use them: for they teach not their own use: but…
Leyendecker (1874-1951) is one of my favorite American illustrators, active starting in 1899 - almost the same time as Maxfield Parrish began painting. On my wish list is the latest, gloriously…
Manchester's A World Lit Only by Fire is brilliant, gripping, and startlingly vivid view of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance that uses Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe as a a hook.…
I've loved reading for as long as I can remember, and this painting captures the emotion I associate with it---utter absorption and bright light, even if the day is dark…
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy is a romping good story, and was the first novel to feature a fop who is a hero in disguise. That makes Sir Percival Blakeney…
After reading some of my favorite modern mystery writers (Lee Child, Dick Francis, et al.), I have trouble slowing down to the pace of Dickens and other 19th-century novelists ... but it's always…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0d-DFtjIOk Pandora tossed the elegant Symphony in C Major into one of my playlists recently, with the comment that its creator, Johann Baptist Wanhal, would be far more famous if he…
Lavoisier is credited with changing chemistry from a qualitative to a quantitative science. He discovered the role oxygen plays in combustion, stated the law of conservation of mass, helped construct…
If you know me from Facebook or ForgottenDelights.com, or have read my books or heard me lecture, you have a good idea of the type of art I like. This blog is…