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R I T E R 'S N I B S • L
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L O G • C
O N T A C T •
• P E D A G O G Y •
GRAPHIC NOVELS
For
the College Classroom
GRAMMAR/RHETORIC
For
the College Classroom
• S C R I B B L I N G S •
PRIMITIVE ARCHER MAGAZINE
Hunting
Through
Medieval Literature
INTERDISCIPLINARY
HUMANITIES
Classroom
Comics: Children's
Medium and the New Literacy
GODDESSES
IN WORLD CULTURE
The
Maiden with a Thousand
Slippers
INTERDISCIPLINARY
HUMANITIES
Peter
Pan
HORSE
& RIDER MAGAZINE
A Whisper and a Prayer
COURSE CURRICULUM
ARTICLE
Christine de Pizan
CONFERENCE
PAPER
Hostages
in the Rose Garden
Links for READERS and STUDENTS
AbeBooks - When looking for books (new, used, rare, self-published, and out-of-print), this website searches among hundreds of vendor sites to find what you're looking for.
Brain Pickings - is a human-powered discovery engine for interestingness, a subjective lens on what matters in the world and why, bringing you things you didn’t know you were interested in — until you are.
Free Website for Periodicals, Books, and Videos- I have to admit I haven't looked much at the books and videos, but the periodicals are awesome. Ron Unz has collected 150 years worth of open access periodicals here that can be searched by categories: Mystery/Crime/Adventure (including a lot of pulps from the 1940s-50s), Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror (my personal favorite - I love the covers from the Golden Age), Romance, Westerns, and a whole lot more.
Good Reads - Goodreads is a free website for book lovers. Imagine it as a place that you can wander through and see everyone's bookshelves, their reviews, and their ratings. You can also post your own reviews and catalog what you have read, are currently reading, and plan to read in the future.
Historical Guide to American Literature - Need to know more about American Lit, here's the website for you. From descriptions of American Literary Time Periods to Famous American Authors and the Great American Novel, this website is a great place to start discovering American Literature. It is no longer maintained, but there is still loads of book worth discovering.
Humanities Education and Research Association - HERA is a nonprofit organization devoted to maintaining humanities education in grades K-12. Links to colleges that offer humanities degrees and conferences.
The Library of Congress Digital Collection - The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office.
The Library of Congress "American Memory" - This archive of American manuscripts, recordings, maps, films and images was launched in the mid-1990s and now contains about 15 million items.
Open Culture - The Best Free Cultural and Educational Media on the web. This site is packed with eBooks, movies, interviews, and free courses on language, biology, literature, match, etc. Sign up for the newsletter.
Project Gutenberg - You will find classic books from the start of the 20th century and previous, from authors like Shakespeare, Poe, and Dante. Many best-loved favorites include, the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Tarzan and Mars books of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as told by Lewis Carroll, and thousands of others.
The Teaching Company - college level courses on everything including Shakespeare, history, physics, and philosophy. Get a tape (or CD) and start learning on your way to and from work. If you have a Roku TV, they have a free channel.
TED Talks - Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
Links for WRITERS
Creative Writing Contests - information about creative writing contests, literary magazines theme issues, writing residencies, etc. Now accepting writing contest news and announcements!
Writing Careers: The Business Behind Becoming an Author - a young writer sent me this link and it is a good one. Zen Business talks about skills writers need, helpful degrees, career options, self-publishing, and lots, lots, more. A plethora of useful links here.
Links to SCIENCE FICTION and the FUTURE
Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy - the largest publicly-accessible collection of science fiction, fantasy, horror and utopian literature in the world. It is housed in the UC Riverside Libraries' Special Collections & Archives in the Tomás Rivera Library.
Philip K. Dick Fan Site - An online community for fans of Philip K. Dick, old and new, along with the promotion of his work and the sharing of information, text, audio or visual that pertains to his life, his work and his legacy. Includes news, articles, criticism, interviews, biography, synopses of major works, reviews, links, and much more.
Philip K. Dick Festival - The Largest Gathering of PKD Scholars and Fans Ever Assembled in North America, A Multidisciplinary Celebration of the Legendary California Writer held annually.
Science Fiction and Fantasy Stack Exchange - is a question and answer site for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts.
Total Dick-Head Blog - News, Analysis, and Philip K Dick-Related Info Kipple Chronicled by a PKD Scholar.
Links
to HISTORICAL FICTION
Whether you're reading, writing, or watching . . .
Copperfield Review - a journal of history and fiction. We love everything about books, writers, and writing.
HNS: The Magazine of the Historical Novel Society - It features interviews, articles, short fiction and comment - the only such magazine in the world for enthusiasts of historical fiction.
Links to HISTORY VIDEOS
BBC History Documentaries - over 100 videos covering Medieval to Elizabethan times - Saxons to Monguls. Some on the French too.
Colonial America - a few documentaries covering the colonial era, including slavery and plantations.
Elizabethan and Tudor Films and Documentaries - over 200 to choose from, mostly British. Lots of Time Team.
Greek/Roman/Italian Documentaries - Over 30 documentaries from the Greeks to the Romans and up to the Renaissance.
Medieval Documentaries - lots of knights, weapons, battles, wars, and English kings.
Medieval Documentaries - another play list, however, not just medieval. Gets into early modern England as well. Focuses more on the royals.
Links to BYGONE ERAS
Historical Fashion Resource - Fashion has evolved throughout the centuries, from medieval times to the modern era, with the colors, hemlines, silhouettes, and fabrics used changing to meet the needs and trends of the times. This website goes from Medieval fashions all the through to the 20th century.
Historical Novel Society - Provides support and opportunities for new writers, information for students, booksellers, and librarians, and a community for authors, readers, agents, and publishers. Great reading lists.
How to History - Ever wish you could learn to weave cloth, forge a knife, sew a corset, or build a Tudor mansion? We’re a community of living history and reenacting enthusiasts who love learning about how things were made in the past. You’ll find lots of video tutorials at how to history, plus forum discussions, book reviews and suppliers for difficult to find materials.
Rennactors.net - This website features links to reenactment groups broken out by period from Roman, Greek, and Celt to World War II. Most groups are based in the United States. One caveat, they focus primarily on American history groups and no Renaissance.
Scottish Highland Games - Considered by many as the largest Scottish celebration in the world, the Scottish Highland Gathering & Games, held in the San Francisco Bay Area hosts dancing and piping competitions, heavy events championships, and loads of entertainment and vendors of everything Scottish.
Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA) - What's happening in the current Middle Ages. Tournaments and activities.
Links to SHAKESPEARE
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust located in the Bard's hometown of Stratford-Upon-Avon, England.
PLAYHOUSES
The Blackfriars Playhouse- A reproduction of an Elizabethan indoor playhouse in Staunton, Virginia.
The Globe - A reproduction of Shakespeare's outdoor playhouse, London, England.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, features a replica Elizabethan outdoor playhouse.
LIBRARIES and other sites
Bard's Lexicon: Words Coined by Shakespeare. Another website suggested by a young scholar whose favorite Shakespeare creation is "in a pickle."
Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. is home to the world’s largest and finest collection of Shakespeare materials. It also hosts major collections of other rare Renaissance books, manuscripts, and works of art.
Shakespeare Internet Editions - Fully annotated texts of Shakespeare's plays, multimedia explorations of the context of Shakespeare's life and works, and records of his plays in performance can be found on this award-winning website. There are links to facsimile copies of first folio editions, a full listing of where early works are available, and a search engine to find a line, word, or phrase from Shakespeare's pen.
Links to ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND
Background: 16th Century Renaissance England - Part of Lumiarium.org, this page includes information on 16th Century history and politics, royalty, economy, trade and exploration, religion and philosophy, medicine, magic, women, music, theater, dance, art, architecture, printing, food, and clothing.
Elizabethan and Tudor portraits - from London's National Portrait gallery. The site contains a search function to help you find your favorite Renaissance personality.
Elizabethan Costume Page - Everything you might ever want to know about 16th century Elizabethan dress.
Elizabethan Costume Guide at Costume Discounters - This page has links to everything a well-heeled Elizabethan would need from dress and starching a ruff, to make-up and chopines (yes, everybody loves shoes!).
Elizabethan Era - Information on sports, music, clothing, theater and, of course, Queen Elizabeth I.
Life in Elizabethan England - A Compendium of Common Knowledge 1558-1603 - This is a great website, featuring Elizabethan games, food, money, religion, language, weddings, masters & servants, occupations, fashion, household management, education, heraldry and much, much more.
Old London Maps - From the 16th to 19th century.
Renaisance Sites and Elizabethan Resources - Quite a compendium of websites from texts and references to portraits, maps and textiles.
Links to the CLASSIC WORLD
Archimedes Palimpsest - Researchers at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore uncovered a 10th-century copy of two treatises by the Greek mathematician Archimedes, concealed underneath the text of a 13th-century prayer book
Ancient History Sourcebook - Links to source texts about Rome, Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Hellenistic world.
Classic Texts of the Classic World - A database of Greco-Roman authors with links to their works from Aristotle, Homer, Ovid, Strabo, Herodotus, Pliny, and Virgil to name a few.
Maps of the Ancient World - Project of the Ancient World Mapping Center, maps for students page. Various maps in various formats, often including blank maps for quizzes and tests.
Oldest Bible, Codex Sinaiticus - Portions of the 4th-century manuscript, thought to be the oldest complete Bible in the world, are now scattered in several collections around the world, but the complete text is being reassembled, in digital form, on the Web.
Oxyrhynchus Papyri - One of the largest collections of ancient papyri, some 500,000 pieces excavated around 1900 in Egypt.
Links to the MEDIEVAL and RENAISSANCE
Bodlein Library, University of Oxford - This page features images of manuscripts from the 11th to 18th centuries.
Columbus' Original Diary - In this manuscript, Christopher Columbus describes the new lands he has discovered, which he calls the East Indies. Enscribed Cadiz, Spain, November 20, 1493.
Leonardo DaVinci's Original Notebook - A collection of short treatises, notes and drawings. The manuscript, in Italian, is written in Leonardo's characteristic 'mirror writing', left-handed and moving from right to left.
Les Très Riches Heurs du Duc de Berry - The famous book of hours, usually referred to as the "king of the illuminated manuscripts."
Manuscript Gallery - Links to illuminated manuscripts and antique maps all over the Web.
Renascene Editions - An online repository of works printed in English between 1477 and 1799 features many early modern titles from authors such as Aemilia Lanyer and John Donne.
Links to the EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Jane Austen's Original History of England - An early work of the famed English writer. She completed the composition in November 1791 when she was just 15 years old.
Mozart's Original Catalogue - This original manuscript is Mozart's record of his compositions in the last seven years of his life.
Links to BLOGS
Reading the Past - News, views, and reviews on historical fiction, both new and old by Sarah Johnson.
Links to WRITERS
Clive Cussler - A favorite airport or beach read. While his history may not be entirely accurate, his books are action packed, fun, and expose the reader to some delicious historic details.
Diana Gabaldon - Author of the Outlander series (time traveling with a historical twist). My personal favorites are the Lord John series set in 18th century England and can involve some contemporary (and often racy) matters set inside a historical mystery. Good picture of the underside of society.
Christopher Gortner - Official website of historical novelist CW Gortner, author of The Last Queen and The Secret Lion. The Last Queen is an excellent read portraying the life of the last truly Spanish Queen, Queen Juana, in a compelling and human way. When I finished the book , I understood why Queen Juana needed to drag her husband's coffin around Spain--a true feat of credibility.
Tony Hillerman - When I took a riding tour through France, I was met at the train station by a duster wearing, Marlboro man t-shirt sporting Frenchman, eventually nicknamed Jean Wayne who loved all of Tony Hillerman's Jim Chee mysteries. He sold me. Hillerman writes about Navajo reservation life as seen through the eyes of a tribal police officer investigating murder with some archeological twist. Quick, fun reads.
Neal Stephenson - is the author of the three-volume historical epic “The Baroque Cycle” and the novels Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and Zodiac. He lives in Seattle, Washington. Historical Fiction and Sci-Fi - what could be better?
And
now for something completely different . . .
Links JUST FOR FUN
Claymation Romeo and Juliet Act I - and Act III - a sci-fi themed love story from Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare.
The Institute of Official Cheer - Including "Dubious Moments in Comic History" (seriously funny), "Sears 1973" (Hey, I have that outfit), and "Interior Desecretions: Horrible Homes from the Brass Age of American Designs" (OmG! black-and-white Gingham, Houndstooth, and a poster-sized Chiquita Banana all set atop a harvest gold shag carpet).
Peepeo and Juliet - as only an amorous pair of Peeps could play them. They even have their own Peep fan club.
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