Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 093

A fascinating dip into the archival oddments of English-language nonfiction, this volume gathers essays and observations written across centuries of changing minds. Here you'll find a Victorian journalist dissecting the semantics of flirtation in 1883, alongside a medical pioneer defending her right to practice medicine. There are dispatches from the Salem witch trials, a French culinary manual for the domestic kitchen, and a soldier's curious account of witnessing a Zuni dance. Scientific pieces examine Yellowstone's geothermal wonders and the Atlantic coastline's barrier beaches, while artists and critics turn their attention to American roads. The collection proves endlessly strange: some writers we now celebrate as proto-feminists, others as relics of their time. Together they form a rough chronicle of what educated English speakers thought worth recording, from the 18th century through the mid-20th. For readers who love historical ephemera, this is a cabinet of curiosities where you can hear the past thinking aloud.