Chapter & Verse

Sheila Berg would like a source for a quotation she heard at the time of John Kennedy Jr.'s death that spoke of sand and pebbles...

Sheila Berg would like a source for a quotation she heard at the time of John Kennedy Jr.'s death that spoke of sand and pebbles on the beach and Truro.

Ann Mantell seeks a Sylvia Townsend Warner story that ends, "If Nannie Blount had had her will of me, I should have watched this hell-fire sunset with different eyes. As it was, I saw it as being exactly like the pain in my throat."

"The magical mouse" (November-December). Dorothy Helfand identified the slightly misquoted opening lines of this poem by Kenneth Patchen, published in Orchards, Thrones, and Caravans (1952) and reprinted in The Collected Poems of Kenneth Patchen (1967).

"A fragrance...happy living things" (November-December). John C. Murray was the first of many readers to identify the two couplets that appear toward the conclusion of Edna St. Vincent Millay's early poem "Renascence."

"Tell me....Show me....Involve me...." (November-December). Julie Reiff reported that an Internet search turned up Cole's Quotables, which identified the proverb--without attribution--as Chinese, not Native American, in origin.

Most popular

What Trump Means for John Roberts’s Legacy

Executive power is on the docket at the Supreme Court.

Explore More From Current Issue

Six women interact in a theatrical setting, one seated and being comforted by others.

A (Truly) Naked Take on Second-Wave Feminism

Playwright Bess Wohl’s Liberation opens on Broadway.

People gather near the John Harvard Statue in front of University Hall surrounded by autumn trees.

A Changed Harvard Faces the Future

After a tense summer—and with no Trump settlement in sight—the University continues to adapt. 

Wadsworth House with green shutters and red brick chimneys, surrounded by trees and other buildings.

Wadsworth House Nears 300

The building is a microcosm of Harvard’s history—and the history of the United States.