Chapter & Verse

Christopher Monson seeks the author of the truism, "The rectangle is the beginning of aesthetics." Dale Fink would welcome a verifiable...

Christopher Monson seeks the author of the truism, "The rectangle is the beginning of aesthetics."

 

Dale Fink would welcome a verifiable source for words attributed to James Joyce at the time he became blind: "I can see a thousand worlds. I have lost but one of them."

 

Jeffrey Williams hopes someone can identify the titles and authors of two stories used in an anthology that he recalls being distributed in the late 1970s by U.S. embassies as teaching material for English teachers abroad. "The first involves a father taking his daughter to an outing at an amusement park who loses her on the Ferris wheel; the second is a sort of science-fiction story involving an unhappy person who through lack of faith misses a trip to a better world."

 

"a battered old book, bound in red buckram" (September-October). Roger Mills and Mark Stoeckle were the first to identify "Midnight Express," a short story by English poet and author Alfred Noyes. First published in 1935 in This Week, the text appears in various anthologies, including August Derleth's 1944 collection Sleep No More.

 

Send inquiries and answers to "Chapter and Verse," Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge 02138.

     

Most popular

Harvard Alumni and Faculty Win Six Pulitzer Prizes

Winners include Jill Lepore, Bess Wohl, Pablo Torre, and Hannah Natanson.

Harvard Faculty Approve a Cap on A Grades

Reforms to reduce grade inflation will take effect in the fall of 2027.

Ronny Chieng is Harvard’s Class Day Speaker

The comedian, actor, and The Daily Show correspondent will address the 2026 College graduating class on May 27.

Explore More From Current Issue

A man holding a revolver and lantern, wearing a hat and coat, appears to be walking cautiously.

Scoundrels, Then and Now

On con men, Mark Twain, and the powers of the Harvard name

Colorful illustrated map of Colonial Cambridge and the Harvard College campus featuring buildings of the campus, houses, Cambridge Common, and the Charles River

250 Years Ago, Harvard Was Home to a Revolution

A look at the sights, sounds, and characters that put the University on the frontlines of history

Woman with long hair, smiling, wearing a black sweater, in a textured beige background.

For This Poet, AI is a Writing Partner

Sasha Stiles trained a chatbot on her manuscripts. Now, her poems rewrite themselves.