Category Archives: Reference

These are materials for teachers and parents, and you’ll find, in this category, teachers copies and answer keys for worksheets, quotes related to domain-specific knowledge in English Language Arts and social studies, and quotes on issues of professional concern. See the Taxonomies page for more about this category.

Jessye Norman

Posted on March 26, 2019 | Leave a comment

“(b. 1945) U.S. soprano. Born in Augusta, Ga., she won the Munich International Music Competition in 1968, and debuted in in Berlin as Elisabeth in Tannhauser (1969), She appeared at La Scala in 1972 and made recital debuts in London and New York the next year. Having garnered extraordinary praise for year, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Le Troyens in 1983, confirming her reputation as perhaps the greatest soprano of her generation. An imposing stage presence, her operatic and concert repertoire ranges with equal conviction and musicality across an exceptionally wide range.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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The Trenchant Louisa May Alcott

Posted on March 25, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Women have been called queens for a long time, but the kingdom given them isn’t worth ruling.”

Louisa May Alcott

An Old-Fashioned Girl ch. 13 (1870)

Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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Harper Lee on Power and the Law

Posted on March 22, 2019 | Leave a comment

“But there in one way in this country in which all men are created equal–there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentleman, is a court”

Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird ch. 20 (1960)

Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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Cassandra

Posted on March 21, 2019 | Leave a comment

“In Greek mythology, the daughter of King Priam of Troy. Apollo promised her the gift of prophecy if she would grand his desires; she accepted the gift but rebuffed the god, who took his revenge by ordaining that all her prophecies would never be believed. She predicted the fall of Troy and the death of Agamemnon, but her warnings went unheeded. Given as part of the war spoils to Agamemnon, she was murdered with him.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Zoe Akins on the Greeks

Posted on March 20, 2019 | Leave a comment

“The Greeks Had a Word for It.”

Zoe Akins, U.S. Playwright, 1868-1951

Title of Play

Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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Margaret (Eleanor) Atwood

Posted on March 19, 2019 | Leave a comment

“(b. 1939) Canadian poet, novelist, and critic. Born in Ottawa, she attended the Univ. of Toronto and Harvard Univ. In the poetry collection The Circle Game (1964; Governor General’s Award), she celebrates the material world and condemns materialism. Her novels, several of which have become bestsellers, include Surfacing (1972), Lady Oracle (1976), Life Before Man (1979), Bodily Harm (1981), The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) Governor General’s Award), Cat’s Eye (1988), The Robber Bride (1993), and Alias Grace (1996). She is noted for her Canadian nationalism and her feminism.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Abigail Adams’ Prescience on Law and Gender

Posted on March 18, 2019 | Leave a comment

“In the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire that you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticular [sic] care and attention is not paid to the ladies we are determined to foment a Rebelion [sic], and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”

Letter to John Adams, 31 Mar. 1776

Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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Mary Cassatt

Posted on March 15, 2019 | Leave a comment

“1844-1929) U.S. painter and printmaker, active in Paris. Born in Allegheny City, Pa., she spend her early years traveling in Europe with her wealthy family. She attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1860-65) and later studied in Paris, copying old masters. She became a close friend of E. Degas, who influenced her style and encouraged her to exhibit with the Impressionists, of whose work she became a tireless champion. She portrayed scenes of everyday life, particularly images of mothers and children, ans was skilled at drawing and printmaking. Some of her best works were executed in pastel. Through her social contacts with wealthy private collectors, she promoted Impressionism in the U.S. and exerted a lasting influence on U.S. taste.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Rotten Reviews: The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Conner

Posted on March 14, 2019 | Leave a comment

“As a specialist in Southern horror stories, Miss O’Conner’s attitude has been wry, her preferences perverse, her audience special.”

Kirkus Reviews

Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.

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Beloved by Toni Morrison

Posted on March 13, 2019 | Leave a comment

“(1987) A novel by Toni Morrison, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. It is the story of a runaway slave whose desperation forces her to slash her infant daughter’s throat with a handsaw rather than see the child in chains. But eighteen years after the child’s death, a young woman appears and the characters believe she is the slain infant returned to earth. Set in the pre- and post-Civil War era outside Cincinnati, Beloved is developed through a series of flashbacks to the Sweet Home Plantation. The main characters are Sethe, the heroine who is literally haunted by the baby daughter she killed; Beloved, the ghost of Sethe’s child; Paul D., a former slave who knew Sethe when they were together at Sweet Home; and Denver, one of Sethe’s other three children.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

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