Digital Highlights

This 1916 Analyzing character book is interesting not only in its own right, but from a publishing history point of view. It was published in New York by the Review of Reviews Company, which was an American take on a British publishing endeavor begun by journalist W T Stead in 1890. Stead was best-known for having written a series of articles called “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon,” exposing the contemporary sex-trafficking trade in underage girls. One of his later projects was the Review of Reviews which ran until the mid-1930s.

Analyzing character isn’t nearly as sensational as much of Stead’s own writing, but it definitely has much the same immediate, ‘torn from the headlines’ appeal.

Medical Novelists

S Weir Mitchell is probably best known as one of the major proponents of the “rest cure” in nineteenth century American medicine. This was a particularly popular treatment for well-off white women suffering from a wide variety of complaints. It involved, in its most intense form, total bed rest and a very full diet.

But Mitchell was also a novelist: