Celebrate the Bard’s 445th birthday by checking out some of our great Shakespeare resources: famous Bardisms, the Globe Theater, the Shakespeare Discussion Board, and etexts for all his plays.

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A modern master of the novel and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, John Updike died today at the age of 76. His many popular works include Rabbit, Run, The Witches of Eastwick, and “A&P.” For more about his life and extended critical reviews of his work, see the following pages here on eNotes: John Updike biography, critical survey of long fiction, and contemporary literary criticism.

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day in the United States, a day designated to remember one of the greatest 20th Century Americans. Start with our Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. information page, and move on to our Martin Luther King literary criticism, a complete overview of the I have a Dream speech, and our review of the civil rights movement he led.

January 19th marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of America’s greatest authors, Edgar Allan Poe. Poe’s stature as an author and poet has grown every year since his death in 1849 and he is now credited as a major pioneer of the detective story, the science fiction story, and the horror story– all genres that have been fully embraced by millions of readers in the United States and abroad. Check out our Poe eTexts and Poe Study Guides for more Poe. Have a question about Edgar Allan Poe’s life and work? Ask in our Poe Study Group.

Yesterday marked the 400th anniversary of John Milton’s birth. Though he died more than a hundred years before its inception, John Milton is considered one of the forefathers of the Romantic period. His seminal work, the epic poem Paradise Lost, influenced Romantic and Gothic writers such as Mary Shelley, whose novel Frankenstein even features a quote from Milton’s masterpiece.

In an historic election, Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States of America. Discuss the election in the Law and Politics group.

irenic: promoting peace.

yen: a strong desire or inclination.

denouement: the final resolution of the main complication of a literary or dramatic work.