Posted on October 25, 2021 at 4:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

We share bookish birthdays every week, and today we’re adding an extra dose of timely literary factoids.

On this day in 1854, the events that inspired Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s famous poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” — a failed action by vastly outnumbered British troops against the Russians during the Crimean War — took place.

To mark the occasion, here’s a wax cylinder recording of Tennyson reading his poem out loud in 1890.

A more uplifting literary moment came more recently, in 1962.

In that year, on October 25, author John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

So it seemed like the right moment to share a lesser-known short story from Steinbeck, best known for grand novels like The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, and East of Eden.

“The Affair At 7, Rue de M—” originally appeared in Harper’s Bazaar in April 1955 and was republished in Magazine of Horror in 1965 — which should give you a hint as to the general air of the tale.

Make sure the lights are on when you read “The Affair At 7, Rue de M—” in a digital edition of Magazine of Horror.

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Categories: Today in Books

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