In most of Smith’s writings, there is a brooding, a rapturous fixation on doom, destruction, decay, and destroyed things; there is also a relationship between the beautiful and the dead or doomed.
Read MoreGeorge Gordon Byron, better known as Lord Byron, would be two hundred and thirty years old today. Perhaps "would" is the wrong word. After all, this is the man who inspired and served as the model for Polidori's The Vampyre and likely was a partial inspiration--along with Richard F. Burton--for the titular character in Dracula. Who's to say he doesn't live on, walking the nightside, somehow?
Read More