How King Midas's touch became golden and other stories behind everyday phrases, idioms, and literary allusions
Finding silver would not spark the same excitement if all a prospector could say was, "There it is!" nor would anyone be menacing with the moniker "Arthur the Somewhat Disgruntled." But thanks to thousands of years of evolving language, we have words and phrases like "Eureka!" and "Attila the Hun" that bring color and vibrancy to our conversations and our writing.
Unfortunately, often lost in the millennia is the history of how these sayings came to be. "Green-Eyed Monsters...
How King Midas's touch became golden and other stories behind everyday phrases, idioms, and literary allusions
Leonard Mann privately published his first novel, Flesh in Armour, in Melbourne in 1932, after he was unable to place it with a publisher in Australia or England. The novel was an immediate success, and Mann was subsequently awarded the Australian Literature Society's gold medal for outstanding book of the year. The book's merits then established, it was republished in England and Australia in 1944. Nearly 420,000 Australians enlisted during World War I, and more than half were killed, wounded, or captured. The conflict was the most costly in Australia's history. In the fates of his...
Leonard Mann privately published his first novel, Flesh in Armour, in Melbourne in 1932, after he was unable to place it with a publisher in Australia...
