Rachel Feder is an internationally recognized expert on nineteenth-century literary history. She teaches in the Department of English and Literary Arts at the University of Denver and is the author of an academic book about Mary Shelley, Harvester of Hearts; a book of poetry about astrology, motherhood, and literary history, Birth Chart; and is the editor of the new Norton Library Edition of Dracula.

McCormick Templeman is an author and academic whose writing and research focuses on traditional medicine, feminist horror, and literature of the long nineteenth century. She teaches English and Creative Writing at Sweet Briar College and serves as the fiction editor at Astrophil Press at the University of South Dakota.

Why AstroLit?!

This book started with a really, really good plate of tofu.

Preface: Once upon a time, two astrology buffs and literary studies scholars (that’s us!) were grabbing a quick lunch and chatting about their shared teaching and research projects. Before they, er, we knew it, we had Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Lord Byron’s charts open. We were looking at what the birth of Frankenstein’s monster had to do with the stars. And let us tell you, those birth charts were helpful.

Here’s the thing about literary studies. While novels, poetry, plays, and other literary creations are based in history, biography, and reality, they often aren’t true per se. Even so, they can reveal deep truths about the human experience, sometimes better than straightforward truthtelling can.

In literary studies, we try to squeeze the juice out of literary artifacts. Our juice press of choice is usually a question, topic, or theory that we bring to bear on the literature in question. So we ask, how do we read Pride & Prejudice differently if we look at it through the lens of gender? How about through the lens of economics or real estate or storytelling style or law? Through the lens of Jane Austen’s own broken engagement? (She was a total Sagittarius.)

With this in mind, AstroLit was born from a simple question; namely, what would happen if we looked at literary history through the lens of astrology? We contend that astrology, like literature, is beautiful and useful whether or not you believe it’s true. Like literature, astrology can spur us to action, inspire us to nurture our gifts, and encourage a deeper understanding of ourselves and others. And like literature, astrology is creative and inspiring and downright fun.

So, what happens when we look at literary history through the lens of astrology? You hold the answer in your hands: a book of revelations about literary figures, a guide to famous and lesser-known masterpieces, and a collection of prompts for readers, writers, and book lovers of all kinds.

We hope this little book will be an important resource for you and yours for years to come. The sky’s the limit!

Yours with hearts and stars,

McCormick and Rachel