CRAIG CONLEY (Prof. Oddfellow) is recognized by Encarta as “America’s most creative and diligent scholar of letters, words and punctuation.” He has been called a “language fanatic” by Page Six gossip columnist Cindy Adams, a “cult hero” by Publisher’s Weekly, a “monk for the modern age” by George Parker, and “a true Renaissance man of the modern era, diving headfirst into comprehensive, open-minded study of realms obscured or merely obscure” by Clint Marsh. An eccentric scholar, Conley’s ideas are often decades ahead of their time. He invented the concept of the “virtual pet” in 1980, fifteen years before the debut of the popular “Tamagotchi” in Japan. His virtual pet, actually a rare flower, still thrives and has reached an incomprehensible size. Conley’s website is OneLetterWords.com.
"A large cloud of mist that floated over the river, now parted into what appeared to Halcyon to be three shadowy forms." From Halcyon and Asphodel by A.L.H.A., 1885.
"Loraine fancied she could see the Little People of Sleep." From Loraine and the Little People by Elizabeth Gordon and illustrated by M. T. Ross, 1915.
If you, too, wish you were a fairy cat that could speak, there are actually two books that will show you how to achieve this very thing. See How to Be Your Own Cat and How to Believe in Your Elf. They make a lovely gift pairing, too. (Our quoted snippet is from In the Old Herrick House by Ellen Douglas Deland, 1897.)