Frequently claimed to be the first novel published in the United States, the book begins with a religious iconoclast who spontaneously combusts while worshiping in a temple.

  “Gods die. And when they truly die they are unmourned and unremembered. Ideas are more difficult to kill than people … ” —Neil Gaiman, American Gods (2001) Some eccentric designer should craft a manger scene based on John Milton’s first grea…

  “What could be dafter / Than John Skelton’s laughter?” —Robert Graves Sometime early in the sixteenth century, a frequently hungover, perennially in trouble, and womanizing priest named John Skelton took to the lectern at his church. He …

Ed Simon argues that Marlowe’s masterpiece featured the first truly modern man in literature.