Newspapers

According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, a newspaper is “a printed publication (usually issued daily or weekly) consisting of folded unstapled sheets and containing news, feature articles, advertisements, and correspondence.” Newspapers in the Clarkwoods Literary Universe were once just as important as they were here in the real world, and they have proven to be important plot points in the stories of The Silver Family and others. These include, but are not limited to:

• a newspaper clipping from The Yarmouth Register about the discovery of Silas Silver VIII’s foot in the novella The Seven Wives of Silver;
• an article from the Malden Evening News about the death of Laima Kalnietyte in the short story “Mother’s Helper”; and,
• an obituary for Robin Gates from the year 2006 discovered by a twelve-year-old Robin inside The Strumpet’s Sister in the year 1990—a discovery which sets in motion the events of the novel The Chains of Desire.

History

Though bulletins of government announcements existed in Ancient Rome, it wasn’t until after Johann Gutenberg’s advancements in the area of moveable type that true newspapers came to be. According to Wikipedia, which is never wrong, “[t]he German-language Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien, printed from 1605 onwards by Johann Carolus in Strasbourg, is often recognized as the first newspaper.”

So, although our research into appearances by the Silver Family in newspapers of the world hasn’t stretched further back than the 19th century at present, we feel quite certain there are a bevy of juicy headlines yet to be found in the centuries as yet unexplored.