About Dr. Mardy’s Newsletter
Dr. Mardy’s Substack is the new home of “Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week,” a weekly e-newsletter celebrating great quotes in history and the often fascinating history behind the quotes. The first regularly scheduled issue will appear on July 30, 2023, with subsequent issues coming every Sunday morning thereafter.
Every newsletter will be devoted to a specific theme (previous issues included such time-honored themes as courage, obstacles, reading, laughter, peace of mind, and resistance to change). Each issue will begin with an “Opening Line of the Week,” a brief commentary on what makes the line so special, and a link to more Famous First Lines.
The second feature is a weekly “Puzzler” designed to test your knowledge of famous authors who were born (or who died) during that week in history. After a description of the Mystery Person, a quotation from the author will introduce the week’s theme.
The third section is a reflective mini-essay tied into the week’s theme, generally with a title like, “Have You Ever Resisted Making Changes You Should Have Made?” The brief essay will be followed by ten quotations exemplifying the week’s theme.
After the identity of the Mystery Author has been revealed, I will provide a cartoon that comically illustrates the week’s theme. Here’s an example of what you can expect.
And, finally, each newsletter will end with an original observation on the week’s theme, penned by yours truly.
Following the “free” and “paid” format of Substack, I originally envisioned a two-tiered newsletter, with an abbreviated form offered for free and a fuller, more extensive version offered to “paid” subscribers. That will not be the case here, though. Both free and paid versions of the newsletter will contain exactly the same content.
“Why?” you may ask, and the answer is quite simple. For more than two decades, when my weekly newsletter was published on a different platform, it was provided at no charge—and this is the way I would prefer it to be. Over the years, though, many subscribers have said they would like to express their gratitude by helping to finance its publication. For those individuals, a voluntary, paid version is now available. I selected a price of $30 per year because that is the lowest amount Substack will allow.
No subscriber should feel obligated in any way to choose a paid subscription, for it offers no more content than the free version. But if you’d like to provide a bit of financial support for the time, effort, and resources it takes to put out a newsletter like this every week, you now have an option.
If you’re a quotation lover, you will probably enjoy my newsletter. And if you know any quotation lovers, you might want to mention it to them.
Fred Shapiro, editor of The New Yale Book of Quotations wrote: “Mardy Grothe’s books and websites are the wonders of the quotation world. Time and time again he has produced resources that are both addictively fascinating and highly educational. Grothe has a genius for selecting the best quotations and enhancing them with wonderful commentary.”
