I'd like to note something about the wonderful success of @HC_Richardson on Substack: It's not luck & it's not overnight. She works tremendously hard. And she studied composition very closely to become the writer she is.

I think we're all missing those very important points(1/5)

For more than a decade (you could argue: throughout her entire career academic career) she's been almost obsessed with the craft of composition and storytelling. Just read these entries on her old Tumblr about writing (2/5) https://heathercoxrichardson.tumblr.com/ 

Before Substack, she was one of the founders of "We're History" ( @werehist ), a publication designed to bring historical context to contemporary issues (disclaimer: I've written for @werehist & am grateful for her editing) (3/5)

Like Joe DiMaggio, she makes it look easy. It's not. What we're witnessing is uncommon dedication, perseverance, skill, and self-training. She also had to ignore the criticism of academics & scholars, and their disdain for journalism (4/5)

Her success after all this is, therefore, to me, both inspirational & delightful. She won. She proved there's a market for intelligent, humanities-based analysis and commentary in our public sphere - even in 2020. But it took years of hard work that must be recognized. (5/5)