Elyse Graham
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elysegraham.bsky.social
Elyse Graham
@elysegraham.bsky.social
310 followers 86 following 330 posts
Spies and the archives.

Professor, Stony Brook University. Four books, including the New York Times bestseller BOOK AND DAGGER (Ecco, 2024).
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elysegraham.bsky.social
When you read a scientist for filth
Two checkboxes from an online form. The form reads: "Are they: __ A scientist __ Deceased"
November 27, 2025 at 12:44 PM
elysegraham.bsky.social
That winter warmth
A squirrel peeping sleepily out of a nest of moss, looking very cozy
November 21, 2025 at 1:51 PM
elysegraham.bsky.social
Oh my God
A photograph of someone lifting a Labrador retriever puppy by the handle of a dog lifejacket, in the way someone would lift a briefcase by the handle. Someone comments below the picture, "I almost forgot my briefcase!" Someone else comments, "it contains important lab results."
November 20, 2025 at 11:09 AM
elysegraham.bsky.social
A character alignment chart, shaped like a triangle, showing the relative positions of various authors according to three different alignments: "We have food at home," "Pulls up to drive thru, orders a single black coffee, and leaves," and "McDonalds! McDonalds! McDonalds!" The alignments are: "We have food at home": Agatha Christie, Jane Austen "Pulls up to drive thru, orders a single black coffee, and leaves": Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut "McDonalds! McDonalds! McDonalds!": Shakespeare, Dr. Seuss Between "We have food at home" and "Pulls up to drive thru, orders a single black coffee, and leaves": Charlotte Brontë Between "We have food at home" and "McDonalds! McDonalds! McDonalds!": J.R.R. Tolkien Exactly in the middle of the triangle: Mary Shelley
November 19, 2025 at 12:23 PM
elysegraham.bsky.social
My dog sulking and giving me an accusing look when I leave for work.
A painting of the Lamb of God giving the viewer what seems to be a very disapproving look.
November 13, 2025 at 9:52 AM
elysegraham.bsky.social
The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
Photograph of a field of poppies
November 11, 2025 at 11:19 AM
elysegraham.bsky.social
New news!
The cover of the book "Book and Dagger," with a red arrow indicating a new element: a splash reading, "New York Times Bestseller."
November 7, 2025 at 7:44 PM
elysegraham.bsky.social
November 6, 2025 at 11:12 PM
elysegraham.bsky.social
Tag yourself, I'm Twelfth Night.
November 5, 2025 at 10:12 PM
elysegraham.bsky.social
Very pleased that I was able, while at the copyediting stage for an article, to use my college notebooks to confirm an anecdote from college.
A comment on a document saying, "As this is anecdotal, I could not confirm the quotation," and a reply comment saying, "I actually can confirm this quotation. Hang on, let me get my college notebooks... here." Below that is an image of an open college notebook.
November 3, 2025 at 11:39 PM
elysegraham.bsky.social
Arthur Sze, "Library of Congress," 2025. (Reblogged from the Irish Centre for Poetry Studies)
The text of the poem "Library of Congress," by Arthur Sze.
November 1, 2025 at 7:44 PM
elysegraham.bsky.social
Delighted to share that "Book and Dagger" is Barnes & Noble's monthly nonfiction pick!

www.barnesandnoble.com/b/books/awar...
A cover image of the book "Book and Dagger," with the text, "Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II. By Elyse Graham. Using letters, personal stories and declassified files, Elyse Graham highlights the brave efforts of the real-life academics-turned-spies who bravely challenged the Nazis during World War II."
November 1, 2025 at 11:03 AM
elysegraham.bsky.social
Teaching the classics @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social
A screenshot of a Zoom class. The poster is teaching Matthew Kirschenbaum's book "Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination," for a class meeting on digital forensics.
October 31, 2025 at 8:45 PM
elysegraham.bsky.social
One day until Halloween 🧪☠️🔩⚡️🧟‍♂️
The poster wearing a Victor Frankenstein costume, with a Stony Brook Medicine lab coat, against a Gothic laboratory backdrop
October 30, 2025 at 1:19 PM
elysegraham.bsky.social
How I saw my professors | How professors see each other
A refined-looking painting of a dog at a piano The muppet Rowlf the Dog at a piano
October 27, 2025 at 9:55 AM
elysegraham.bsky.social
Victor on a trip to New Haven
A Tibetan Spaniel, very aware of how handsome he is, looks at the camera while standing on a stone path in Yale's Old Campus.
October 26, 2025 at 10:22 AM
elysegraham.bsky.social
The invention of the internet
A painting of cats dancing in a circle
October 22, 2025 at 12:11 PM
elysegraham.bsky.social
The following text, posted as an image to get around word limits: Julius Caesar (1599) CASSIUS Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs and peep about To find ourselves dishonorable graves. Men at some time are masters of their fates. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars But in ourselves, that we are underlings. Brutus and Caesar—what should be in that "Caesar"? Why should that name be sounded more than yours? Write them together, yours is as fair a name. Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well. Weigh them, it is as heavy. Mean Girls (2004) GRETCHEN Why should Caesar just get to stomp around like a giant while the rest of us try not to get smushed under his big feet? Brutus is just as cute as Caesar, right? Brutus is just as smart as Caesar, people totally like Brutus just as much as they like Caesar, and when did it become okay for one person to be the boss of everybody because that's not what Rome is about! We should totally just STAB CAESAR!
October 21, 2025 at 12:28 PM
elysegraham.bsky.social
Someone on Twitter writes, "guillermo del toro has the imagination and creativity of a woman who spends her time maladaptive daydreaming in her bedroom about meeting her soulmate in the most gothic situation imaginable and that’s why I love him so." Guillermo del Toro quote tweets it and says, "I believe I do..."
October 19, 2025 at 6:04 PM
elysegraham.bsky.social
Edward Gorey, "Bats"
A drawing of a flock of flying bats, with a red background
October 19, 2025 at 11:25 AM
elysegraham.bsky.social
Doug Fitzgerald of the Caxton Club drew my attention to this story in the Times:
A New York Times story headlined "Long-Sought CIA Secret is Found in a Library," about a solution to one of the cryptographic puzzles in a famous sculpture at CIA headquarters.
October 17, 2025 at 2:48 PM
elysegraham.bsky.social
Picture I took in the Spice Bazaar in Istanbul. I got the cat a fish.
A photograph of a fishmonger's shop, with fish displayed on tables and in buckets. A cat sits on the street, gazing at the fish.
October 17, 2025 at 10:42 AM
elysegraham.bsky.social
Paintings of Ophelia and other women languishing in the water, with the text, "How your email finds me."
October 16, 2025 at 10:14 PM
elysegraham.bsky.social
"Oh, to lie side by side in the same tomb, hand in hand, and to gently touch a finger-tip from time to time in the darkness, would suffice for my eternity."

- Victor Hugo
A photograph of two tomb effigies, a man's and a woman's, lying down and gently touching hands as they sleep
October 16, 2025 at 3:34 PM
elysegraham.bsky.social
I'm giving a ghost tour at Harvard at the end of the month! This is the vibe.
Someone (the poster) dressed like the Grim Reaper, with a scythe and skull mask, but wearing a doctoral tam and robe instead of the traditional hooded robe.
October 16, 2025 at 11:50 AM