amanuensis a person who takes dictation or copies manuscripts.
Bryn Mawr located in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, a private women's college founded in 1880.
Fisk, Howard, Talledega, Tougaloo secondary educational institutions whose students are predominantly black.
Queen Mary a luxury British steamship, launched in 1934 and retired in 1967.
Contes de Daudet French, meaning The Short Stories of Daudet; Alphonse Daudet (1840–97) was a French short-story writer noted for his humorous characterization of life.
loafers comfortable, flat-soled shoes.
rummy slang for a drunkard.
Walden a book of eighteen essays by Henry David Thoreau, published in 1854. The book records Thoreau's experiences of living a solitary life in the woods for over two years.
Bohemian carefree; a person who disregards conventional standards of behavior.
entrez French, meaning enter.
slicks slang for glossy, high-end magazines that cater to the social and economic elite.
print peignoir a loose-fitting dressing gown. Michael-Mary's has a print design, probably very bright, showy, and somewhat ostentatious, or gaudy.
tripe here, something that presents itself as valuable but really is worthless.
men rose like giants from dragon's teeth alludes to the story of Jason and the Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece. To prove himself worthy of the Golden Fleece, Jason sowed a freshly plowed field with dragon's teeth, which then sprang up as armed men who attacked him. Jason defeated the dragon-teeth men and escaped with the Golden Fleece.
Louise Beaver[s] and Butterfly McQueen black actors known for their servile maid-Mammy roles in white films. Louise Beavers (1908–1962) played Claudette Colbert's maid in the 1934 version of Imitation of Life, famous for its portrayal of the "tragic mulatto." Butterfly (Thelma) McQueen (1911–1995) played Prissy, Olivia de Havilland's scatterbrained slave, in the 1939 film Gone With the Wind. She uttered the regrettably unforgettable line, "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies!" Because she refused to keep playing similar parts, her professional career was ruined and she ended up working as a clerk and dishwasher.
Only The Shadow knows refers to the 1950s mystery radio program The Shadow.
