Literature

Joe, the "fat boy" from the Pickwick Papers.

The Case for Charles Dickens, the Science Communicator

A new exhibition dives into the Victorian novelist's passion for science

Josiah Henson as a young man at left, and at right, at age 87, photographed in Boston on June 17, 1876

The Story of Josiah Henson, the Real Inspiration for 'Uncle Tom’s Cabin'

Before there was the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a formerly enslaved African-American living in Canada wrote a memoir detailing his experience

Mrs. Jane Loudon’s The Ladies' Flower-Garden of Ornamental Greenhouse Plants (1848)

A Botanical Wonderland Resides in the World of Rare and Unusual Books

The Smithsonian’s librarian and antiquarian Leslie Overstreet time travels, sharing centuries of horticultural splendors

Ideal Bookshelf 651: Coming of Age

How "Young Adult" Fiction Blossomed With Teenage Culture in America

In the '60s and '70s, books like <em>The Outsiders</em> and <em>The Chocolate War</em> told stories that dealt with complex emotions and social realities

Robert Bly, one of the poets who scored in the top ten for dynamism.

Analysis Breaks Down the Annoying "Poet Voice"

It's not just you; poets also read their works aloud with long pauses, weird cadences and almost no emotion

Isaac Bashevis Singer by Yousuf Karsh

Scholar Finds New Isaac Bashevis Singer Story

“The Boarder,” which is published for the first time in the <i>New Yorker</i>, was discovered while going through the prominent writer’s vast archives

George Cruikshank’s impression of Dickens’ dystopia

How Charles Dickens Imagined a Westworld-like Robot Theme Park Back In 1838

The writer's dystopia, populated by 'automaton figures,' was surprisingly modern

A lithograph by French caricaturist J. J. Grandville depicts the torture of too much noise.

Why Are We Always Searching For "A Quiet Place?"

Perhaps the real monster is not noise, but instead our own intolerance of unwanted sounds

Potter envisioned Hill Top as a living testament to rural tradition. Its artifacts, from crockery to rustic furniture, are reproduced in her drawings.

Britain's Lake District Was Immortalized by Beatrix Potter, But Is Its Future in Peril?

Shepherds and ecologists are butting heads over what's next for the beloved landscape

Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Casket Rediscovered in Former Wine Cellar

Parishioners at St. Michael's Church in Highgate hope to refurbish the crypt after identifying where exactly Coleridge's final resting place was

Elle Fanning as author Mary Shelley

Watch: The First Trailer for 'Mary Shelley' Explores the Many Inspirations for 'Frankenstein'

The biopic will follow Mary Wollstonecraft's scandalous teenage romance with the older Percy Bysshe Shelley and the events that shaped her most famous book

An illustration from the 1820 edition of The Governess, a popular work of children's literature written by Sarah Fielding.

The First Novel for Children Taught Girls the Power of Reading

Nearly three centuries before heroines like Katniss and Meg Murray, Sarah Fielding published a book on the values of female education

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944). Drawing of the little prince on the edge of a cliff. New York, 1942 or 1943. Pen and brown ink on onionskin paper. From Joseph Cornell’s Saint-Exupéry dossier.

The Beloved Classic Novel “The Little Prince” Turns 75 Years Old

Written in wartime New York City, the children’s book brings out the small explorer in everyone

Casanova Is Getting a Museum

The womanizer and Enlightenment polymath will be memorialized with an interactive museum in Venice opening April 2

De Letters van Utrecht is a street poem that will continue indefinitely.

A Never-Ending Poem Grows in the Netherlands

De Letters van Utrecht is carved into the city streets and will continue indefinitely

These two covers are emblematic of the popular "Golden Hours" papers

The 19th-Century “Golden Hours” Convention Brought Young Readers Together to Meet Their Literary Heroes

The dime novels and story papers entertained boys and launched a popular culture we still consume today

Ewan McGregor stars in Christopher Robin.

Winnie-the-Pooh Returns to the Big Screen in a New Teaser Trailer

A live-action film of the iconic tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff hits theaters this summer

After Audubon's health began to fail, his family completed the project, producing the color plates in installments for about 300 subscribers.

The Fantastic Beasts of John James Audubon's Little-Known Book on Mammals

The American naturalist spent the last years of his life cataloguing America's four-legged creatures

A decline in women authors and named characters has subtly shaped our understanding of literary history, says study author Ted Underwood.

Women Were Better Represented in Victorian Novels Than Modern Ones

Big data shows that women used to be omnipresent in fiction. Then men got in the way

Quasi-catalogues like Comfort came with a surprising side effect: communication between women that otherwise would have been impossible.

From Helping Shut-Ins to Sisterly Advice, Mail-Order Magazines Did More Than Just Sell Things

The cheap monthly publications that flooded rural homes offered more than just advertising—they also provided companionship

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