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Arts & Culture / Books

Like his life's work, Edgar Allan Poe's death remains shrouded in mystery.

Halloween

The (Still) Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe

Was the famous author killed from a beating? From carbon monoxide poisoning? From alcohol withdrawal? Here are the top nine theories

Artist Roman Muradov's interpretation of a scene from Tolstoy's Anna Karenina for Google Doodle.

Google Doodle Honors the Genius of Leo Tolstoy

On what would be his 186th birthday, see the author’s famous works digitally brought to life

Rooms: At the Cooper Hewitt, once Andrew Carnegie’s mansion, Kalman’s selections will be displayed in the Music Room.

Famed Illustrator Maira Kalman Takes on the Cooper Hewitt’s Collections

In her latest book, the noted artist juxtaposes treasured personal objects with items from the Smithsonian design museum

A page out of the diary of William H. Dall, one of the many documents being transcribed by the Smithsonian Transcription Center's small army of volunteers. At the ripe age of 21, Dall set off in 1865 to explore the Arctic on a Western Union Telegraph Expedition.

The Smithsonian Wants You! (To Help Transcribe Its Collections)

A massive digitization and transcription project calls for volunteers at the Smithsonian

Chris Raschka's new children's book tells the true story of Sun Ra, an eccentric jazz musician.

There Once was a Jazz Musician Who Came Here from Saturn

Author and Illustrator Chris Raschka wants his new children’s book to teach kids about the icons of jazz.

The Gurranes — Moonlight, Castletownshend, Ireland, 2005

11 Photographs of Mysterious Megaliths

Photographer Barbara Yoshida traveled across the globe to capture prehistoric stone monuments shrouded in moonlight

How Red Is Dragon’s Blood?

Color can be subjective, but in the 19th-century, color dictionaries provided a common language for scientists to describe different hues found in nature

Untitled, Distant Steam Vents; Yellowstone National Park, 2008

Stark Photographs of America the Beautiful, Forever Altered by Man and Nature

Victoria Sambunaris’s new photography book, Taxonomy of a Landscape, goes beyond the amber waves of grain to catalogue what’s on America’s horizon

Central American migrants ride a northbound cargo train through the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. July 2010.

Heartbreaking Photos of Children Who Are Risking Everything to Reach the United States

Michelle Frankfurter tells the stories of these young migrants and also those of the thousands who jump aboard “the death train”

Tuberculosis Pavilion Lobby

Exploring New York City’s Abandoned Island, Where Nature Has Taken Over

Nestled in between the Bronx and Manhattan, North Brother Island once housed Typhoid Mary, but now is an astonishing look at a world without humans

Galileo Demonstrating Telescope

Art Meets Science

Was Shakespeare Aware of the Scientific Discoveries of His Time?

For his new book, Dan Falk followed a group of scholars who argue, unlike most, that the playwright was up to speed with the latest astronomy

How America’s Leading Science Fiction Authors Are Shaping Your Future

The literary genre isn’t meant to predict the future, but implausible ideas that fire inventors’ imaginations often, amazingly, come true

A tea party. Inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: "Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea."

What it Takes to Cook Some of Literature’s Most Famous Meals

Dinah Fried’s new photo book brings the words of authors such as James Joyce and Lewis Caroll to life

Peter Matthiessen’s Lifelong Quest for Peace

In one of his final interviews, the award-winning writer talks about what inspired him to travel to the farthest reaches of the globe

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Adorable Children Around the World Pose With Their Favorite Toys

In photographer Gabriele Galimberti’s new book, kids stand amongst their most prized possessions

Richard Halliburton in Hong Kong.

The Last Adventure of Richard Halliburton, the Forgotten Hero of 1930s America

Seventy-five years ago, the idol of America’s youth set out on what would be his final journey

The protagonist, Tris (Shailene Woodley), and her friend Christina (Zoë Kravitz) jump from a train running through post-apocalyptic Chicago in a scene from the film Divergent.

We Asked Four Teenagers to Explain “Divergent” to Old People

The first movie in the dystopian young adult book trilogy comes out this weekend. Get ready

For Twain, the “magnificent Mississippi, rolling its mile-wide tide” was the stuff of dreams (the St. Louis waterfront today).

American South

How the Mississippi River Made Mark Twain—and Vice Versa

No novelist captured the muddy waterway and its people like the creator of Huckleberry Finn, as a journey along the river makes clear

It is time that we drop Hollywood’s humanoid view of extraterrestrials. In reality, David Aguilar says, “We are going to find bizarre adaptations.”

Life in the Cosmos

What Will Extraterrestrial Life Look Like?

Illustrator David Aguilar melds art and science to imagine how alien creatures might adapt to their environments

Text Me, Ishmael: Reading Moby Dick in Emoji

Why someone would translate Herman Melville’s classic into emoticons

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