Autobiographies invariably distort, insists author Paul Theroux, at his home in Hawaii.

The Trouble With Autobiography

Novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux examines other authors’ autobiographies to prove why this piece will suffice for his

Richard Crowninshield bludgeoned 82-year-old Capt. Joseph White while the former slave trader and shipmaster slept.

A Murder in Salem

In 1830, a brutal crime in Massachusetts riveted the nation—and inspired the writings of Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne

The messages received by Pearl Curran would ultimately total millions of words, including a well-reviewed novel and poems that were anthologized.

Excerpts From Patience Worth’s The Sorry Tale

"You have to be grateful in Vegas. It's the great lesson of the city, the thing I'm taking as a souvenir," says J.R. Moehringer.

Las Vegas: An American Paradox

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist J.R. Moehringer rolls the dice on life in Sin City

Pearl Curran began channeling messages from Patience Worth in 1913 by means of a Ouija board.

Patience Worth: Author From the Great Beyond

Pearl Curran, a St. Louis housewife, channeled a 17th-century spirit to the heights of 20th-century literary stardom

The success of To Kill a Mockingbird overwhelmed Harper Lee.

Harper Lee’s Novel Achievement

With To Kill a Mockingbird, published 50 years ago, Lee gave America a story for the ages. Just don’t ask her about it

Route 100, studded with historic landmarks like the Scott Bridge, "offers such remarkable visual experiences," says filmmaker Dorothy Lovering.

Vermont’s Venerable Byway

The state’s Route 100 offers an unparalleled access to old New England, from wandering moose to Robert Frost’s hideaway cabin

After Mark Twain first glimpsed the girl of his dreams, he never forgot Laura Wright's "frank and simple and winsome" charms.

Mark Twain in Love

A chance encounter on a New Orleans dock in 1858 haunted the writer for the rest of his life

"For residents of the area who have gone to live elsewhere, it's the canal—so deep-set in what appears to be solid rock ... that resurfaces in dreams," says Oates.

Joyce Carol Oates Goes Home Again

The celebrated writer returns to the town of her birth to revisit the places that haunt her memory and her extraordinary fiction

Last December, The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, a film based on a never-before-produced screenplay by Tennessee Williams opened in theaters.

A Forgotten Tennessee Williams Work Now a Motion Picture

Written in the 1950s, “The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond” was forgotten until it was recently adapted into a major motion picture

A tractor with the West Virginia flag attached to the back makes it way down Main Street in Buckhannon, West Virginia.

Buckhannon, West Virginia: The Perfect Birthplace

A community in the Allegheny foothills nurtured novelist Jayne Anne Phillips’ talent for storytelling

Krakow possesses a wealth of cultural treasures such as Wawel Royal Castle where the country's kings lived.

A Whirlwind Tour Around Poland

The memoirist trades Tuscany for the northern light and unexpected pleasures of Krakow and Gdansk

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream by Hunter S. Thompson is considered by many to be the quintessential drug-induced book of the 1970s.

Great Road Trips in American Literature

From Twain to Kerouac to Bryson, writers have found inspiration in hitting the road and traveling the United States

The new edition of Ernest Hemingway's fictionalized memoir, A Moveable Feast, features adjustments made to the original text that was edited by Hemingway's fourth wife, Mary.

A New Taste of Hemingway’s Moveable Feast

The re-edited version of Ernest Hemingway’s Paris-based memoir sheds new light on the heartbreaking breakup of his first marriage

Thornton Wilder discovered Douglas, Arizona, when his T-Bird broke down.

Thornton Wilder’s Desert Oasis

For the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Douglas, Arizona was a place to “refresh the wells” and drive into the sunset

Images and phrases from The Wizard of Oz are so pervasive that it's hard to conceive of it as the product of one man's imagination.

Frank Baum, the Man Behind the Curtain

The author of The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, traveled many paths before he found his Yellow Brick Road

Originally buried in an unmarked grave in 1849, Edgar Allan Poe's remains were moved to this downtown Baltimore monument in 1875.

Forget Edgar Allan Poe? Nevermore!

Cities up and down the East Coast claim author Edgar Allan Poe as their own and and celebrate his 200th birthday

After a year in graduate school in New York City, Eudora Welty returned to her native Mississippi and began taking pictures (Home by Dark).

Eudora Welty as Photographer

Photographs by Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist Eudora Welty display the empathy that would later infuse her fiction

Langston Hughes' epic poem, Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz is the text for the piece performed by Jessye Norman, among others.

A Jazzed-Up Langston Hughes

A long-forgotten poem about the African-American experience is given new life in a multimedia performance

Gertrude Stein is an American writer who made her home in Paris, France. Her first book was published in 1909 but her autobiography, titled The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, was the only one to reach a wide audience.

Literary Landmarks: A History of American Women Writers

Author Elaine Showalter discusses the lasting influence of Harriet Beecher Stowe and why Gertrude Stein is overrated

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