Books

Frederick Douglass once said, “Samuel R. Ward has left no successor among the colored men amongst us, and it was a sad day for our cause when he was laid low in the soil of a foreign country.”

Untold Stories of American History

Frederick Douglass Thought This Abolitionist Was a 'Vastly Superior' Orator and Thinker

A new book offers the first full-length biography of newspaper editor, labor leader and minister Samuel Ringgold Ward

Picasso in Place Ravignan in Montmartre in 1904

Why French Authorities Placed a Young Pablo Picasso Under Surveillance

Police suspected the 19-year-old Spanish expatriate of harboring anarchist views

The new Toni Morrison stamp, which features a 1997 photograph by Deborah Feingold, was designed by Ethel Kessler.

Postal Service Unveils Forever Stamp Honoring Toni Morrison

A ceremony at Princeton celebrated the Nobel laureate whose words transformed American literature

Bradbury's encounter with Mr. Electrico “really started him on his quest to become a writer, which was essentially a quest to become immortal,” says Jason Aukerman.

The Sideshow Magician Who Inspired Ray Bradbury—Then Vanished

Experts have been unable to verify the existence of Mr. Electrico, whose 1932 electric chair act supposedly affirmed the young author's interest in writing

Edward Brooke-Hitching's The Madman Gallery spotlights such artworks as John Singer Sargent's Portrait of Madame X, a statue of Glycon and Franz Xaver Messerschmidt's Character Heads.

The Most Enigmatic Works in Art History

A new book highlights 100 artistic curiosities, from the nude "Mona Lisa" to portraits of a dog-headed saint

Woodrow Wilson and his second wife, Edith, in 1916

Women Who Shaped History

How Edith Wilson Kept Herself—and Her Husband—in the White House

A new book about the first lady reveals how she and the ailing President Woodrow Wilson silenced their critics

Two lucky visitors will spend the night inside the Palais Garnier, exploring the historic opera house and enjoying private tours and other perks.

Parisian Opera House That Inspired 'Phantom of the Opera' Becomes an Airbnb

For just one night, two travelers will spend the night in the Palais Garnier’s Box of Honor

John H. Smith (left), mayor of Prichard, Alabama, unsuccessfully campaigned for the creation of an Africatown national park.

Untold Stories of American History

The Forgotten 1980s Battle to Preserve Africatown

A new book tells the definitive history of an Alabama community founded by survivors of the slave trade

Aerial view of Apple's California headquarters

How California Took Over the World

A sweeping book offers a provocative new history arguing that today's inequality can be traced back to the state's founding

Emma Mackey as Emily Brontë in Emily, a new film from Frances O'Connor

Based on a True Story

The Making of Emily Brontë

A new film imagines the events that inspired the notoriously private author to write "Wuthering Heights"

Musk ox calves vie for grass on a farm near Palmer, Alaska.

Alaska

Author Jan Brett Pans for Creative Gold in Alaska

Trips to the 49th state inspired the characters in the writer-illustrator's latest children’s book "Cozy in Love"

Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in the 1962 film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird

Gregory Peck's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Script Goes to Auction

Also for sale are gifts from Harper Lee, who remained close with the Peck family for years

The cabbage soup diet of the 1950s allowed the indulgence in as much cabbage soup as one could consume.

The Seesawing History of Fad Diets

Since dieting began in the 1830s, the ever-changing nutritional advice has skimped on science

Neal V. Loving in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1954

In 1946, a Black Pilot Returned to the Cockpit After a Double Amputation

Neal V. Loving, whose memoir will soon be released by Smithsonian Books, built his own planes, ran a flight school and conducted research for the Air Force

The cast of the 1983 film, from left to right: Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez and Tom Cruise

S.E. Hinton Is Tired of Talking About 'The Outsiders.' No One Else Is

The author reflects on her classic 1967 novel, its 1983 film adaptation and its legacy today

The New York Public Library has acquired the papers of the late literary couple Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne.

New York Public Library Acquires Joan Didion's Letters, Drafts and Notes

The archive includes 240 linear feet of papers from Didion and her husband, John Gregory Dunne

“People always liked and admired Colette, but after [World War I], with this need to consolidate French identity, Colette really becomes a classique,” says Kathleen Antonioli. 

Colette Revolutionized French Literature With Her Depictions of Female Desire

Born 150 years ago this week, the author was known for her incisive portrayals of women's everyday lives

Salman Rushdie's latest book, Victory City, will be released on February 7.

In Salman Rushdie's New Book, Stories Outlive Tyrants

'Victory City' comes just six months after the author survived a violent attack at a speaking event

Indigenous people brought to Spain by Hernán Cortés play the game patolli.

The Indigenous Americans Who Visited Europe

A new book reverses the narrative of the Age of Discovery, which has long evoked the ambitions of Europeans looking to the Americas rather than vice versa

Drummer boy John Clem (left) and Robert Henry Hendershot, who claimed to be the celebrated "drummer boy of Rappahannock" (right)

Why the Union Army Had So Many Boy Soldiers

A new book unearths the startling numbers behind underage enlistment during the Civil War

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