Books

Heritage scientist Cecilia Bembibre captures the smell of a 18th-century bible at Knole House.

The Quest to Better Describe the Scent of Old Books

Describing a unique smell just got easier thanks to a pair of olfactory detectives

Former U.S. president Barack Obama goes book-shopping with his daughters in Washington, DC in 2015.

Liberals and Conservatives Read Totally Different Books About Science

The good news: Everyone likes dinosaurs

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault. A new vault will protect the world's books, archives and documents on long-lasting film

A Second Doomsday Vault—This One to to Preserve Data—Is Opening in Svalbard

Known as the Arctic World Archive, it will store copies of books, archives and documents on special film

To develop the next big mass-market wine, winemakers first hone flavor using focus groups, then add approved flavoring and coloring additives to make the drink match up with what consumers want.

The Science Behind Your Cheap Wine

How advances in bottling, fermenting and taste-testing are democratizing a once-opaque liquid

Women of the Signal Corps run General Pershing's switchboard at the First Army headquarters.

Women On the Frontlines of WWI Came to Operate Telephones

The “Hello Girls” risked their lives to run military communications—and were denied recognition when they returned home

Albrecht Dittrich as a student, just a few years before he came to the U.S. under the name Jack Barsky as a KGB spy.

How a KGB Spy Defected and Became a U.S. Citizen

Jack Barsky wanted to stay in the country, so he let the Soviets think he was dead

The University of London's Senate House inspired Orwell's description of the Ministry of Truth. Orwell's wife Eileen Blair worked in the building during World War II, when it was the real headquarters of the Ministry of Information.

George Orwell Wrote '1984' While Dying of Tuberculosis

Orwell, like thousands around the globe today, struggled with tuberculosis for many years before finally succumbing to the disease

A new VR game puts you inside a James Joyce novel.

This Game Turns James Joyce’s Most Notorious Novel Into Virtual Reality

But will it make you want to finish <i>Ulysses</i>?

This 17th-century French noblewoman will become the first woman ever included in the curriculum for the nation's high school exams.

France’s Famous High School Exam Will Soon Feature Its First Woman Author

Madame da La Fayette will infuse a much-needed POV into France’s literary curriculum

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson Was Fiercer Than You Think

A new biopic shows the poet as more than a mysterious recluse

This illustration, depicting Uncle Tom's Cabin antagonist Simon Legree looming over, and perhaps preparing to beat, Tom, appeared in the 1853 edition of the book. Pro-slavery Southerners argued that the book misrepresented slavery by cherry-picking the worst examples.

White Southerners Said “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” Was Fake News

So its author published a “key” to what’s true in the novel

One Writer Used Statistics to Reveal the Secrets of What Makes Great Writing

In his new book, data journalist Ben Blatt takes a by-the-numbers look at literary classics and finds some fascinating patterns

"Numbers are a human invention, and they’re not something we get automatically from nature," says Caleb Everett.

How Humans Invented Numbers—And How Numbers Reshaped Our World

Anthropologist Caleb Everett explores the subject in his new book, <em>Numbers and the Making Of Us</em>

Sylvia Townsend Warner, the author whose first book was chosen as the first Book of the Month selection in 1926, was openly involved in relationships with both men and women, a fact that scandalized readers.

Don't Judge the Book-of-the-Month Club By Its Cover

Although today you might associate its name with staid offerings, the club’s first book was by an openly queer author

Patrick O'Brien, "Dinosaur and Volkswagen," Gigantic, 1998, oil on canvas - How big is “gigantic?” Patrick O'Brien shares his life-long fascination with the illustrations of prehistoric animals in children's books with a new generation of young readers. Other images in Gigantic compare dinosaurs with modern devices such as monster trucks, cherry pickers and tanks. O’Brien lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

A New Exhibition Explores the Science and Math in Children's Book Illustrations

The 29 artworks on display capture the wonder in nature, engineering and discoveries

What did J.P. Morgan's library smell like in 1906?

Nosy Researchers Are Sniffing a Vintage Library

It’s all an effort to recreate an olfactory landscape of yore

Five Things to Know About Little Golden Books

What to know as the iconic series of children's books celebrates 75 years

Walt Whitman photographed in 1854, two years after his serialized novella was first published anonymously.

A Graduate Student Just Discovered a Lost Work of Fiction by Walt Whitman

The serialized novella was first published anonymously in 1852

The first "phone book" (really a one-page sheet) came long before phones like this, but it was an important step towards the printed directories that were ubiquitous in the twentieth century and are now often considered outdated.

The First Telephone Book Had Fifty Listings and No Numbers

It came out less than two years after Alexander Graham Bell invented the device

Abraham Lincoln photographed shortly after the presidential election in November 1860, by Alex Hesler of Chicago, at Lincoln's home in Springfield, Illinois.

When Lincoln Was More a Politician Than an "Honest Abe"

He resorted to a dirty trick to embarrass a rival

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