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Books

Is the Internet an Enormous Work of Realist Art?

Journalist Virginia Heffernan makes a compelling case that it is in a new book

A sketch of a Lycaeides melissa samuelis butterfly.

Art Meets Science

Vladimir Nabokov’s Butterfly Drawings Take Flight in This New Book

A little-known fact: The author of “Lolita” was also an avid lepidopterist

Cool Finds

These Are America’s Most Well-Read Cities

Did your bookish burg make Amazon.com’s list?

Sarah Josepha Hale was the 19th century's answer to Oprah.

Cool Finds

Five Fascinating Details About the Media Mogul Who May Have Written ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’

Everywhere that Sarah Josepha Hale went, success was sure to go

Sanora Babb with unidentified migrant workers

The Forgotten Dust Bowl Novel That Rivaled “The Grapes of Wrath”

Sanora Babb wrote about a family devastated by the Dust Bowl, but she lost her shot at stardom when John Steinbeck beat her to the punch

In his book The Gene: An Intimate History, Siddhartha Mukherjee discusses family, cancer, and the meaning of genetic normalcy.

Siddhartha Mukherjee Follows Up Biography of Cancer With “An Intimate History” of Genetics

The Pulitzer Prize winner calls his latest not a sequel, but a prequel to his bestseller

Mary Reynolds sits in a moss-covered pod designed by the West Cork artist Peter Little.

The Unlikely, Charming Designer Who Is Changing the Face of Gardening

With weeds, critters and Celtic symbols, Mary Reynolds is transforming what it means to garden

In the tranquility of old Vienna, Stefan Zweig writes, one could never “dream how dangerous man can be.” This 1901 photograph shows a city market.

Austria

The Unhurried World of Pre-War Vienna

Author Stefan Zweig, who inspired Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, recalls Austria at the dawn of the 20th century

A set of the volumes published by 2010 of the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae

Cool Finds

This Latin Thesaurus Has Been in Progress Since 1894

Scholars are still working on the letter “N”

If Grit Breeds Success, How Can I Get Grittier?

University of Pennsylvania psychologist Angela Duckworth talks about her new book and the importance of the personal quality

A "Walking Library" in London, circa 1930s

Cool Finds

A Brief History of Taking Books Along for the Ride

Have books, will travel

The Biodiversity Heritage Library has the digitized version of the University of Toronto’s Fisher Library’s copy of Evelyn’s work

Celebrate National Salad Month with Rare and Historic Books that Include Your Favorite Leafy Greens

A Smithsonian librarian journeys through history and time on a quest to explore salads throughout antiquity

Cool Finds

Five Things to Know About the Diamond Sutra, the World’s Oldest Dated Printed Book

Printed over 1,100 years ago, a Chinese copy of the Diamond Sutra at the British Library is one of the most intriguing documents in the world

Europe

Traveling to the Danube? Here’s What You Should Read, Watch and Download

Know before you go

A Little Free Library in Sandy Springs, Georgia.

Cool Finds

Build Your Own Library at the First-Ever Little Library Festival

The book-sharing stations have popped up all across the United States

This photograph of Harper Lee was taken in 1961, one year after she wrote for the Grapevine.

Exclusive: Read Harper Lee’s Profile of ‘In Cold Blood’ Detective Al Dewey That Hasn’t Been Seen in More Than 50 Years

Reprinted here for the first time, the article was published five years before Truman Capote’s best-selling book

This photograph of Harper Lee was taken in 1961, one year after she wrote for the Grapevine.

Cool Finds

Biographer Uncovers Unsigned Feature Article by Harper Lee

The ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ author published a profile of a Kansas investigator in an FBI magazine while helping Truman Capote research ‘In Cold Blood’

A statue of Julian of Norwich at Norwich Cathedra. She is one of the first-known women writers in the English language.

Cool Finds

For the First Time, See Two Early Medieval Books Written By Women On Display Together

The manuscripts detail the authors’ experiences

Your Questions for Astronaut Tom Jones, Answered

Just a sampling of what we can learn from those who have been to space

Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles and Everett Sloane in the offices of Kane’s Inquirer.

Who Really Wrote “Citizen Kane”?

Two new books offer divergent theories on the authorship of the much-heralded film

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