Literature

A digitization of a draft from the Wren Library (above) and a multispectral image processed by Michael Sullivan from raw imaging by Andrew Beeby (below)

Advanced Imaging Reveals Crossed-Out Words in the Poems of Alfred Tennyson

The 19th-century English poet was a "prolific reviser" who tested out many variations of his work before publication. A new study sheds light on his creative process

Flannery O'Connor with peacocks in the driveway of her family home at Andalusia Farm in 1962

Flannery O'Connor Wanted to Shake Her Readers Awake. Her Family Wanted Her to Write the Next 'Gone With the Wind'

This year marks the writer's 100th birthday. Through fiction anchored in her Southern background and Catholic faith, O'Connor revealed how candid confrontations with darkness lead to moments of reckoning

The poem was discovered by researcher Leah Veronese.

'Politically Repurposed' Copy of Famous Shakespearean Love Sonnet Discovered Inside a 17th-Century Poetry Collection

The rare handwritten copy of "Sonnet 116" features several additional lines, which may have been an attempt to insert British royalist ideas into the romantic ode, according to researchers

Harper Lee on the porch of her parents' home in Monroeville, Alabama, in 1961

Eight Never-Before-Seen Short Stories by 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Author Harper Lee Will Be Published This Year

After Lee's death in 2016, typescripts of her early fiction were discovered in her New York apartment. The previously unseen drafts offer new insights into her creative development

Some authors say that reading piles of books just to write blurbs for friends and colleagues is an overly time-consuming process that adds little value.

Are 'Gripping,' 'Brilliant' Book Blurbs on Their Way Out?

In a provocative essay, a major publisher announced that its authors will no longer be required to solicit glowing reviews for their book jackets, arguing that blurbs don't reflect a title's true merit

Despite gaining national renown after “The Raven” was published in 1845, Edgar Allan Poe never enjoyed great financial success.

Discover Why 'The Raven,' Edgar Allan Poe's Narrative Poem About a Distraught Lover and a Talking Bird, Remains an American Classic

Published on this day in 1845, the work used alliteration, internal rhyme and repetition to draw in readers, lending it a dark and melancholic tone

A recently discovered trove of Winnie-the-Pooh materials found new homes in the United States and the United Kingdom after selling at auction.

Man Finds Rare Trove of Winnie-the-Pooh Drawings and Manuscripts in His Father's Attic

The papers connected to author A.A. Milne—including original drafts, illustrations, letters, poems and corrected proofs—sold at auction for more than $118,000

Zora Neale Hurston wanted to tell the world about the "real ... historical Herod, instead of the deliberately folklore Herod."

Why Was Zora Neale Hurston So Obsessed With the Biblical Villain Herod the Great?

The Harlem Renaissance author spent her last years writing about the ancient king. Six decades after her death, her unfinished novel has finally been published for the first time

The eye on the coin does not have lashes and is designed to resemble a camera lens.

George Orwell Gets His Own £2 Coin Featuring an All-Seeing Eye

Inscribed with quotes from "Nineteen Eighty-Four," the Royal Mint's latest release honors the author on the 75th anniversary of his death

The Charles Dickens Museum is celebrating its anniversary by displaying rare books, artworks, letters, artifacts and other unique historical objects connected to the 19th-century author.

See Charles Dickens' Rare Manuscripts, Teenage Love Letters and a Copy of 'David Copperfield' That Traveled to Antarctica

To celebrate its 100th anniversary, the Charles Dickens Museum in London is staging an exhibition of historic objects that shed light on the writer’s life and legacy

An 1889 photograph of author Horatio Alger (right)

This Author, Famous for His Rags-to-Riches Stories, Forever Shaped How We Talk About the American Dream

Horatio Alger's repetitive stories reached their true popularity and became synonymous with social mobility largely thanks to retellings after the writer's death

Two women follow along during the Moby Dick reading marathon at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Thousands of Book Lovers Gather for a 25-Hour-Long 'Moby Dick' Reading Marathon

The annual event takes place in the Massachusetts town of New Bedford, which is where Herman Melville's celebrated 1851 novel opens

Portrait of Thomas Paine by Laurent Dabos

America’s First ‘Viral’ Post Was Published on This Day in 1776, When Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ Sparked a Revolution

The Englishman’s pamphlet helped spur the 13 colonies to declare independence from Britain

An Olivetti Studio 46 typewriter that belonged to Octavia E. Butler. As the author recalled: "I wrote my first ten books on a manual typewriter."

In Her Inventive and Prescient Stories, Octavia Butler Wrote Herself Into the Science Fiction Canon

On her beloved typewriters, the literary legend mapped out a course for the future of the genre

Works entering the public domain include The Sound and the Fury, the first recordings of Rhapsody in Blue, Popeye, Tintin and The Broadway Melody.

Happy Public Domain Day! Popeye, 'Rhapsody in Blue,' 'The Sound and the Fury' and Thousands of Other Captivating Creations Are Finally Free for Everyone to Use

On January 1, 2025, copyrights will expire for books, films, comic strips, musical compositions and other creative works from 1929, as well as sound recordings from 1924

The title page of the first edition of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol

'A Christmas Carol' Marvelously Captured the Holiday's Victorian Spirit and Inspired New Traditions for Centuries to Come

Published on this day in 1843, at a time when Christmas was undergoing great transformation, Charles Dickens' novel centered the virtues of kindness, charity and reform

An illustration of the Mary Celeste in 1861, when the ship was known as the Amazon

An Abandoned Merchant Ship Was Discovered Floating in the Atlantic in 1872. The Mystery of Its Missing Crew Was Never Solved

Speculation about what happened to the "Mary Celeste," found empty on this day in 1872, was so rife that even famed author Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a sensational short story about it

The stone marked with the name "Ebenezer Scrooge" is located in a graveyard at St. Chad’s Church in Shrewsbury, England.

Vandals Destroy Ebenezer Scrooge's Fictional Tombstone Featured in a Film Adaptation of 'A Christmas Carol'

Located in an English churchyard, the stone was inscribed with the name "Ebenezer Scrooge" for the 1984 movie. Police are investigating the vandalism, which occurred earlier this month

A whale attacks a boat in Frank Goodrich's 1858 novel "Man upon the sea : or, a history of maritime adventure, exploration, and discovery, from the earliest ages to the present time".

Inside the Terrifying True Story of the Sperm Whale That Sank the Whale-Ship ‘Essex’ and Inspired Herman Melville’s ‘Moby-Dick’

Survivors of the whale attack drifted at sea for months, succumbing to starvation, dehydration—and even cannibalism

William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson were among the well-known poets with works included in the new study.

ChatGPT or Shakespeare? Readers Couldn't Tell the Difference—and Even Preferred A.I.-Generated Verse

A new study suggests people might like chatbot-produced poems for their simple and straightforward images, emotions and themes

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