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Literature

Edna O’Brien pictured in late 2013

Novelist Edna O’Brien Explores the True Nature of Evil

Celebrated for her books about love, the writer might finally win a Nobel Prize for something darker

The Fantastic Mr. Dahl

The British author’s world—antic, subversive, wildly inventive and monstrously humane—returns to the screen in Steven Spielberg’s The BFG

Tucked inside the campus of Indiana University, the Lilly Library is your one-stop shop for rare cultural treasures

See the Gutenberg Bible, 32,000 3D Mechanical Puzzles and a Lock of Edgar Allen Poe’s Hair at This Rare Library

Curiosity is a credential at Indiana University Library’s Lilly Library

"Beach at Bologne" by Edouard Manet

Inventing the Beach: The Unnatural History of a Natural Place

The seashore used to be a scary place, then it became a place of respite and vacation. What happened?

The Consuegra Windmills.

Relive ‘Don Quixote’ With a Trip Through Miguel de Cervantes’ Spain

Tilt at windmills for the 400th anniversary of the author’s death

Hemingway made this airy estate his Cuban home away from home—and wrote some of his most famous novels here.

Cool Finds

As U.S.-Cuba Relations Warm, This Long-Dead Author Benefits

A new conservation facility is on its way to Hemingway’s home near Havana

Tolkien relied on maps to write his books—and cared a lot about how his fans saw Middle-earth.

Cool Finds

One Day Only: A Chance to View One Map to Rule Them All

A rare Tolkien-annotated map goes on display June 23

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

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

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

Would-be banners cited everything from religion to "condones public displays of affection" for their challenges.

Trending Today

These Were 2015’s Most Challenged Books

This year’s list includes S&M, LGBT content…and the Bible.

Romp with Ramona, Ribsy and Henry Huggins at Grant Park in Portland.

Cool Finds

Celebrate Beverly Cleary’s 100th Birthday With a Trip to Her Sculpture Garden

Ramona’s creator is even more timeless thanks to Portland’s tribute in bronze

Kronborg Castle, listed as World Heritage by UNESCO, is known as the setting of William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'.

Cool Finds

Celebrate Shakespeare’s Legacy at Hamlet’s Castle

Rest, rest, perturbed spirit! A bed awaits at “Elsinore”

Cool Finds

An AI-Written Novella Almost Won a Literary Prize

A short novel co-written by humans and AI passed the first round of a Japanese literary contest

Epitaph on William Shakespeare's grave

Trending Today

Did Shakespeare Lose His Head?

Scans of the Bard’s grave reveal that robbers may have stolen his skull two centuries ago

Cool Finds

Muggles Are Selling the Chair in Which ‘Harry Potter’ Was Created

The decorated dining room chair J.K. Rowling used to write her iconic novels is going on sale

You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love #TheShirt

Cool Finds

Mr. Darcy’s Wet Shirt is Coming to the United States

It’s the costume that launched an entire generation of Jane Austen lovers

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