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Literature

The first rooms of the "Art of Manga" exhibition introduce visitors to manga, which is read right-to-left and usually published in black and white.

Manga Are Black, White and Read All Over. Treasures of the Globally Popular Japanese Comic Book Medium Are on View in New York

The Brooklyn Museum’s “Art of Manga” exhibition highlights the “mangaka,” or creators, who have shaped the medium. Hundreds of original illustrations are making a rare trip to the United States

Known today as Gulliver's Travels, the book was originally published in 1726 under the title Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World by Lemuel Gulliver, a pseudonym for Jonathan Swift.

‘Gulliver’s Travels’ Turns 300 This Week. Jonathan Swift’s ‘Profound Satire of Human Nature’ Is Still Just as Bitingly Relevant

Since it was first published in October 1726, the novel purporting to tell the fantastical travel tales of Captain Lemuel Gulliver has never left print. An exhibition of rare editions and adaptations in Dublin celebrates Swift’s most famous work

The stuffed toys that inspired the world of Winnie-the-Pooh

As Winnie-the-Pooh Turns 100, the Original Stuffed Toy Remains in New York. Will the Silly Old Bear Ever Return to Britain?

A century after A.A. Milne first published his classic children’s tales, British admirers and royal emissaries have made a polite push to bring Christopher Robin’s original toys back home, if only for a royal vacation

Caspar David Friedrich’s The Evening Star is noteworthy for its Romantic sweep—and for the elusiveness of the stellar body (Venus) in its title. 

How Astronomers and Art Historians Are Working Together to Identify the Inspiration Behind Famous Works of Art

Researchers study paintings and literature to uncover untold history of the works, sometimes finding themselves trying to discern celestial bodies from dust

The Voynich Manuscript is named for the antiquarian who purchased it in Italy in 1912.

New Research

This Mysterious Medieval Manuscript Has Stumped Scholars for Well Over a Century. Could Its Pages Have Been Bound Out of Order This Whole Time?

A new study claims that the pages of the Voynich Manuscript, thought to be written by several different scribes in 16th-century Europe, alternate irregularly. It may change the way codebreakers approach the text

Physician Joseph Bell (left) inspired Sherlock Holmes (center, as portrayed by actor Basil Rathbone), the detective created by writer Arthur Conan Doyle (right).

Arthur Conan Doyle Based Sherlock Holmes on a Real-Life Scottish Surgeon Who Used Deduction to Diagnose Patients and Investigate Crimes

A new book chronicles the exploits of Joseph Bell, an Edinburgh lecturer whose lessons sparked the creation of the world’s most famous detective

Anne Carson, photographed in 2015, was awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Literature on October 8.

Canadian Poet Anne Carson Brings Ancient Wisdom to Modern Audiences. Now, She’s a Nobel Laureate in Literature

The 76-year-old poet, translator and essayist is renowned for her “bold and inventive” approach to blending poetry, prose and everything in between, leading to what the Swedish Academy calls “new forms for contemporary literature”

Ghostface, the primary antagonist of the Scream franchise, is one of the many horror icons featured in the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures' latest exhibition.

From Slasher Films to Vampire Flicks, Horror Movies Are More Popular Than Ever. Relive the Genre’s Scariest Moments—if You Dare—at a New Exhibition

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’ latest show features nearly 350 props, costumes and artifacts from such films as “Psycho,” “The Shining” and “Sinners”

A new review emphasizes associations between reading engagement and benefits such as better cognitive performance.

From Boosting Mental Health to Reducing Dementia Risk, Here’s Why Reading Is Extremely Good for You, According to Science

Mounting evidence suggests that regularly cozying up with a book can increase brain and mental health, improve literacy and math skills, and even slow cognitive decline. What’s more, fiction seems to have the added benefit of introducing readers to others’ perspectives

The front of the parchment fragment

Cool Finds

A Researcher Studying in a Dutch Library Was Amazed to Discover a Scrap of Parchment From a 1,700-Year-Old Copy of ‘The Odyssey’

The handwritten fragment contains Greek verses from Book 12 of Homer’s epic, in which King Odysseus recounts the fate of his doomed crew

MixFont's Decoy Font layers two messages on top of one another: The A.I. model reads "Sorry Robot," while the human can also read "Happy Human" behind it. 

Designers and Computer Scientists Create New Decoy Fonts That Humans Can Read but A.I. Bots Cannot

To prevent the trawling and theft of human writing, font-makers are employing both old and new illusions to outsmart large language models

Agatha Christie boards a train in 1922, during a ten-month trip around the world with her first husband.

The Life of Agatha Christie, the World’s Best-Selling Novelist, Goes Under the Microscope at the British Library

An upcoming London exhibition will explore the breadth of Christie’s ‘remarkable’ experiences through letters, photographs, a typewriter and a replica of her Hawaiian surfboard

Odysseus and Polyphemus (1896), by painter Arnold Böcklin, depicts Odysseus and his men escaping from the island of the Cyclops.

‘Odyssey’ Translator Emily Wilson Is Starting Over After Calling Christopher Nolan’s Blockbuster Film ‘Abysmal’

Nearly a decade after her acclaimed first translation was released, Wilson is taking a fresh approach to Homer’s ancient Greek epic

The statue was unvelied on August 14.

A New Statue Honors ‘Moby-Dick’ Author Herman Melville in the Massachusetts City Where His Whaling Adventures Began

The 7.5-foot-tall bronze artwork stands in the heart of historic New Bedford, the 19th-century whaling port that inspired the author’s famous 1851 novel

An early papyrus fragment from Homer's Odyssey, dated to roughly 285 to 250 B.C.E., is now on display in New York City.

You Can Now See One of the Oldest Surviving Copies of ‘The Odyssey’ at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The papyrus fragment contains three lines that don’t appear in standard modern-day translations of Homer’s epic poem

"Kiama Library" is stamped on the book's title page.

Cool Finds

This Library Book Was 150 Years Overdue. Fortunately for the Man Who Just Returned It, Librarians Won’t Be Enforcing a $20,000 Late Fee

“The Antiquities of Athens” had likely been missing from an Australian library since the 1870s. Staffers say its recovery is “an unlikely story of survival (of the book) and redemption (of the borrower)”

When did summer "beach reads" become a part of our culture? Book historian Donna Harrington-Lueker takes us back to mid-19th-century leisure.

The History of the Beach Read, From 19th-Century ‘Moral Debasement’ to BookTok

The still-popular genre got its start 150 years ago, when publishers profited off the rise of travel in the United States during an otherwise slow publishing season

One of the design proposals

It’s Nature vs. Culture as Europeans Vote on New Designs for Euro Banknotes That Pit Kingfishers Against Leonardo da Vinci

The European Central Bank released a shortlist of ten potential designs for a new series of printed banknotes, the first complete redesign since the Euro note was issued in 2002.

Odysseus and Polyphemus, Arnold Böcklin, 1896

Was There Ever an Original Version of ‘The Odyssey,’ and Do We Need to Worry About What Homer Would Think?

The earliest surviving fragments of the epic poem—the subject of Christopher Nolan’s latest Hollywood blockbuster—date back more than 2,000 years. But oral storytelling about a hero named Odysseus is much older

Actor Paul Newman lounges on a pool table reading Star Warriors in this ALA READ campaign poster. 

Vintage ‘READ’ Posters Adorning Libraries and Classrooms for Decades Go on Auction as the American Library Association Turns 150

Taylor Swift, Serena Williams and famous fictional characters lent their iconic faces to encourage people to pick up a book

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