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Literature

Toni Morrison, painted by Robert McCurdy, 2006, oil on canvas

Toni Morrison, ‘Beloved’ Author Who Cataloged the African-American Experience, Dies at 88

‘She changed the whole cartography of black writing,’ says Kinshasha Holman Conwill of the National Museum of African American History and Culture

Marcel Proust in 1900.

Cool Finds

Nine Newly Discovered Proust Stories to Be Published

The works were slated to be part of the French author’s first collection of poems and stories, but were cut for unknown reasons

M. Amité, and his right-hand cat, Apollo

A Steinbeck Story About a Chef and His Cat Has Been Published in English for the First Time

The author wrote ‘The Amiable Fleas’ in 1954, for the French newspaper Le Figaro

Nantucket harbor

Follow Herman Melville’s Footsteps Through Nantucket

The writer visited the island off of Cape Cod only after he penned Moby Dick

The Charles Dickens Museum Acquires ‘Lost’ Portrait of the Author as a Young Man

The 1843 painting by Margaret Gillies surfaced at an auction in South Africa in 2017

The perpetrator rips pages in half horizontally

A Literary Vandal Is Ripping Pages Out of Books and Putting Them Back on Shelves

The so-called ‘book ripper’ has targeted more than 100 volumes at a library and charity bookshop in the English town of Herne Bay

Detail from a promotional poster for Thunderball showing James Bond escaping with the help of a jet pack.

In Battles of Man Versus Machine, James Bond Always Wins

We love the suave character because he soothes our anxieties about the power of humans in an increasingly technological world

The entrance to Taiohae Bay, on the island of Nuku Hiva, where Herman Melville lived in 1842.

How a Voyage to French Polynesia Set Herman Melville on the Course to Write ‘Moby-Dick’

We retrace the journey that had a long-lasting influence on the enigmatic author’s improbable career

Several years after traveling through the South with fellow writer Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes wrote an essay about an encounter with a young man escaping chain gang labor.

A Lost Work by Langston Hughes Examines the Harsh Life on the Chain Gang

In 1933, the Harlem Renaissance star wrote a powerful essay about race. It has never been published in English—until now

Maurice Sendak, "Diorama of Moishe scrim and flower proscenium (Where the Wild Things Are)," 1979-1983, watercolor, pen and ink, and graphite pencil on laminated paperboard.

See Maurice Sendak’s Little-Known Designs for the Opera and Ballet

A new exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum explores how the ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ author pivoted to a career in set and costume design

Engraved portrait of Melvil Dewey.

Melvil Dewey’s Name Stripped From Top Library Award

An American Library Association resolution points to Dewey’s history of discriminatory and predatory behavior

Archaeologists unearthed the cannonballs while excavating the ruins of Zishtova Fortress in Bulgaria

Cool Finds

Trove of Cannonballs Likely Used by Vlad the Impaler Found in Bulgaria

The primitive projectiles probably date to the Romanian ruler’s 1461 through 1462 siege of Zishtova Fortress

A young girl plays at the newly restored Moat Brae house.

The Scottish Garden That Inspired Peter Pan’s Neverland Opens for Visitors

The Moat Brae house and its surroundings, where author J.M. Barrie played as a child, is now a children’s literature center

Walt Whitman in 1869, as photographed by William Kurtz

Rare Walt Whitman Artifacts Go on View at Library of Congress for Poet’s 200th Birthday

The library holds the world’s largest collection of Whitman-related items

The Library of Congress has digitized rare children's books

Rare Children’s Books Digitized by the Library of Congress

Festive felines and wayward rockets come to life online in honor of the 100th anniversary of Children’s Book Week

Every additional $10,000 in total income makes a person two percent more likely to enter a creative field

Art Meets Science

Wealth Is a Strong Predictor of Whether an Individual Pursues a Creative Profession

Those from households with an annual income of $1 million are 10 times more likely to become artists than those from families with a $100,000 income

The scene after a fire at Ashdown Forest in East Sussex

Fire Tore Through the Forest That Inspired Winnie the Pooh’s ‘Hundred Acre Wood’

Officials are confident England’s Ashdown Forest will recover from the blaze

A 19th-century illustration of 'Sleeping Beauty' by artist Gustave Doré

Barcelona School Commission Evaluates 600 Children’s Books for Sexist Content

One-third of the books were removed for promoting gender stereotypes at a critical point in childhood development

New Research

Computer Analysis Says ‘Beowulf’ Is the Work of a Single Author

Academics have argued about the origins of the Old English epic for two centuries

Adam Smith and William Shakespeare

How the Invisible Hand of William Shakespeare Influenced Adam Smith

Born more than 150 years apart, the two British luminaries each encountered rough receptions for their radical ideas

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