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Literature

Ewan McGregor stars in Christopher Robin.

Coming Soon

Winnie-the-Pooh Returns to the Big Screen in a New Teaser Trailer

A live-action film of the iconic tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff hits theaters this summer

After Audubon's health began to fail, his family completed the project, producing the color plates in installments for about 300 subscribers.

The Fantastic Beasts of John James Audubon’s Little-Known Book on Mammals

The American naturalist spent the last years of his life cataloguing America’s four-legged creatures

A decline in women authors and named characters has subtly shaped our understanding of literary history, says study author Ted Underwood.

Women Were Better Represented in Victorian Novels Than Modern Ones

Big data shows that women used to be omnipresent in fiction. Then men got in the way

Quasi-catalogues like Comfort came with a surprising side effect: communication between women that otherwise would have been impossible.

From Helping Shut-Ins to Sisterly Advice, Mail-Order Magazines Did More Than Just Sell Things

The cheap monthly publications that flooded rural homes offered more than just advertising—they also provided companionship

A woman peers out of a residential complex at the women-only Taconic Correctional Facility in Bedford Hills, New York, in 2012.

New York Directive Restricts Inmates’ Literature Options

A pilot directive affecting three New York State prisons stipulates that inmates can only receive packages from six approved vendors

Cool Finds

Rare Scraps of Paper Unearthed in the Sludge of Famed Pirate Ship

The 300-year-old fragments found in Blackbeard’s flagship show someone on board was likely literate and interested in sea stories

No public domain etchings by Jessie Traill available for this American teen.

Why Americans Missed Out on Public Domain Day (Again)

Aleister Crowley, Dorothy Parker, and René Magritte joined the public domain in 2018, but not in the United States

Ellen Raskin designed the first-edition book cover; she later wrote The Westing Game, which won its own Newbery.

Women Who Shaped History

The Remarkable Influence of ‘A Wrinkle in Time’

How the Madeleine L’Engle novel liberated young adult literature

Thomas Edison's ideas fed the story that would become In the Deep of Time.

Thomas Edison’s Forgotten Sci-Fi Novel

By feeding his visions for the future to a well-regarded contemporary, the prolific inventor offered a peek into his brilliant mind

Zora Neale Hurston’s Study of the Last Known U.S. Slave to Be Published in 2018

Cudjo Lewis was captured and transported to the U.S. in 1860. After regaining his freedom five years later, he went on to help establish African Town

The frontispiece of Wheatley's poetry collection describes her as a "Negro servant" rather than a slave, though she wasn't freed until after the book's publication.

The Most Notorious Poet in 18th Century America Was An Enslaved Teenager You’ve Never Heard Of

Phyllis Wheatley was a prodigy, but her ultimate fate reflects the gross racial disparities of 1700s America

Engraving of the Marquis de Sade (1740-1814)

‘120 Days of Sodom’, Marquis de Sade’s Depraved Opus, Declared a French National Treasure

Officials sought to prevent the manuscript from being sold at an upcoming auction

A Plea to Resurrect the Christmas Tradition of Telling Ghost Stories

Though the practice is now more associated with Halloween, spooking out your family is well within the Christmas spirit

"García Márquez is a towering figure of 20th-century Latin America and beyond, profoundly influential as a novelist and a key figure in journalism, politics, film and cultural production," said Charles Hale, director of LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections,in a statement about the new archive at the Ransom Center.

The Magical Mind of Gabriel García Márquez Shines Through His Newly Digitized Archive

The University of Texas has digitized some 27,000 documents from the collection of the acclaimed author

A pod of dolphins swim along a boat in the Channel Islands National Park, California

What Archaeologists and Historians Are Finding About the Heroine of a Beloved Young Adult Novel

New scholarship reveals details about the Native American at the center of the classic Island of the Blue Dolphins

The Ten Best Travel Books of 2017

These reads will remedy even the direst cases of wanderlust

Gotcha!

Gulliver’s Travels Wasn’t Meant to Be a Children’s Book And More Things You Didn’t Know About the Literary Classic

Even now, 350 years after his birth, the great Irish satirist Jonathan Swift remains as sharp and relevant as ever

Dave Malloy & Rachel Chavkin

American Ingenuity Awards

These Shooting Stars of Broadway Staged the Impossible: A Musical About ‘War and Peace’

Dave Malloy and Rachel Chavkin brought the Tolstoy epic to life with Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812

Yarr! Actor Robert Newton, whose portrayal of Long John Silver became famous, also played Blackbeard in a 1952 film.

This Film Version of ‘Treasure Island’ Gave Us Our Image of Pirates

Avast, you lubbers!

Robin Hood in a modern production of a play.

Students Allied Themselves With Robin Hood During This Anti-McCarthyism Movement

The students of the Green Feather Movement caused an on-campus controversy at Indiana University

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