BOOKS

Victor Hugo, Anne Rice, and Thomas Hardy were all believers.

9 Authors Who Believed in Ghosts

Some, like Harriet Beecher Stowe and Victor Hugo, believed they had communicated with spirits directly; others, like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thomas Hardy, had ghostly encounters they couldn’t explain.

The cover of Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.’

11 Strange Facts About ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde’

The true facts surrounding the classic work are as mysterious and intriguing as the novel itself.

The cover of Emily Wilson’s translation of ‘The Iliad.’

A New Translation of ’The Iliad’ Is Bringing a Truer Ancient Greece to Modern Readers

This all-new translation of the Homer epic is six years in the making.

The 10 Most Challenged Books of 2022

Parents and politicians are trying to pull books off shelves at a record-setting pace.

The cover of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ by Ruben Toledo.

10 Blood-Curdling Facts About ‘Dracula’

In true undead style, Dracula holds up well: He’s as creepy today as he was when Bram Stoker invented him in 1897.

Karl Aspelin, Public Domain // Wikimedia Commons

What Was the First Banned Book in History?

As is often the case when you look back into history, there’s more than one possible answer. But one of the leading contenders has a fairly predictable culprit: the Puritans.

Guided by Voices: 7 Books Supposedly Written by Ghosts

From famous authors to a Roman emperor, these spirits sure had a lot to share.

Dollar Baby: Why Stephen King Sells the Rights to His Work to Up-and-Coming Filmmakers for Just $1

The Dollar Baby contract is Stephen King’s way of helping film students adapt his stories without financial barriers.

Rhyming Is Encouraged in the New Dr. Seuss Edition of ’Scrabble’

You can play Dr. Seuss ‘Scrabble’ here or there—you can play it anywhere!

The cover of Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein.’

11 Surprising Facts About Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’

Here are the nuts and bolts about Mary Shelley's 200-year-old tale about what can go wrong when people play God.

These spooky tales will have you thankful you live in modern times.

6 Creepy Victorian Ghost Stories to Read Right Now

These stories need no contrivances to create places that are lonely and old, a place where bad things are kept hushed up instead of dealt with.

Charles Dickens gifted us with plenty of new words and phrases—including ‘not to put too fine a point on it.’

The Origins of 8 Literary Clichés

Clichés are viewed as a sign of lazy writing, but they didn’t develop that reputation over night.

The Girl With the Green Ribbon: A Grisly History of ‘Headless Woman’ Stories

Precursors to the story about the girl with the green ribbon were written by Washington Irving, Alexandre Dumas, and more famous authors.

Before John Polidori’s ‘The Vampyre,’ the creatures were far from suave, sexy aristocrats.

The Wild History of the Tale That Created the Modern Vampire (And No, It's Not ‘Dracula’)

‘The Vampyre’ is largely forgotten today, but it upended centuries of vampiric lore 80 years before Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’—and from its spooky beginnings to its scandalous misattribution, its history was as dramatic as fiction.

The cover of Henry James’s ‘The Turn of the Screw.’

10 Frightening Facts about Henry James’s ‘The Turn of the Screw’

Learn about Henry James’s ‘The Turn of the Screw’—the classic ghost story that inspired (among many other things) Netflix’s ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor.’

Here are all the new jawns in the dictionary.

Jawns and Shower Oranges: See 30 of Dictionary.com’s Newly Added Terms

Non-Philadelphians can finally look up the meaning of ‘jawn’ in the dictionary.

The cover of Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Haunting of Hill House.’

13 Chilling Facts About Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Haunting of Hill House’

Shirley Jackson's classic novel ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ was inspired by real-life paranormal investigators—and so scary her husband was afraid to read it.

The cover of L. Frank Baum’s ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.’

13 Facts About L. Frank Baum’s ‘Wonderful Wizard of Oz’

‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ was the Harry Potter of its day: There was merchandising, a Broadway musical, a silent film, and a whopping 13 sequels.

9 Crimes Linked to Books

These offenses include everything from historical forgeries to audacious heists to cold-blooded murder—all with a bookish twist.

The Actual '73 Giving Tree Movie Spoken By Shel Silverstein

Watch: An Animated Version of ‘The Giving Tree,’ Narrated by Shel Silverstein

The controversial 1964 children's book about a codependent tree was adapted into a 1972 animated short.

10 Frightening Facts About Shirley Jackson’s ‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle’

Shirley Jackson is best remembered for “The Lottery” and 'The Haunting of Hill House,' but her gothic mystery 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle' is regarded as her greatest literary achievement.

The cover of John Steinbeck‘s ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’

11 Facts About John Steinbeck’s ‘The Grapes of Wrath’

John Steinbeck’s 1939 book ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ humanized the “Okies,” captured history as it was happening, and earned its author so much personal trouble that he started carrying a gun for protection.

The cover of 'My Brilliant Friend' by Elena Ferrante.

10 Facts About ‘My Brilliant Friend’

'My Brilliant Friend' kicked of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan series and inspired an HBO adaptation.

12 Novel Facts About John Steinbeck

The author of ‘East of Eden’ and ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ was also a three-time Academy Award nominee and found an enemy in J. Edgar Hoover.

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