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LITERATURE
When Walt Whitman Reviewed His Own Book
“An American bard at last!” he declared of himself in an anonymous review.
Who Answers Sherlock Holmes's Fan Mail?
Podcaster and YouTuber Simon Whistler has cracked the case of who responds to Sherlock Holmes’s fan mail. (Spoiler: It's not Dr. Watson.)
Author Discovers $150,000 Literary Prize in Her Junk Email Folder
Check your spam!
Kids' Books Have Gotten Longer Thanks to the 'Harry Potter Effect'
The average page length has increased by 115 percent in the past decade.
13 Operas Adapted From Famous Novels
From beloved classics to contemporary bestsellers.
England Introduces New Peter Rabbit-Inspired Coins
The whimsical currency honors the 150th anniversary of Beatrix Potter's birth in 1866.
Here Are the Books Ernest Shackleton Brought on His Final Antarctic Expedition
Digital photo enhancement has made his book collection visible for the first time.
15 Things You Might Not Know About The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho's allegorical novel has sold over 65 million copies. What made 'The Alchemist' such a blockbuster?
4 Amazing Things Harper Lee Did After To Kill a Mockingbird
Until 2015's 'Go Set a Watchman,' the late, great Pulitzer Prize-winning author Harper Lee was known as a literary one-hit wonder.
13 NSFW Lines from James Joyce’s Incredibly Dirty Love Letters
Borrow these for Valentine's Day at your own risk.
8 Lovely Facts About The Secret Garden
The writer found a hidden garden in just the way that her novel's protagonist did.
A 'Lost' Beatrix Potter Story Will Be Published for the First Time
“The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots” had gone undiscovered for over a century.
9 Magical Facts About 100 Years of Solitude
'One Hundred Years of Solitude' changed world literature, but there was much more than magic involved.
25 Things You Should Know About Hartford, Connecticut
Mark Twain once said, "Of all the beautiful towns it has been my fortune to see, this is the chief."
Some Fairy Tales Are Far Older Than We Thought
'Beauty and the Beast' and other classics may date back thousands of years, researchers say.
Baltimore’s New Poe Toaster Honors Edgar Allan Poe
A tradition that dates back to the 1940s has just been resurrected.
5 of Poe's Harshest Literary Criticisms
There are a lot of Edgar Allan Poe fans out there, and just as many who think he was a hack. In facts, his contemporaries were some of his biggest detractors—and he didn’t think much of them, either. In honor of his birthday, here are five of Poe’s most v
Supreme Court Justices Love Quoting Shakespeare and Lewis Carroll, Study Finds
RBG, Scalia, and the rest of the gang love these authors just as much as we do.
11 Words for Fictional Substances
In science fiction, fantasy, and superhero stories, people frequently do the impossible—fly at light speed, travel through time, be Superman, etc. The creators of such stories sometimes try to do something even more impossible by scientifically explaining
The Science of Life and Death in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Professor Sharon Ruston surveys the scientific background to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, considering contemporary investigations into resuscitation, galvanism, and the possibility of states between life and death.
Police Sketches of Literary Characters Based on Their Book Descriptions
Here's what your favorite book characters would look like in real life.