LITERATURE

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

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

‘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.

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.

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.

A number of noteworthy historical figures were born in the month of August. We couldn’t possibly name them all, so here are just a handful of lives we’ll be celebrating.

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

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.

'The Canterbury Tales' author Geoffrey Chaucer's work spanned poetry and prose and ranged from the humorous to the scientific—but there's so much more to know about the "father of English poetry."

James Baldwin's novel 'Giovanni’s Room' was rejected by editors and publishers before it was eventually released in 1956.

The Stonewall Book Award celebrates LGBTQ+ literature and includes standouts from authors like Alison Bechdel, Rivers Solomon, and Michael Cunningham.

Here, in no particular order, are just a few of history’s most influential tomes—and how they made humanity look at things in a new light.