I don’t exactly know why I frequent auction sites like Christie’s, looking for rare books I’ll never be able to afford, but one small reason might be the chance to look at books like this. On sale later this month, Read more >
We know about much more medieval literature than we have access to. In medieval literature, authors were constantly referencing each other’s works—but some of the referenced works haven’t been found themselves. Prior to the printing press, it was much easier Read more >
Colmanheads, rejoice: the patron saint of eccentric woman characters Olivia Colman will star as Miss Havisham in the new FX and BBC limited series adaptation of Great Expectations. The role of jilted bride/vengeful spinster who refuses to wear anything but Read more >
Now here’s a celebrity memoir to get excited about. Elliot Page, the Oscar- and Emmy-nominated star of Juno, Inception, and The Umbrella Academy, is currently working on his first memoir, which is due to be published by Flatiron in 2023. Read more >
America lost one of its great political writers and satirists this week as P.J. O’Rourke died too young at the age of 74. For a good example of his humor, insight, and refusal to take himself—or anyone—too seriously* watch the Read more >
Last week, the Biographers International Organization (BIO) announced Megan Marshall as the winner of its 13th annual BIO Award, bestowed annually “to a distinguished colleague who has made major contributions to the advancement of the art and craft of biography.” Read more >
If you’re paying attention to crypto developments—or just strange, strange news items—you may be passingly familiar with Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, the couple accused of laundering billions of dollars in bitcoin. The details of the case are worth reading—not Read more >
If you ever took an English class where you read the Canterbury Tales, there’s a strong likelihood you had to perform the opening in Middle English, using pronunciation guides or YouTube videos (depending on the year) to guide you. Now, Read more >
Literary Hub is pleased to announce that submissions are now open for the sixth annual Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize, which awards $1000 for an outstanding book collection conceived and built by a young woman+, aged 30 or younger, Read more >
Last night, the moon graced us with her luminous presence at a very special point in her journey. Sure, we get a full moon every ~30 days, but February brings us the Snow Moon (also called the Storm Moon, the Read more >
Yesterday in 2010, President Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Maya Angelou, titanic writer, performer, activist, and “spokesperson for . . . all people who are committed to raising the moral standards of living in the United States.” Read more >
In February, 1949 a 26-year-old Jack Kerouac found himself stuck in a blizzard in Dickinson, North Dakota. At the time, of course, Kerouac was in the middle of the long, slow cross-country trip that would become his canonical novel, On Read more >
If you’ve already seen Drive My Car, purchased a Haruki Murakami/Uniqlo collab T-shirt, taken a video tour of the Haruki Murakami Library, read Murakami’s take on his female characters, and learned to compare the process of writing to . . Read more >
Look, we all get old, you can’t really fight it. But if you’ve been putting off the inevitable purchase of drugstore reading glasses because of a little vanity, well, I don’t blame you, and maybe you can put it off Read more >
This morning, I learned that we were, at this very moment, in the middle of New York Fashion Week. Because Lit Hub’s invitations to fashion shows keep getting lost in the mail, I had no plans to cover the festivities Read more >
You know what a really good activity for February 15th is? Going to the closest CVS, getting your hands on all the discount Valentine’s Day chocolate there is, and then hopping over to your favorite bookstore to pick up a Read more >
Lit Hub wants to wish you a very happy Valentine’s Day—and I’m celebrating by taking a look back at one of my treasured images, that of the heart-shaped book. We don’t see heart-shaped books in the wild anymore, but for Read more >
In another case of unbridled tech utopianism, the director of the Internet Archive—a non-profit website that makes ebooks freely available to anyone with the internet—is complaining that Penguin Random House wants them to remove Art Spiegelman’s Maus from their collection, Read more >
Has any contemporary author played versions of themselves in more movies than Salman Rushdie? (This is a rhetorical question; please do not email me.) As a repeat (and repeat, and repeat) viewer of the all-time great rom-com Bridget Jones’s Diary, I Read more >
It’s no great secret that Iris Murdoch loved a drink (and I’m not just talking about a wee sweet sherry on Boxing Day). And as someone who loved a drink, it makes an awful lot of sense she loved pubs. Read more >
