TODAY: In 1859, Samuel Langhorne Clemens received his steamboat pilot’s license.
- Claudia Rankine and Beth Loffreda confront the racial imaginary: “We are ourselves earthbound. And race is one of the things that binds us there.” | Literary Hub
- The incredible story behind Georges Perec’s formerly lost novel, complete with exclusive excerpt. | NYRB
- “The perplexing but wonderful thing about Morrison’s career is just how much her prominence was created not by the mainstream publishing world, but by Morrison herself, on her own terms, in spite of it.” The NYT Magazine’s profile of Toni Morrison. | New York Times Magazine
- Another lovely story about cruises: Lucy Knisley’s new cartoon memoir tells the classic tale of a young woman, her grandparents, the open sea, and the looming imminence of death. | NPR
- The New York Public Library sets out to prove that readers who claim to not love poetry are, in fact, wrong. | NYPL
- Apparently, Dante’s vision of Hell consists of a lot of hungry demons nibbling on each other. | Open Culture
- T.C. Boyle on Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” and how “Ray opened my eyes to a different mode of storytelling.” | The Atlantic
- From Romulus and Remus to Wild Peter to Mowgli—the history and psychology of our obsession with feral children. | Biographile
- And for non-feral children, on Roald Dahl and sending your kids “to a different mental area—a deeper, spongier chamber.” | The Millions
