Books

Readers were first introduced to Superman in June 1938.

The First Issue of Superman Just Became the Most Valuable Comic Book in the World

An original copy of 1938's "Action Comics No. 1" sold for a record-breaking $6 million at auction

The handwritten manuscript of The Sign of the Four, Arthur Conan Doyle's second Sherlock Holmes novel

Arthur Conan Doyle Agreed to Write 'The Sign of the Four' at a Fateful Dinner in 1889

The handwritten manuscript he produced is going to auction, where it could become the most expensive item associated with the mystery writer ever sold

Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir topped the list, followed by George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue.

These Were the Most Challenged Books in America Last Year

Titles with LGBTQ themes dominated the American Library Association's newly released list

The Library Company reading room on Juniper Street in Philadelphia c. 1935, one of the group’s main locations from 1880 to 1935.

How Ben Franklin Invented the Library as We Know It

Books were rare and expensive in colonial America, but the founding father had an idea

Some said the pirate king went to ground in London or Scotland, others that he died penniless and was buried in an unmarked grave in Devon. Or was he sipping fine French wine in the hills above Marseille?

The Notorious Pirate King Who Vanished With the Riches of a Mughal Treasure Ship

In the late 17th century, Henry Avery—the subject of the first global manhunt—bribed his way into the Bahamas

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe was the ALA's most challenged book in both 2021 and 2022. 

Book Banning Attempts Are at Record Highs

A new report from the American Library Association found that the number of challenged titles increased by 65 percent in 2023

Writer Gabriel García Márquez died in 2014 at the age of 87.

Gabriel García Márquez's Sons Publish Novel the Author Wanted to Destroy

The famed novelist had instructed his family never to publish drafts of "Until August," written as he struggled with dementia during his final years

Completed in 1709, the library has more than 22,000 books.

You Can Spend the Night in the Secret Library Tucked Inside St. Paul's Cathedral

Airbnb is offering two guests the chance to sleep amongst 22,000 books in an area normally off-limits to visitors

Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in the 1995 BBC series "Pride and Prejudice"

Mr. Darcy's Famous Wet Shirt Sells for $25,000

Actor Colin Firth’s costume from the BBC's “Pride in Prejudice” doubled auction house estimates

The Return of the Buffalo Herd, painted by Edward and Charles Detmold, hangs at Bateman's in East Sussex in honor of the book's 130th anniversary.

Rare 'Jungle Book' Watercolor Goes on Display at Rudyard Kipling's Home in England

"The Return of the Buffalo Herd" is one of only four surviving illustrations from the book

The novel is set during the early days of the pandemic, when New Yorkers applauded from their windows each night for medical staff and essential workers.

36 Famous Authors Co-Wrote a Pandemic Novel. Can You Guess Who Drafted Each Section?

Margaret Atwood, R.L. Stine and John Grisham are among the writers who collaborated on "Fourteen Days," which follows a group of New Yorkers who gather on a Manhattan rooftop to swap stories beginning in March 2020

Hiroyuki Sanada as Lord Yoshii Toranaga, a fictionalized version of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, in FX's "Shogun"

The Real History Behind FX's 'Shogun'

A new adaptation offers a fresh take on James Clavell's 1975 novel, which fictionalizes the stories of English sailor William Adams, shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu and Japanese noblewoman Hosokawa Gracia

Some of the women diarists featured in the new anthology. Top row, left to right: Ada Blackjack, Anne Clifford, Florence Nightingale, Fanny Burney and Anna Dostoyevskaya. Bottom row, left to right: Elizabeth Fry, Cynthia Asquith, Beatrice Webb, Charlotte Forten Grimké and Virginia Woolf 

What Is the Dominant Emotion in 400 Years of Women's Diaries?

A new anthology identifies frustration as a recurring theme in journals written between 1599 and 2015

Georgina Hogarth lived with Charles Dickens for nearly three decades.

Who Was Georgina Hogarth, Charles Dickens' 'Best and Truest Friend'?

Unpublished letters reveal new insights into the baffling relationship between the English novelist and his sister-in-law

Could we use volcanic energy as a power source?

Could Volcanoes Power Our Planet? And More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts

An etching of Darwin's study, commissioned a week after he died.

See What Charles Darwin Kept in His 'Insanely Eclectic' Personal Library, Revealed for the First Time

On the English naturalist's 215th birthday, more than 9,000 titles from his expansive collection are now accessible online

Abraham Lincoln’s third annual message to Congress spurred prompt and consequential action on what became the first piece of proactive federal legislation to encourage, rather than discourage, immigration to the U.S.

Abraham Lincoln's Oft-Overlooked Campaign to Promote Immigration to the U.S.

A few weeks after the president delivered the Gettysburg Address, he called on Congress to welcome immigrants as a "source of national wealth and strength"

A man exits the Euclid Avenue stop in Brooklyn.

These Photos Capture Every First and Last Subway Stop in New York City

Photographer Rita Nannini traveled across 665 miles of track and snapped some 8,000 images

The story of the successful mission, code-named Operation Washing, offers a masterclass in determination and daring worthy of Leonidas.

Millennia After Leonidas Made His Last Stand at Thermopylae, a Ragtag Band of Saboteurs Thwarted the Axis Powers in the Same Narrow Pass

A new book chronicles the 16-plus battles that took place in the Greek pass between the ancient era and World War II

A great white shark cruises through Atlantic waters.

Fifty Years After ‘Jaws,’ We’ve Learned a Lot About Great Whites

Though sport fishing tournaments and other activities led to population declines in the 1970s and 1980s, more recent science and conservation efforts have helped the sharks rebound

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