Blog Posts by Subject: English and American Literature

On September 30, 1868, the first volume of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women was published. The New York Public Library has many, many copies of Little Women and its sequels.

Show off your Jane Austen knowledge: tell us which Bennet said each of the following quotes. Then prepare your dance moves for the Netherfield Ball.

From 1750 to 1830, the legal landscape of Great Britain was significantly transformed. An accusatory form of trial gave way to an adversarial format—which was echoed in the periodical wars of the romantic press.

Perhaps as much has been written about Hemingway as was written by him.

We asked our experts: “What’s your recommendation for a long, dense, serious beach book?”

We're honoring the Platonic ideal by remembering the friendships of some of our favorite authors. Aristotle said, "What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies." But today we're asking, "What is a literary friend? A genius dwelling in two bodies."

On July 16, 1951, The Catcher in the Rye was published for the first time. Today we're reading some of the best writing on its author, J.D. Salinger.

An author, political activist, and lecturer, Keller became one of the most inspiring figures of the twentieth century after publishing her autobiography The Story of My Life at age 22. What you may not know about Helen Keller, however, is that she was also a great lover of literature. Celebrate her birth with these seven Helen Keller quotes that capture what it means to love books.

We asked our NYPL staff members: What’s a book you’ve never been able to conquer?

Dark in tone and set in an atmosphere of decay and decline, Southern Gothic lit is colored by that intense, damp, uniquely Southern heat pressing down on its characters and stories.

If you’re Regency romance fan and have yet to read a Company of Rogues novel by Jo Beverley, then boy do I have a summer challenge/project for you!

One really special thing about Mislaid is that despite how unconventional it is, it fits pretty squarely in with other works of Southern Gothic fiction. Whether you’re waiting to get your hands on your copy of Mislaid, or looking for some more weird Southern fiction to keep your mind busy after devouring this title in one sitting, here is a list of some titles that you might enjoy.

We're looking at the beloved author who told us that real courage was “when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”

While Shakespeare aligned April with youth and vitality, Eliot called it “the cruelest month.” Melville compared April to a red-cheeked dancing girl, and Millay even titled one collection Second April. Here are a few of our favorite April quotes in literature.

It’s going to be rough wait, but we will do it together and somehow find other books and films to fill the Downton-sized hole in our hearts.

Upon learning of the president’s death, the nation responded with shock, confusion, outrage, and sorrow. This tumultuous period was captured by the printing and photography of the time: both in immediate ephemera and later, more contemplative works.

Way way back, in 1990, I wandered into a Portland, Oregon bookstore and found a romance novel, set in Scotland, involving time travel and I was hooked! Since then, it’s been a 25 year odyssey of reading and waiting. Outlander finally returns to TV on April 4.

From February 13-27, the New York Public Library will display Tom Wolfe's papers in an exhibition called “Becoming The Man in the White Suit: The Tom Wolfe Papers at The New York Public Library.” This week on the podcast he discusses handwriting, humility, and social status.

The collection, which was acquired by The Library in 2014, fills over 200 boxes and will be a vital resource for the study of Wolfe's writing process, his journalism-based research methods, and the creation of his hugely successful works.