Library of America
Library of America is a nonprofit publisher dedicated to preserving America's best and most significant writing.
www.loa.org
- Happy birthday to John Guare, the prophetic playwright whose essential works were collected by LOA last year. “For Guare,” explains volume editor Michael Paller, “restoring theater to a place of poetry is the entire purpose of his self-declared ‘War on the Kitchen Sink.’” www.loa.org/news-and-vie...
- Thornton Wilder’s Our Town—"probably the finest play ever written by an American,” said Edward Albee—made its Broadway debut on this day in 1938. Pay a visit to Grover’s Corners, NH, in this 2022 LOA LIVE event celebrating Wilder’s Pulitzer-winning masterpiece: youtu.be/TgUGGA1-lnY?...
- This March, celebrated author and teacher Edward Hirsch returns for a new online course with Library of America exploring the transformative language, ideas, and emotions that animate American poetry and connect it to our everyday lives. RSVP now on Eventbrite! www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-rea...
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- An incredible lineup of books in this NYPL list of 100 Black Voices, including many in the LOA series. One still-under-appreciated novel here is The Man Who Cried I Am by John A. Williams, an explosive combo of Black literary history and Cold War political thriller. www.nypl.org/books-more/r...
- The short story might be America’s national art form, capturing the country’s moods and experiences like little else. On our website, Harvard’s John Stauffer explores the genre’s meteoric rise in the century of the Civil War and the industrial revolution. www.loa.org/news-and-vie...
- Spotted in John Woo’s 1992 Hong Kong action masterpiece Hard Boiled: the Library of America edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories and tales! Seems fitting, as Poe arguably invented the modern detective story with his works “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter.”
- Ursula K. Le Guin’s Book of Cats is “rife with worldly wisdom, containing small meditations on life, love and death, from one of the greatest writers of our time,” says @oregonian.com. “One should never underestimate Le Guin.” www.oregonlive.com/books/2026/0...
- George Templeton Strong was “a vivid writer, a shrewd judge of men with a novelist’s eye for detail, and a man with a rare willingness to alter his opinions when facts intervened.” In @wsj.com, a look at LOA’s new edition of his Civil War Diaries, perhaps the greatest civilian account of the war.
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- “Each word, like a stone dropped in a pond, creates a ripple around it,” writes Charles Bernstein of the poetry of Louis Zukofsky, cofounder of Objectivism, born OTD in 1904. “The intersecting ripples on the surface of the pond are the pattern of the poem.” www.loa.org/books/245-se...
- Two LOA writers with a penchant for darkness and the depths of the human mind share a birthday this week (albeit 112 years apart): Edgar Allan Poe (b. 1809) and Patricia Highsmith (b. 1921). If Poe invented the detective story in the 19th century, Highsmith reimagined crime fiction in the 20th.
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- Unprecedented in scope, LOA's new two-volume anthology of 19th-century American short stories collects more than 100 pieces by 51 writers, from Charles Brockden Brown’s haunting gothic tales to the Gilded Age masterpieces of Henry James. Order your copy today: www.loa.org/books/the-am...
- “I have not lost faith. I'm not in despair, because I know that there is a moral order. I haven't lost faith, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Martin Luther King Jr., born OTD in 1929, returned to this phrase often, casting a ray of hope in dark times.
- Two recent LOA titles have made the brand-new @americanbookseller.bsky.social Independent Press Top 40, the first national best-seller list focused on indie presses and bookstores: Ursula K. Le Guin’s Book of Cats and On Civil Disobedience, with essays from Hannah Arendt and Henry David Thoreau.
- “To Build a Fire” may be the ultimate cold-weather tale, Jack London’s account of Yukon survival (in the original 1902 version) and peril (in the now-classic 1908 text). Read arguably the best story ever written by London, who was born 150 years ago this week. storyoftheweek.loa.org/2011/02/to-b...
- “I would rather be ashes than dust!” wrote Jack London, born 150 years ago OTD. “I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.”
- Don’t miss our upcoming online class on peer-rivals Philip Roth and John Updike, taught by bestselling New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik. Across four sessions, explore the remarkable oeuvres of these giants of postwar American fiction. Register via Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.com/e/roth-updik...
- “Inhabit the Poem is an astounding final book by one of the last century’s finest poetry critics. . . . it’s hard to imagine a critic with her sheer range and depth of knowledge, and the time and willingness to share it, emerging again.” In @thetls.bsky.social, the peerless essays of Helen Vendler.
- “Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.”—Carl Sandburg, “The People, Yes” (1936). The three-time Pulitzer winner (twice for poetry, once for biography) was born OTD, January 6, 1878. Discover his defiant voice in the LOA edition of his selected poems: loa.org/books/806
- Helen Vendler’s Inhabit the Poem, the eminent literary critic’s final essays on the inner workings and hidden depths of works by poets from Sylvia Plath to Ocean Vuong, is an @theartsfuse.bsky.social recommended book of 2025! artsfuse.org/322168/arts-...
- New Year’s resolutions from Library of America: -Explore American literary regionalism (with the help of our new 19th century short story anthology) -Resist the urge to drop historical trivia into EVERY conversation -Keep publishing America’s greatest writers across genre and era www.loa.org/books/
- In 2025, the tapestry of American literature was on full display at Library of America, both in the books we published and in our online content exploring this vast living legacy. Enjoy a retrospective of our top essays, interviews, videos, and podcasts, and we’ll see you again in the new year!
- In case you missed it, we’ve posted the recording of last night’s engrossing talk between playwright Bess Wohl and memoirist Honor Moore on Wohl’s hit new play Liberation. Tune in for details on the play’s creative genesis and its links to the revolutionary literature of the women’s movement.
- Six new poems by Wendell Berry appear in @plough.bsky.social! “Here plowing (and not just in a metaphorical sense—remember, Berry actually plows actual fields) turns up the field of memory and gives us a glimpse of the beauty that comes when we love a place and its people particularly and deeply.”
- Last night at @strandbooks.com in Manhattan, playwright John Guare and dramaturg Michael Paller led an engaging discussion on Guare’s remarkable legacy for the stage and the new LOA edition of his work spanning six decades. www.loa.org/books/plays/
- Tonight at @strandbooks.com, join pioneering playwright John Guare and dramaturg Michael Paller for a deep discussion of Guare’s remarkable works for the stage, including Six Degrees of Separation and the House of the Blue Leaves. Click here for tickets: www.strandbooks.com/john-guare-m...
- This January, New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik leads a four-part online course on two giants of American fiction: Philip Roth and John Updike. Register now for the class inspired by the multivolume LOA editions of these towering novelists, led by a brilliant teacher: www.eventbrite.com/e/roth-updik...
- Not just a novelist, @ursulakleguin.com was also a cartographer. Her fictional geographies were on display this fall at London’s Architectural Association Gallery, and a companion book on Silver Press sheds new light on her peerless world-building. Read our interview with editor/curator Sarah Shin.
- “I'm Nobody! Who are you? / Are you — Nobody — Too?” Inimitable American poet Emily Dickinson was born 195 years ago, on December 10, 1830. Of her inimitable craft, Poet Laureate Joy Harjo wrote, “From Emily I learned that the immense silences I found within me were navigable by words and metaphor.”
- Next Monday, 12/15, join prophetic playwright John Guare and dramaturg Michael Paller at @strandbooks.com in New York City for a discussion of Guare’s remarkable works for the stage, newly collected in the LOA series. Purchase tickets and find more info: www.strandbooks.com/john-guare-m...
- On 12/17, playwright Bess Wohl joins memoirist Honor Moore for a discussion of Wohl’s hit new play Liberation and the literary roots of the women’s movement. RSVP for this free LOA LIVE event: www.eventbrite.com/e/liberation...
- Last night, four acclaimed poets and scholars joined LOA LIVE for a fascinating personal discussion on revered critic and professor Helen Vendler. Watch @notquitehydepark.bsky.social, Dan Chiasson, @kjavadizadeh.bsky.social, and Christopher Spaide reflect on the influence of this towering figure.
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- This #GivingTuesday, we invite you to support Library of America! Your tax-deductible gift will be put to immediate use in LOA’s publishing and public humanities initiatives bringing American writing that matters to readers around the globe. www.loa.org/annualfund
- Tomorrow, 12/2, poets and scholars Stephanie Burt, Dan Chiasson, Christopher Spaide, and Kamran Javadazideh join LOA LIVE to discuss the towering legacy of Helen Vendler, the revered critic whose last essays were just published by Library of America. RSVP for free: www.eventbrite.com/e/helen-vend...
- If you missed last night’s stellar talk with @imaniperry.bsky.social and @tananarivedue.bsky.social on Octavia E. Butler, you can watch the entire program for free on YouTube. Hear these acclaimed writers delve into the genius of the Xenogenesis Trilogy, and catch rare audio of Butler herself!
- Next Monday, 11/24, two celebrated writers and scholars explore the craft and influence of Octavia E. Butler. Join @imaniperry.bsky.social and @tananarivedue.bsky.social for an evening dedicated to the revered SFF author’s luminous imagination. RSVP for free: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-radica...
- The novelist Don DeLillo turns 89 today. Throughout his career, the books of this perennial Nobel Prize favorite have overflowed with ideas, language, personas, and historical fragments that, released into the minds of readers, transcend their fictional origins and become part of the real world.
- On this day in 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, among the most significant speeches in American history. Despite its 2-minute, 10-sentence duration, this immortal oration has resurfaced in everything from the remarks of Martin Luther King, Jr., to the Constitution of France.
- On Tuesday, 12/2, join acclaimed poets and scholars Stephanie Burt, Dan Chiasson, Christopher Spaide, and @kjavadizadeh.bsky.social for a lively evening of reflections on the genius and influence of revered critic Helen Vendler, whose last essays were just published by LOA. RSVP for free!
- Joan Didion staged her elaborate Thanksgiving meals “the same way she conjured her essays, novels, screenplays and memoirs, with an almost military mustering of planning and ambition,” writes Patrick Farrell in @nytimes.com.
- John Updike’s newly published correspondence reveals a fascinating exchange with his LOA editor: “I am weak and growing weaker,” wrote the ailing Rabbit author a few months before his death in 2009, “but want to confide a few thoughts before fading away.” Read the essay on loa.org.
- Ursula K. Le Guin’s Book of Cats makes the @publisherswkly.bsky.social Holiday Gift Guide for 2025! “This volume collects feline-centric poetry, comics, and other works by the much-lauded author better known for her speculative fiction, who also harbored an affection for cats.” She certainly did!
- Explore giants of American literature during our annual holiday boxed set sale. Collected works, complete editions, sagas, trilogies, compendiums, and more. See all boxed sets at loa.org/boxedsets. Sale ends Tuesday, 11/25
- The first volume of Emily Dickinson’s Poems was published posthumously 135 years ago, on November 12, 1890. After discovering the manuscripts in which Dickinson had collected her writing, her sister, Lavinia, worked to have the poems edited and published—igniting a bitter family feud in the process.
- On Monday, 11/24, join @imaniperry.bsky.social and @tananarivedue.bsky.social for an online program on Octavia E. Butler, speculative fiction trailblazer and author of Lilith’s Brood: The Xenogenesis Trilogy, just out from Library of America. RSVP for free: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-radica...
- Spotted in The Diplomat on Netflix: a row of Library of America books behind White House Chief of Staff Billie Appiah (played by Nana Mensah). Hard to see the individual volumes, though pretty sure that’s Jim Crow: Voices from a Century of Struggle Part One on the left. S3 E7 for the curious.
- Playwright John Guare declared war on the kitchen sink, aiming instead for “a theatrical world three or four (or nine or ten) sizes larger than realism.” On our website, dramaturg and co-editor of the new LOA edition of Guare’s plays Michael Paller reflects on the Six Degrees of Separation author.
- “Just as she claimed New York for herself without seeking approval or permission, Swenson followed her poetic muse unapologetically, immune to negative criticism.” In @theartsfuse.bsky.social, a look at Margaret A. Brucia’s revelatory new biography of the ahead-of-her-time poet May Swenson.
- In @clereviewbooks.bsky.social, a deeply original dive into Don DeLillo’s JFK assassination epic Libra in the form of “twelve bullets, four appendices, and six exhibits.” “DeLillo’s Libra is a book about the entanglement of reading, writing, and living,” Nicole Kaack explains.
