Library of America

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In this excerpt from Black Writers of the Founding Era, out this week from LOA, read Belinda Sutton’s petition to the Massachusetts legislature requesting a portion of the estate of the exiled Loyalist who had enslaved her for fifty years. storyoftheweek.loa.org/2023/11/the-pe…

Playwright George S. Kaufman, who wrote musicals for the Marx Brothers, won two Pulitzers and a Tony, and served as the (visual) inspiration for the title character of the Coen Brother’s film Barton Fink, was born #OTD in 1889. Read his Broadway comedies: loa.org/books/216

On our website, @nicolerudick discusses SF visionary Joanna Russ’s political awakening. “[I]n science fiction, she found a means to express the gap between the reality of the world around her and a desire to change that reality.” loa.org/news-and-views…

In “Chasing Bright Medusas,” a new biography of Willa Cather out this week, Benjamin Taylor offers a “crisp sketch of Cather’s life—a portrait, as she described her vision for one of her own novels, ‘like a thin miniature painted on ivory.’” Via @nytimes: nytimes.com/2023/11/12/boo…

The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, the nation’s first frame of government, was finalized by the Second Continental Congress #OTD in 1777. Not included: a president, executive agencies, a judiciary, or a tax base. Original parchment pages: archives.gov/milestone-docu…

"Black Writers of the Founding Era" is now on sale everywhere! Explore this new anthology edited by James G. Basker, President & CEO of @Gilder_Lehrman, and Nicole Seary, Senior Editor & Director of Fellowship Programs at @Gilder_Lehrman. ow.ly/ebAi50Q7wI3 @LibraryAmerica

In this @guardian interview, @TheBookerPrizes shortlisted author @J_Escoffery cites the influence of Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, and James Baldwin. Just don’t ask him to read Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find again. theguardian.com/books/2023/nov…

Collected works, complete fiction, essential anthologies: immerse yourself in American literature during our annual boxed set sale! Visit loa.org/books to browse the full catalog. 2-book sets: $48.00 3-book sets: $68.00 4-book sets: $88.00

Black Writers of the Founding Era—the most expansive anthology of its kind ever assembled—is on sale today! Explore Black experience in the decades of the American Revolution in more than 120 pieces, from poems to petitions. loa.org/books/black-wr… @agordonreed @JamesGBasker

In @theadvocatebr, @Danny_Heitman on the second life of Charles Portis’s “The Dog of the South.” “Sales were slow when the book came out in 1979, but five years later, the staff and management of Madison Avenue bookshop in New York went crazy for it.” theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/en…

On our website, documentarian Arwen Curry (@worldsofukl) discusses her decade-long filmmaking voyage with @ursulakleguin and her new series of shorts, The Journey That Matters, which debuted on @lithub his fall. “She’s a moral and an intellectual giant.” loa.org/news-and-views…

Vera Caspary, whose noir classic Laura appears in LOA’s Women Crime Writers volume (edited by @sarahw) and was adapted into a great movie starring Gene Tierney, was born #OTD in 1899. Learn more about the film that made her famous: loa.org/news-and-views…

This #VeteransDay, LOA invites you to read articles by and about veterans on our website: “Language as a weapon against the seemingly incomprehensible”: loa.org/.../1916-8220l… Recommended books by veterans: loa.org/news-and-views… WWII reporting: loa.org/books/519

“I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day.” Kurt Vonnegut was born #OTD in 1922. Read his reflections on Veterans Days and his own wartime experience: loa.org/news-and-views…

William Faulkner won the 1949 Nobel Prize #OTD for “his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel.” In his acceptance speech, he said the award was not made to him as a man but rather to “a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit.”

How to Come Alive with Norman Mailer, a new documentary on the towering and polarizing author directed by @JZimbalist, premieres today as part of @DOCNYCfest at @IFC. See details and get tickets here: docnyc.net/film/how-to-co…

Joanna Russ: Novels & Stories, edited by @nicolerudick, is an @nytimes recommendation! “A new collection showcases the essential works of Russ, a pioneer of feminist science fiction whose bold female characters swashbuckled across the multiverse.” nytimes.com/2023/11/09/boo…

John A. Williams’s explosive novel linking the Black literary expat scene, Cold War paranoia, and the insidiousness of racism is the focus of last night’s LOA LIVE talk with Merve Emre, Adam Bradley, and William Maxwell. Rediscover The Man Who Cried I Am: loa.org/news-and-views…

In @The_Rumpus, @_michaelbarron on DeLillo’s literary winning streak. “It is unusual for the best-known works of a writer’s oeuvre to be contained entirely in an unbroken run, but DeLillo was an autodidact, learning how to be a novelist while on the job.” therumpus.net/2023/11/07/don…