“Murder, suicide, spontaneous combustion, sleepwalking, ventriloquism: these are some of the sensational events in the novels of Charles Brockden Brown.” On @theconversation.com, a look at the American gothic progenitor and the nation’s first professional author, whose work continues to captivate.

Among the most, um, vocal reassessments of the Declaration of Independence comes in the form of 1776 the musical, a personal favorite of Laurence Maslon, editor of LOA’s American Musicals volume. Read his take on this singular blend of pop history and pop songwriting. www.loa.org/news-and-vie...

Historian Ted Widmer and @nytimes.com columnist @jamellebouie.net recently discussed the Declaration of Independence at the New York Society Library. Catch their complete conversation, tracing the origins and legacy of the words that shaped America. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaQz...

There’s still time to register for our July 9 master class with historian @jbf1755.bsky.social on Alexander Hamilton and Alexis de Tocqueville, two key interpreters of American democracy whose writings continue to resonate. Registration info on Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.com/e/reading-am...

The utterly original and tragically short-lived short story author Breece D’J Pancake was born on this day in 1952. His writing, set in the isolated Appalachian world he grew up in, is beautiful, stark, and solemn, winning admirers from Joyce Carol Oates to Lorde. www.loa.org/books/641-th...

Stock up on summer reading during our flash 15% off sale this weekend! All titles on our Web Store are discounted through Monday, June 29 (including boxed sets and already on-sale books). Browse everything here: www.loa.org/books/

Born on this day in 1842, Ambrose Bierce penned the satirical masterpiece The Devil’s Dictionary, influenced Hemingway, and disappeared in Mexico in 1913 (a final letter sent by the then 71-year-old Bierce alluded to “being stood up against a stone wall and shot to rags… ah, that is euthanasia!”).

Last night, LOA LIVE welcomed novelist William Kennedy for an intimate and freewheeling fireside chat with his longtime friend Paul Grondahl @nyswi.bsky.social. Watch their full talk, covering Kennedy’s love for his home city, his daily writing ritual, and the works and authors he most admires.

What would the real Mark Twain make of AI scams targeting writers, we wonder? Meanwhile, the bots in our inbox seem to think Twain (who died in 1910) would be a great fit for "a 12-month Managed Reader Experience" as part of a "2026 Year of Impact project." 🫠

Next Monday, June 22, living legend William Kennedy, the author of Ironweed, joins LOA LIVE for a special fireside chat to discuss his Albany cycle and the new LOA edition of his work. RSVP for free on Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.com/e/o-albany-n...

LOA’s Stefanie Peters is on the latest episode of In Your Spare Time, a podcast from the estate of @ursulakleguin.com! Hear her read “On Prospero’s Island”, a blog by Le Guin on gender and the 2010 film version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest starring Helen Mirren. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

The death of historian Gordon S. Wood earlier this month elicited a wave of tributes from his peers and admirers, including Robert A. Gross, Ted Widmer, and Andrew Delbanco. Read their touching words commemorating this giant of American history and his remarkable legacy. www.loa.org/news-and-vie...

Among our forthcoming Spring 2027 titles, a pathbreaking historical novelist reimagines the myths of America, one of the 20th century’s most famous figures recalls history in the making, and a leading poet looks to a genius of the past for inspiration and insight. www.loa.org/news-and-vie...

Founding myths, landmark victories, and the promise embedded in the phrase “We the People” were the focus of a recent House of SpeakEasy event at Joe’s Pub marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Watch the video, including opening remarks from LOA’s president Max Rudin.

“The work of writing poems, or publishing books, is like the work of picking apples, or mowing hay, or chopping wood,” notes LOA president Max Rudin in his keynote at the 2026 @whitingfoundation.bsky.social Awards. Read his full remarks on the invaluable work of creating (and preserving) literature.

Read John Muir’s awe-inspiring nature writings before you graduate, urges @theatlantic.com. “This more-than-900-page book ... is pretty close to a perfect antidote to the cynicism undergirding so much digital slop.” www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...

Celebrated novelist William Kennedy, the author of Ironweed, joins LOA LIVE on June 22 for a special conversation with Paul Grondahl, editor of the just-published Library of America edition of the Albany Trilogy. RSVP now for this free online program with one of our greatest living writers.

It was with deep sadness that we learned of the death of historian Gordon S. Wood yesterday. A longtime friend and advisor to LOA, he helped shepherd five volumes to print, including a landmark edition of writings from the American Revolution. Read our tribute: www.loa.org/news-and-vie...

I am humbled but not surprised that The Black Fantastic was nominated for the British Science Fiction Association Awards, the Locus Awards, AND the Ignyte Awards. The authors & stories are 🔥🔥🔥🔥. @libraryofamerica.bsky.social made the right call. We're in good company.

He is simply our greatest living features writer, an American treasure, and a supreme master of nonfiction. New from @libraryofamerica.bsky.social John McPhee, Encounters in Wild America.

Author, podcaster, and Avett Brothers bassist Bob Crawford discussed his new book on John Quincy Adams, America’s Founding Son @zandoprojects.bsky.social, and his era with LOA. "The case I make in this book is he’s our greatest public servant." Watch the interview and read the transcript on loa.org.

LOA volumes are going on a road trip this summer with the House of SpeakEasy! Starting June 9, they’ll distribute 6,000 free books as part of a weeklong America 250 bookmobile tour hitting up 28 cities. It’s like an ice cream truck, but with books! More info via @publisherswkly.bsky.social.

The searing political writings of America’s poet-prophet of democracy were the focus of last night’s LOA LIVE program with acclaimed scholars David Bromwich, Mark Edmundson, and Karen Karbiener. Watch the full program for more on Walt Whitman’s visionary prose, revealing both his anger and his hope.

It was Walt Whitman’s 207th birthday yesterday, May 31, and tomorrow we’re exploring his astonishing and fiery prose writings on democracy with an expert panel of scholars and critics. RSVP for the free LOA LIVE program: www.eventbrite.com/e/poet-proph...

The newest episode of the @ursulakleguin.com Estate’s In Your Spare Time podcast features LOA Le Guin editor @brianattebery.bsky.social reading the author’s 2010 post “A Band of Brothers, a Stream of Sisters,” on the different forms of solidarity among men and women. Take a listen!

The noir art of Jim Thompson commingles “excitement and nerve-crunching fear,” writes Steven W. Beattie in @thestar.com. “[For] those who want an introduction to some of the most exquisitely unrefined writing in the genre, this new edition is a must-have.” loa.org/books/828

Next Monday, 6/1, LOA’s Reading America series of online master classes kicks off with @agordonreed.bsky.social on the Declaration of Independence and the response by Black clergyman Lemuel Haynes. RSVP for the single session or subscribe to the entire series and save on the per-session cost.

“Thus began what Kennedy calls his annus mirabilis... Suddenly everything hits for this guy who couldn’t get Ironweed published.” On our website, Paul Grondahl @nyswi.bsky.social reflects on his friend and mentor, the great novelist William Kennedy, whose Albany Trilogy was just published by LOA.

Premiering tonight on @pbs.org American Masters, a new documentary on W.E.B. Du Bois from Peabody Award-winning director Rita Coburn featuring leading scholars (and LOA friends and contributors) Eric Foner, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Eddie Glaude Jr., Imani Perry, and more. www.pbs.org/wnet/america...

Discover giants of American literature during our annual boxed set sale, going on now through May 31! 2-volume sets $50 3-volume sets $75 4-volume sets $95 Browse the full collection on the LOA Web Store: loa.org/books/collections/3-boxed-sets/

Last night, living legend William Kennedy celebrated publication of the LOA edition of his Albany Trilogy (which includes the masterful Ironweed) at the NYS Writers Institute @albany.edu. Joined by novelist Colum McCann, Kennedy read and signed copies for fans and friends. loa.org/books/832

“This was Albert Murray’s century; we just lived in it,” wrote Henry Louis Gates, Jr., about the uncategorizable essayist, music critic, and novelist, born 110 years ago today, in 1916. Discover his deep erudition and the inherent musicality of his prose, channeling the creative freedom of jazz.

“What do oranges, deep time, and the Swiss Army have in common? Very little, I would think, except John McPhee.” Via @newrepublic.com: newrepublic.com/article/2067...

Gary Snyder, “poet laureate of deep ecology” and one of a tiny handful of living writers in the LOA series, turns ninety-six today. His work, in his own words, “speak[s] of place, and the energy-pathways that sustain life. Each living being is a swirl in the flow, a formal turbulence, a song.”

Tom Turner teamed up with the indomitable environmentalist David Brower at the Sierra Club in 1968, just as John McPhee began writing Encounters with the Archdruid (originally published in @newyorker.com in 1971). Read Turner’s reflection on this pivotal time in the environmental movement.

Last night, historians Steven Hahn and Kidada Williams delved into the astonishing 1880 Senate testimony of Henry Adams, freedman, faith healer, and leader of the “exodus” movement of formerly enslaved people out of the South. Catch their full talk for a powerful picture of post–Civil War America.

Congratulations, Clemente Class of 2026! The partnership between the @theclemente.bsky.social and The Library of America goes back to 1999, and at this year’s Harlem graduation, LOA was proud to present students with volumes of Black Writers of the Founding Era to mark their accomplishment.

Tomorrow, two eminent historians discuss the remarkable 1880 Senate testimony of Henry Adams: freedman, former soldier, laborer, faith healer, political activist, undercover operative, and a leader of the “exodus” movement of formerly enslaved people out of the post-Civil War South. RSVP for free.

LOA’s new series of online classes with leading contemporary authors, scholars, and critics kicks off in June with @agordonreed.bsky.social on Black responses to the Declaration of Independence. See the full lineup (and you can use coupon code EARLYBIRDREADING to get 15% off tickets until 5/13).

Another review of George Templeton Strong: Civil War Diaries, by Matthew Wills! @libraryofamerica.bsky.social daily.jstor.org/inside-a-fou...

The transcendent pulp of Jim Thompson in @thebaffler.com: “As the new Library of America edition of five Jim Thompson novels indicates, some crime fiction stands in vexed relation to the nation’s longstanding fascination with violence,” writes Harilaos Stecopoulos. thebaffler.com/latest/red-n...

In @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, Colum McCann examines the craft of William Kennedy’s Albany Trilogy. “When Kennedy’s oeuvre is examined—come all ye bootleggers of the soul!—it becomes obvious that he, like all great writers, has been continually scouring the intricate landscape of the human heart."

LOA President and Publisher Max Rudin reflected on our mission to keep great American writing a vital part of the culture at the @whitingfoundation.bsky.social Awards (series volumes have long been the prize's “equivalent of the Oscar statue”). Read the full speech on @literaryhub.bsky.social.

Pulitzer Prize winner Steven Hahn and acclaimed historian Kidada E. Williams join LOA LIVE on 5/5 for a discussion of Henry Adams, Freedman, the soldier, faith healer, and leader of the “exodus” movement of formerly enslaved people from the South. RSVP for free: www.eventbrite.com/e/terror-hop...

By happy chance, Earth Day coincides with the birthdays of four of America’s greatest nature writers: William Bartram, John Muir, John James Audubon, and Frederick Law Olmsted. Explore classics of the environmental imagination in the LOA series: loa.org/books/topics/20-nature-environmental-writing/

“The whole wilderness in unity and interrelation is alive and familiar,” wrote John Muir, the Scottish-born author and naturalist, born on this day in 1838. “The very stones seem talkative, sympathetic, brotherly. No particle is ever wasted or worn out but eternally flowing from use to use.”

Starting this June, join leading contemporary authors including @vietthanhnguyen.bsky.social, @agordonreed.bsky.social, and @jbf1755.bsky.social for a series of online classes on the LOA writers that resonate deeply with them and have something vital to tell us at this moment. RSVP on Eventbrite.

Wild news! John McPhee: Encounters in Wild America is one of @newyorker.com's best books of 2026 so far. “McPhee is a master at structural innovation while paying a fastidious amount of attention to language and detail throughout.” www.newyorker.com/best-books-2...

Last night, LOA LIVE welcomed historians Tyina L. Steptoe, Keisha N. Blain, and Manisha Sinha for a talk on courageous voices from the Jim Crow era, weaving together readings and powerful insights into the prolonged struggle for racial equality in America. Catch the recording: youtu.be/qCTWEYhSXL8