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
“[T]he most influential unread author in United States history” is unread no longer! Donald Barthelme would have turned 95 years old today. Discover the still-fresh stories of this major postmodernist voice, whose fiction impacted such contemporary writers as George Saunders and Dave Eggers.
Tonight at 6pm ET, three eminent historians join LOA LIVE for a discussion of revelatory and courageous writings from the era of Jim Crow. Confronting segregation and violence in the aftermath of the Civil War, Americans Black and white fought to create a better, more just nation. RSVP for free.
“[Jim] Thompson was part of the wave of artists in the 1950s who explored the darker, deviant impulses of American life,” writes Alex Belth in his excellent @wsj.com review of LOA’s new edition of five of the pulp maestro’s greatest novels. “It’s no wonder the French were early admirers.”
Michael Gorra reviews my new edition of Strong's Civil War Diaries in @nybooks.com. "It is the North's best record of the struggle's daily passions and woes, and essential reading for any student of the Civil War." @libraryofamerica.bsky.social www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
“Today, James Baldwin’s legacy seems assured, but this wasn’t always the case,” writes Ralf Webb in his @theguardian.com review of Nicholas Boggs’s Baldwin: A Love Story, the first major new biography of the genius essayist and novelist in thirty years: www.theguardian.com/books/2026/a...
Last week, acclaimed authors Joshua Cohen and Michael Cunningham explored the 19th-century American short stories that inspire them and remain resonant today. Catch a recording of their fascinating conversation, co-presented by LOA and the @columbiauniversity.bsky.social Center for American Studies.
Photos of John McPhee in Alaska, and jacket of John McPhee: Encounters in Wild America
John McPhee’s portraits of America’s wild places and the ingenious and resilient people who call them home are gathered in a new LOA collection, edited by David Remnick (@newyorker.com). Find the volume in bookstores today, or order a copy from our Web Store: loa.org/books/encounters-in-wild-america
George Templeton Strong was a “handsome, melancholy man” who wrote arguably the greatest civilian record of the Civil War. Funny as hell and a master of snark, his observations remain deeply relatable, writes @geoffwisner.bsky.social, editor of the new LOA edition of Strong’s classic diary.
“Kennedy is, at 98, a singular, ebullient literary voice. His novels keep alive the Albany of the 1930s: the domain of swells, sports, and bums, of women with appetites, of flophouses and bowling alleys in the dark hours.” On @literaryhub.bsky.social, a talk with the legendary author of Ironweed.
A fascinating recent look at O'Connor's legacy in @lrb.co.uk for those curious to learn more about her writing and reputation: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Jessica Hooten Wilson, who wrote one of the reviewed books, spoke with us about O'Connor's unfinished final novel: www.loa.org/news-and-vie...
101 years ago, Mary Flannery O’Connor (she would drop the “Mary” during her time at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop) was born in Savannah, Georgia. “Mixing faith and grace with violence and dark comedy,” her biographer Brad Gooch wrote, “her shell-shocked attitude is neither sentimental nor dated.”
On April 7, join historians Tyina L. Steptoe, Keisha N. Blain, and Manisha Sinha for a discussion on powerful writings from the Jim Crow era, showing how Americans Black and white challenged racism and fought to create a better, more just nation. RSVP for free: www.eventbrite.com/e/voices-fro...
“It seemed that wherever history was being made, Jimmy Breslin was on the scene.” On our website, author Raj Tawney reflects on the streetwise language and truth-telling verve of the great New York City columnist, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary forty years ago. www.loa.org/news-and-vie...
Library of America Spring Sale: 15% off all titles, no coupon required. loa.org/books.
Psst, Library of America is having a site-wide sale through this weekend. Get 15% off on all LOA books (including boxed sets and already discounted titles), no coupon code required. Browse new and recent volumes by William Kennedy, Jim Thompson, John McPhee, and many more at loa.org/books.
Philip Roth, born on this day in 1933, possessed, in his own words, a “passion for specificity, for the hypnotic materiality of the world one is in,” and sought in his writing “to discover the most arresting, evocative verbal depiction for every last American thing.” loa.org/writers/260-philip-roth/
“A truly great example of how writing helps people answer questions about what they think,” can be found in LOA's American Revolution volumes, writes @wsj.com. “Every last one... shows a mind grappling with difficult issues of law, historical events and an uncertain future.” loa.org/books/426
First UK edition of Jack Kerouac's On the Road with cover art by Len Deighton, 1958 (Reddit)
You may have seen that the British spy novelist Len Deighton died this week; what you may not have seen was that he illustrated the cover for the first UK edition of Jack Kerouac's On the Road in 1958! Check out this blog from the National Library of Scotland for more: blog.nls.uk/jack-kerouac...
James Madison—“the most astute, profound, and original political theorist among the founding fathers”—was born 275 years ago this week. A freshly reissued LOA edition of his writings features a striking new jacket and nearly 200 essential pieces by the Father of the Constitution. loa.org/writers/234
Last week, celebrated scholars Michael Gorra, Wendy Walters, and Brenda Wineapple delved into the era of the American Revolution and its aftermath with a trio of classic short stories that exert a profound (and profoundly spooky) influence on our national literature. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNXl...
Jack Kerouac, Beat icon and literary rebel, was born 104 years ago on this day, on March 12, 1922, in a French-speaking household in Lowell, MA. Discover the unknown side of the On the Road author in this LOA LIVE program exploring his complex relationship to language and identity.
Acclaimed novelists Joshua Cohen and Michael Cunningham discuss the 19th-century stories that have most influenced them. Join LOA and the @columbiauniversity.bsky.social Center for American Studies for this live, in-person talk on 3/25 at 6 pm ET. RSVP for free: www.eventbrite.com/e/modern-mas...
America’s “Dimestore Dostoevsky” gets his LOA due today, with the publication of Jim Thompson: Five Noir Novels of the 1950s & 60s! Discover the knockout novels of the underground writer Stephen King called “absolutely over the top.” Order your copy from the LOA Web Store and save 20%.
In @thebaffler.com, accolades for George Templeton Strong’s newly published Civil War Diaries: "Watching him navigate this new territory . . . is to observe a concerned citizen do his best to adapt as the political world changed rapidly and shockingly, a sobering object lesson for today’s reader."
In @parisreview.bsky.social, the unlikely link between the Civil War diaries of George Templeton Strong and Kamala Harris’s recent memoir: “It would seem that these writers... are main characters because their realities were, even during times of crisis and dissolution, like books.”
Our new edition of nonfiction giant John McPhee is an @airmail.news best! “Whether it be the Pine Barrens of New Jersey or the rivers of Maine and Alaska, McPhee is always in the company of locals whom he profiles as sharply as the terrain.” airmail.news/issues/2026-...
Jim Thompson / Five Noir Novels of fhe 1950s & 60s
Look at this beauty! I renewed my @libraryofamerica.bsky.social membership & they sent it to me.
Thurber's Dogs
In response to last year’s blockbuster Ursula K. Le Guin’s Book of Cats, we heard but one complaint from readers: what about the dogs? Now mankind’s other best friend gets its due with a deluxe reissue of Thurber’s Dogs, the classic collection of James Thurber’s meditations on canine companionship.