In 1972, author David Morell released First Blood, a novel about a war veteran named Rambo, who is wronged by the police chief of a Kentucky town and wages a one-man war against the local and state ...

British novelist Charles Dickens (1812-1870) sat in his study in Gads Hill near Rochester, Kent circa 1860. He wrote one of the best first lines in literature. Great opening lines to books set the ...

Historian Peter Mancall says New English Canaan is “not very long” and “not very well written,” but holds immense value in what it says about the nation’s founding. Illustration by Meilan Solly / ...

Just going by numbers alone, it's undeniable that John Grisham is a statesman of American letters. Since the beginning of his career, his goal has been focused on output. "One smart decision I made ...

When poetry editor Lou Peacock compiled A Whale of a Time: Funny Poems for Each Day of the Year, she chose Rita Dove’s “The First Book” to be the entry for January 1. The poem describes what it’s like ...

What is there still to say about a text that is thousands of years old and has been translated into over 700 languages? That has been painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, carved in marble, ...