In January 1943 Philadelphia’s readers couldn’t get enough of Marcia Davenport’s second novel, The Valley of Decision , and Cecil Brown’s Suez to Singapore , the respective… continue reading
By Communications Office November 30, 2007
A comprehensive study released by the National Endowment for the Arts on November 19 finds that Americans are reading less, and also less well. Key findings include that on average Americans… continue reading
By Communications Office November 26, 2007
A time to celebrate togetherness like it's 1621 ? continue reading
By Communications Office November 21, 2007
Read any good book autopsies lately? continue reading
By Communications Office November 19, 2007
Etymythologies are etymologies that are not factually true but remain popular nonetheless. "[They're] like family anecdotes," writes Ben MacIntyre for the Times. "They may not literally be true;… continue reading
By Communications Office November 16, 2007
This Saturday , November 17 , the Free Library's Print and Picture Collection, together with the Philadelphia Center for the Book , will present Book, Paper, Scissors , an artist's book fair. (If… continue reading
By Communications Office November 14, 2007
According to Google , "Revision is a critical piece of the writing process." Indeed. "Now, Google Docs has partnered with Weekly Reader’s Writing for Teens magazine to help you teach it in a… continue reading
By Communications Office November 9, 2007 1
Thankless too for peace, (Peace long preserved by fleets and perilous seas) Secure from actual warfare, we have loved To swell the war-whoop, passionate for war! from "Fears in Solitude"… continue reading
By Administrator November 7, 2007
In a recently published interview with Bookslut , Shalom Auslander is asked if writing has stopped being a catharsis for him--if the publication of his new memoir, Foreskin's Lament , signals an… continue reading
By Communications Office November 5, 2007
"... [There's] nothing quite like a book-about-a-blog-about-a-book ," writes Peter Stothard, former Times editor and current editor of the Times Literary Supplement , in his blog for Times Online .… continue reading
By Communications Office November 2, 2007
OK, they're not really spooky; but it's Halloween, and the Free Library is debuting its first podcast series , currently featuring recordings of some memorable author events at the Central Library… continue reading
By Communications Office October 31, 2007
AbeBooks, "the world's largest online marketplace for new, used, rare and out-of-print books" recently polled its users, asking them to name the "scariest character in literature." The most popular… continue reading
By Communications Office October 29, 2007
And it will most likely continue to rain through the better part of tomorrow, so why not curl up with a book? Edmund White has some suggestions--as does Cynthia Ozick , and John Updike , too. Or… continue reading
By Communications Office October 26, 2007
In his new book, The Conscience of a Liberal , Paul Krugman writes: “When [George W.] Bush moved into the White House, movement conservatism finally found itself in control of all the levers… continue reading
By Communications Office October 24, 2007 1
This past Friday morning, at Carnegie Hall, J.K. Rowling announced to an audience of 1,600 students that she " always thought of Dumbledore as gay ," at which point those in attendance reportedly… continue reading
By Communications Office October 22, 2007
This past Saturday the University of Pennsylvania's Arthur Ross Gallery opened its new show, Treasured Pages: Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts from the Free Library of Philadelphia , which… continue reading
By Communications Office October 18, 2007
This morning Mayor John F. Street officially kicked off the 2008 One Book, One Philadelphia reading period with the announcement of this year’s One Book featured reading selection.… continue reading
By Communications Office October 17, 2007
The hugely popular web-based, free content encyclopedia project Wikipedia currently features more than two million English-language articles. According to the site, “[Every] day hundreds of… continue reading
By Communications Office October 15, 2007 1
Yesterday Horace Engdahl, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy , announced that Doris Lessing is the recipient of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. Ms. Lessing's reaction to the news was… continue reading
By Communications Office October 12, 2007
The phrase “ Heavens to Murgatroyd! ” predates this character and may have found its way to 1960s American television by way of Gilbert and Sullivan. Spend hours exploring the origins… continue reading
By Communications Office October 11, 2007 1