In creating Consider the Consequences! authors Doris Webster (1885-1967) and Mary Alden Hopkins (1876-1960) were toying with a new idea: write a book that provided readers with narrative options. The result was the first choice-based novel ever printed as well as the precursor to the Choose Your Own Adventure book series that would become popular later in the 20th century.
Though ice skating has been around for centuries, it only came into its current form and fashion in the mid-19th century and was still taking shape as a professional and competitive sport when Charlotte Oelschlägel (1898 - 1984) wrote The Hippodrome Skating Book in 1916.
Born in Harlem on August 2nd, 1924, novelist and essayist James Baldwin (1924 – 1987) is regarded as one of America’s greatest writers. At the time of his death on December 1st, 1987, Baldwin was working with sculptor and printmaker Leonard Baskin (1922–2000) of the Gehenna Press to publish a fine press edition of an unpublished work. Gypsy and Other Poems features six of Baldwin's poems that reveal an intimate, introspective side of the writer.
Published in 1978, Paul Avrich’s "An American Anarchist: The Life of Voltairine de Cleyre" was the first substantial biography of Voltairine de Cleyre (1866-1912), an influential member of the American labor movement at the turn of the 20th century. Donated to the Library of Congress in 1986, the biography refers to de Cleyre as “one of the most interesting if neglected figures in the history of American radicalism.”
Rachel Louise Carson (1907-1964), pioneer in environmental awareness and protection, authored her landmark work, Silent Spring, in 1962. This Earth Day post remembers her legacy as an author who wrote to inspire wonder in her readers.
Written by American aviator Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) but compiled and arranged by her husband after her fatal flight, the copy of "Last Flight" in the National Woman's Party Library in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division has a special provenance linking Earhart to the women's suffrage movement.
This post explores the life and work of Chester Himes (1909-1984) and his friendship with fellow African American author Ralph Ellison (1914-1994), as evidenced by Himes' books in Ralph Ellison's personal library.
No vegetable splits opinion quite like the Brussels sprout, which caused a disagreement between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lady Clementine Churchill in the summer of 1944.
This post explores a set of mysterious manuscript volumes in the Harry Houdini Collection. These manuscripts were written by Frederick Hockley, noted participant in the British Occult Revival of the late 19th century, and they contain the results of his experiments with the art of crystal-gazing.
