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Category: Books

Color photo of Hemingway on his boat, reading a magazine. He is wearing a baseball cap and is reclining on a seat back, the ocean and sunshine visible behind him

Eavesdropping on Ernest Hemingway at Finca Vigía

Posted by: Neely Tucker

Ernest Hemingway recorded more than four hours of personal stories, dictation and friends playing music at his home in Cuba during 1949-50 for his friend and future biographer A.E. Hotchner. Those recordings, part of the Library's Hotchner collection, show Hemingway at home with friends, but also how uncomfortable he was with the technology. The tapes have been used by multiple Hemingway biographers.

Book opened to two pages, showing woodcut of author on the left and title page on the right.

The First Children’s Picture Book Might Be This One

Posted by: Maria Peña

One of the first picture books for children was "Orbis Sensualium Pictus" ("Visible World in Pictures"), published by Johann Amos Comenius in 1658. Born in the present-day Czech republic, Comenius was a theologian and education reformer who believed in teaching children from a Christian perspective. His book, with 150 woodcut images, was popular across Europe for centuries. The Library has a 1664 edition published in London.

Woman in a dark suit stands in front of a display of dozens of historic books

Revisiting ‘Books That Shaped America’ with C-SPAN

Posted by: John Sayers

The Library will cooperate with C-SPAN in its new production of "Books That Shaped America," scheduled for Fall 2003. The new series was inspired by a list of 100 "Books that Shaped America" and exhibition curated at the Library of Congress in 2012 based on the results of a public survey about books that provoked thought, controversy and change throughout American history. Viewers of the series this fall will be able to weigh in with their own thoughts about books that had an impact on the nation.

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Researcher Story: Elizabeth D. Leonard

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Civil War historian Elizabeth Leonard has written a number of books about the role of women on the battlefield and the social and political reverberations of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. She's researched those books, including her soon-to-be-published title, “Benjamin Franklin Butler: A Noisy, Fearless Life,” in the Library’s Manuscript Division. 

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

New from Library’s Crime Classics: “The Conjure-Man Dies”

Posted by: Neely Tucker

The Library’s acclaimed Crime Classic series is launching a new edition of “The Conjure-Man Dies” this month, a staple of the Harlem Renaissance and the most important work of long-overlooked novelist Rudolph Fisher. First published in 1932, the book was the first full-length mystery novel to feature an all-Black cast of characters, including detectives, suspects and victims.