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Posted by: Neely Tucker
—This is a guest post by Meg McAleer, a former historian in the Manuscript Division. Sigmund Freud returned again and again to the problem of memory as he formulated his theories of psychoanalysis during the 1890s, as the Library’s significant collection of his papers show. “What is essentially new about my theory,” Freud wrote in …
Posted in: Exhibitions, Manuscripts, Writers
Posted by: Brett Zongker
The Library's 2024 National Book Festival will be August 24, featuring writers and personalities across the humanities including James McBride, Renee Fleming, James Patterson, Marie Arana and many others.
Posted in: Books, Drink, Events, Hispanic and Latino, LGBTQ, Library Work and Employees, Literacy, National Book Festival, Poetry, Washington DC, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Volunteers have been working over the past five years to transcribe the Library’s manuscripts of Walt Whitman, one of the nation’s most iconic poets, from three major collections. Can you help proofread the final 4,000 pages? This June, the Library is hoping you'll do just that as we celebrate Pride month.
Posted in: By the People, Civil War, LGBTQ, Manuscripts, Poetry, Writers
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
Bernie Taupin took the stage recently to speak with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden about his songwriting journey with Elton John. The pair are the 2024 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song winners and their award concert will be broadcast on PBS April 8.
Posted in: Concerts, Events, Gazette, Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, Library Work and Employees, Music, Performing Arts, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
When reference librarian Clinton Drake was going through an ancestor's grocery store account book from nearly a century ago, he came across a startling purchase: "blood." It led to research into the foodways of a bygone era of immigrants from northern Europe.
Posted in: Library Work and Employees, Researcher Stories, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
“In the Fog" is the latest Library of Congress Crime Classic to be republished. This 1901 novella is by Richard Harding Davis, the influential war correspondent, author and playwright. He might be largely forgotten now, but Davis was a Renaissance man of his era, as renowned for his battlefield escapades, famous friends and good looks as he was for his literary and journalistic success. "In the Fog" takes place in Victorian London and was, like many of Davis' books, a bestseller.
Posted in: Crime Classics Series, Library of Congress Crime Classics, Library Work and Employees, Writers
Posted by: Brett Zongker
Elton John and Bernie Taupin, one of the great songwriting duos of all time, will be the 2024 recipients of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced today.
Posted in: Concerts, Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, Library Work and Employees, Music, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, News, Performing Arts, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Two Black seamstresses have left their mark on White House fashion history, as Elizabeth Keckley and Ann Lowe designed dresses for two of the nation’s most famous first ladies, Mary Todd Lincoln and Jacqueline Kennedy, respectively. Both designers developed their craft despite the brutal influences of slavery and Jim Crow segregation. This piece tells their stories.
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, African American History, Civil War, LCM, Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, U.S. Presidents, Women's History, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Here's a handy guide to holiday stories that readers frequently turn to at the Library. Favorites include the tale of who invented Christmas tree lights, how Truman Capote wrote "A Christmas Memory" (the Library has his handwritten first draft) and how a Central American flowering plant became the favorite Christmas flower around the world.
Posted in: Christmas, Hispanic and Latino, Manuscripts, Social Media, Writers