writing

One key to being a good writer is to always keep reading—and that doesn't change after you've been published.

For eight years, King's pseudonym went undiscovered. Then a bookstore clerk took a walk to the Library of Congress.

Dickens wrote, “I have the perfect conviction that I could magnetize a Frying-Pan.”

Courtesy The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana

Researchers working on a book about the poet stumbled on two of her unpublished poems hidden in a notebook.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was one of the better players on team.

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For readers young and old.

You can thank us later for creating your reading list for the next five years.

Whether they were stolen, destroyed, or locked in a time capsule, you won’t see these books on the shelves.

Traditional script isn't disappearing anytime soon.

By Mathew Brady - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

The 165-year-old novel is "like seeing the workshop of a great writer,” according to one scholar. “We’re discovering the process of Whitman’s own discovery.”

Despite how beloved Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' is, there have been plenty of people who hated it.

In 1969, Ebert was asked to write a "camp rock-and-roll horror exploitation musical." So he did.

A new analysis shows that we're more error-prone during the first day of the work week—and that these mistakes affect response rate.

"My parents were always uncertain and it really doesn't matter. I celebrate January 2, 1920, so let it be."

Some of our favorite historical figures were born in the month of December. We couldn't possibly name them all, but here are just a handful whose lives we'll be celebrating.

These well known duos lived out their relationships on the page.

Henry David Thoreau changed writing forever, and not just by hanging out by Walden Pond.

Christopher Polk // Getty Images for VH1

An American hasn’t won the world’s most prestigious writing prize since 1993.

The research on how cursive handwriting benefits educational development is spotty.

T.S. Eliot is best known for writing "The Waste Land," but the Nobel Prize winner was also a prankster who coined a perennially popular curse word and created the characters brought to life in the Broadway musical "Cats."

As one of the founding fathers of science fiction, Herbert George Wells certainly had a lot to say about the human race.

The long list includes bacon, peach cobbler, and possum.

The retreat is located on Pelee Island in Lake Erie, where Atwood is a longtime seasonal resident.

26 Famous Authors' Favorite Books

Known Alias: How Stephen King Was Outed as Richard Bachman

Charles Dickens, Part-Time Mesmerist

New Poetry by Sylvia Plath Discovered in Her Archives

J.M. Barrie’s Literary All-Star Cricket Team

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50 Essential Children's Books

50 of Our Favorite Books by Women

The Unpublished Manuscripts of 7 Famous Authors

Cursive Is Regaining Popularity in U.S. Schools

Lost Walt Whitman Novel Offers an Early Glimpse Into Leaves of Grass

7 People Who Hated Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

When Roger Ebert Made an X-Rated Movie

How Your Sloppy Email Subject Lines Are Affecting Your Work

Today Would Be Isaac Asimov's 97th Birthday (ish)

10 Famous Birthdays to Celebrate in December

7 of History's Most Famous Pairs of Pen Pals

A Brief History of Pencil-Making

Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Learning to Write in Cursive Might Not Be as Important as Your Teachers Told You

12 Surprising Facts About T.S. Eliot

12 Thought-Provoking Quotes from H.G. Wells

The American Foods Mark Twain Craved While Traveling Abroad

Take a Writer's Retreat in Canada with Margaret Atwood