The publishing giant HarperCollins has reached an agreement with the estate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to acquire world publishing rights to the late Civil Rights leader’s entire archives—a collection which contains some of the “most historically important and vital literature in American history.” Read more
Author: GR
The Poetry-Loving Cook Who Fed Detroit’s Soul
With a 35-cent-meal restaurant and other charities, Mother Waddles was “a one-woman war on poverty.” Read more
A Brief History of the Book Blurb
The hyperbole on book jackets—both the plot summaries and the lists of adulatory adjectives that go with them—have long frustrated authors, but no one would dispute that a good blurb has crucial functions: it’s a chance to hook readers, and can help them situate a new book within a genre or tradition. Read more
In the New Hong Kong, Booksellers Walk a Fine Line
Some independent shops flout the new limits on free expression. Others try to come to terms with them. For readers, they offer a sense of connection in a changed city. Read more
The Key to Democracy: A Century of Free Speech
Anyone who reads this book will come away with a solid understanding of the dilemmas of free speech law. Readers with no legal training will gain a huge and valuable insight into the complexities of free speech law. This book ought to be required reading for all political leaders, especially those who persist in pandering to their base by intentionally misrepresenting why free speech is so important, even when we hate what the speaker has to say. Read more
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We’ve Been Telling the Alamo Story Wrong for Nearly 200 Years. Now It’s Time to Correct the Record
The version most Americans know, the “Heroic Anglo Narrative” that has held sway for nearly 200 years, holds that American colonists revolted against Mexico because they were “oppressed” and fought for their “freedom,” a narrative that has been soundly rebutted by 30-plus years of academic scholarship. But the many myths surrounding Texas’ birth, especially those cloaking the fabled 1836 siege at the Alamo mission in San Antonio, remain cherished in the state. Read more
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Hell’s Kitchen Park Is Renamed For Famed Black Playwright
The half-acre green space known since 1979 as Hell’s Kitchen Park now bears a new name: Lorraine Hansberry Park, having been renamed this week in honor of the celebrated playwright. Read more
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On Juneteenth
As Juneteenth morphs from a primarily Texan celebration of African American freedom to a proposed national holiday, Gordon-Reed urges Texans and all Americans to reflect critically on this tangled history. A remarkable meditation on the history and folk mythology of Texas from an African American perspective. Read more
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Janet Malcolm, Provocative Journalist With a Piercing Eye, Dies at 86
Janet Malcolm, a longtime writer for The New Yorker who was known for her piercing judgments, her novel-like nonfiction and a provocative moral certainty that cast a cold eye on journalism and its practitioners, died on Wednesday in a hospital in Manhattan. She was 86. Read more
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Sparks Controversy in Online Essay
The novelist’s remarks went viral after she criticized former students as well as “social-media-savvy people who are choking on sanctimony and lacking in compassion.” Read more
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