July 24, 2020
The First Best Seller
On Samuel Richardson’s Pamela and the prehistory of the romance novel.
Read MoreAugust 4, 2025
July 24, 2020
On Samuel Richardson’s Pamela and the prehistory of the romance novel.
Read MoreJuly 22, 2020
Lapham’s Quarterly explores the history of the best seller.
Read MoreJuly 22, 2020
What Edith Wharton’s library tells us about her reading habits.
Read MoreJuly 22, 2020
Since 1918 only seven Pulitzer Prize–winning novels have also been Publishers Weekly’s best-selling novel of the year.
Read MoreJuly 20, 2020
How the Spanish arrival transformed the land—and decimated the population—of Mesoamerica.
Read MoreJuly 17, 2020
A timeline of food, masks, and repatriated sacred carvings.
Read More2023:
Fitness instructor carves his girlfriend’s name into the Colosseum.
c. 1850:
Thompson of Sunderland makes his mark on Pompey’s pillar.
2023:
Writers on strike search for romance at the picket line.
c. 1945:
Young communists engage in party matchmaking.