Literature is any collection ofwritten work. The term is also used more narrowly for writings considered anart form, especiallynovels,plays, andpoems. It includes both print anddigital writing. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to includeoral literature, much of which has been transcribed. Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmittingknowledge andentertainment. It can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role.

Literary criticism is one of the oldestacademic disciplines, and is concerned with theliterary merit or intellectual significance of specific texts. The study of books and other texts as artifacts or traditions is instead encompassed bytextual criticism or thehistory of the book. "Literature", as an art form, is sometimes used synonymously withliterary fiction,fiction written with the goal ofartistic merit, but can also include works in variousnon-fiction genres, such asbiography,diaries,memoirs,letters, andessays. Within this broader definition, literature includes non-fictionalbooks, articles, or other written information on a particular subject. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various literature-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Estimated medieval output of manuscripts in terms of copies (fromMedieval literature)
Image 2TheSwedish Academy's permanent secretaryPeter Englund at the announcement of the2010 Nobel Prize in Literature (fromNobel Prize in Literature)
Image 3The Crescent Moon byRabindranath Tagore illus. byNandalal Bose, Macmillan 1913 (fromChildren's literature)
Image 4The oldest known love poem. Sumerianterracotta tablet#2461 from Nippur, Iraq. Ur III period, 2037–2029 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul (fromHistory of poetry)
Image 5The first page ofBeowulf (fromMedieval literature)
Image 6The New England Primer (fromChildren's literature)
Image 7Pages from the 1819 edition ofKinder- und Haus-Märchen by the Brothers Grimm (fromChildren's literature)
Image 8Peter Pan statue inKensington Gardens, London (fromChildren's literature)
Image 9In 1901, French poet and essayistSully Prudhomme (1839–1907) was the first person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "in special recognition of his poetic composition, which gives evidence of lofty idealism, artistic perfection, and a rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect." (fromNobel Prize in Literature)
Image 101900 edition of the controversialThe Story of Little Black Sambo (fromChildren's literature)
Image 11The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) is a canonical piece of children's literature andone of the best-selling books ever published. (fromChildren's literature)
Image 12Statue of C. S. Lewis in front of the wardrobe from his Narnia bookThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (fromChildren's literature)
Image 13An early Mexicanhornbook pictured in Tuer'sHistory of the Horn-Book, 1896. (fromChildren's literature)
Image 14A picture byGustave Doré ofMother Goose reading written (literary) fairy tales (fromFairy tale)
Image 15Jikji,Selected Teachings of Buddhist Sages and Seon Masters, the earliest known book printed with movable metal type, 1377.Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris. (fromHistory of books)
Image 16The Violet Fairy Book (1906)
Image 17Photograph of a printing press in Egypt, c. 1922 (fromHistory of books)
Image 18Woman holding wax tablets in the form of thecodex. Wall painting fromPompeii, before 79 CE. (fromHistory of books)
Image 19The Fairy Tale, a painting byJames Sant in 1845 (fromFairy tale)
Image 20Children's books authorMaria Elena Walsh in 1952. (fromChildren's literature)
Image 21Rudyard Kipling, the youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (fromNobel Prize in Literature)
Image 22Hemingway's telegram in 1954 (The academy has alternately usedfor Literature andin Literature over the years, the latter becoming the norm today.) (fromNobel Prize in Literature)
Image 23Statuta Mutine Reformata, 1420–1485; parchmentcodex bound in wood and leather with brass plaques worked the corners and in the center, with clasps. (fromMedieval literature)
Image 24John Bauer's illustration of trolls and a princess from a collection of Swedish fairy tales (fromFairy tale)
Image 25Cutlery for children. Detail showing fairy-tale scenes:Snow White,Little Red Riding Hood,Hansel and Gretel. (fromFairy tale)
Image 26Father Frost acts as a donor in the Russian fairy taleFather Frost, testing the heroine before bestowing riches upon her (fromFairy tale)
Image 27A Chinese bamboo book,The Art of War, commissioned by theQianlong Emperor in 18th-century China (fromHistory of books)
Image 28Hugo Ball performing at the Cabaret Voltaire (fromPerformance poetry)
Image 29John Newbery'sA Little Pretty Pocket-Book, originally published in 1744 (fromChildren's literature)
Image 30Roberto Bolaño is considered to have had the greatest United States impact of any post-Boom author (fromLatin American literature)
Image 31European output of manuscripts 500–1500 (fromHistory of books)
Image 32A mother reads to her children in a mid- to late 19th centurylithograph byJessie Willcox Smith. (fromChildren's literature)
Image 33The scene inBotticelli'sMadonna of the Book (1480) reflects the presence of books in the houses of richer people in his time. (fromHistory of books)
Image 34A late 18th-century reprint ofOrbis Pictus byComenius, the first children's picture book. (fromChildren's literature)
Image 35Thomas Mann'sBuddenbrooks (fromNobel Prize in Literature)
Image 36Folio from theShah Jahan Album, c. 1620, depicting the Mughal EmperorShah Jahan (fromHistory of books)
Image 37An early Chinesepoetics, theKǒngzǐ Shīlùn (孔子詩論), discussing theShijing (Classic of Poetry) (fromHistory of poetry)
Image 38The character which means "poetry", in the ancient ChineseGreat Seal script style. The modern character is詩/诗 (shī). (fromHistory of poetry)
Image 39AuthorMargaret Atwood has suggested that during the 1970s Canadian literature was still looking for a national identity.. (fromCanadian literature)
Image 40Handwritten notes byChristopher Columbus on a Latin edition ofThe Travels of Marco Polo (fromTravel literature)
Image 41Cover of the Argentine children's magazineBilliken N° 1 (1919) (fromChildren's literature)
Image 42Walter Crane'schromolithograph illustration forThe Frog Prince, 1874. (fromChildren's literature)
Image 43The Nobel diploma awarded toHermann Hesse in 1946 (fromNobel Prize in Literature)
Image 44Illustration from Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883coming-of-age pirate adventureTreasure Island (fromChildren's literature)
Image 45The European fairy taleLittle Red Riding Hood and theWolf in a painting byCarl Larsson in 1881. (fromFairy tale)
Image 46A poet with a few enraptured fans (fromPerformance poetry)
Image 47Hop-o'-My-Thumb and theogre in an 1865 illustration (fromFairy tale)
Image 48Ivan Bilibin (1876–1942)'s illustration of theRussian fairy tale aboutVasilisa the Beautiful. (fromFairy tale)
Image 49Postal stamp of Russia celebrating children's books. (fromChildren's literature)
Image 50Page 49 of theDresden Codex (fromHistory of books)
Image 51An author portrait ofJean Miélot writing his compilation of theMiracles of Our Lady, one of his many popular works. (fromHistory of books)
Image 52PoetCharles G. D. Roberts belonged to an informal group known as theConfederation Poets. (fromCanadian literature)
Image 53H. O. Tanagerperforms at a bookstore in Boise, Idaho. (fromPerformance poetry)
Image 54European output of books 500–1800 (fromHistory of books)
Image 55Calliope, themuse of heroic poetry (fromHistory of poetry)
Image 56European output of printed books c. 1450–1800 (fromHistory of books)
Image 57Wole Soyinka, the first African writer awarded the prize (fromNobel Prize in Literature)
Image 58Two people in costumes inspired byWilly Wonka (from Roald Dahl'sCharlie and the Chocolate Factory), and theHatter (from Lewis Carroll'sAlice's Adventures in Wonderland) in London (fromChildren's literature)
Image 59Page from a Jain manuscript depicting the birth ofMahavira, c. 1400 (fromHistory of books)
Image 60TheBook of the Dead ofHunefer, c. 1275 BCE, ink and pigments on papyrus, in theBritish Museum (London) (fromHistory of books)
Image 61Statue ofMinnie the Minx, a character fromThe Beano. Launched in 1938, the comic is known for its anarchic humour, withDennis the Menace appearing on the cover. (fromChildren's literature)
Image 62The intricate frontispiece of theDiamond Sutra fromTang dynasty China, i.e. 868 CE, the oldest known dated printed book in the world (British Library) (fromHistory of books)
Image 6312-metre-high (40 ft) sculpture of a stack of books at the BerlinWalk of Ideas, commemorating theinvention of modern book printing (fromHistory of books)
Image 64Selma Lagerlöf, the first female author awarded the prize (fromNobel Prize in Literature)
Image 65Octavio Paz helped to define modern poetry and the Mexican personality. (fromLatin American literature)
Image 66Galway Kinnell performing a poetic piece inVermont (fromPerformance poetry)
Image 67Gabrielle Roy was a notable French Canadian author. (fromCanadian literature)
Image 68A twentieth-century copyright imprint from McLoughlin Bros that features three rams and the copyright year, 1903 (fromHistory of books)
Image 69Chinese Bookseller, illustration, c. 1824 (fromHistory of books)
Image 70Natias Neutert performingDiogenes Synopsis as at Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin, 1986 (fromPerformance poetry)
Image 71French authorAlbert Camus was the first African-born writer to receive the award. (fromNobel Prize in Literature)
Image 72The philosopherConfucius was influential in the developed approach to poetry andancient music theory. (fromHistory of poetry)
Image 73Beauty and the Beast, illustration byWarwick Goble (fromFairy tale)
Image 74J. K. Rowling reads from her novelHarry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (fromChildren's literature)
Image 75Short story writer Alice Munro won theNobel Prize in Literature in 2013. (fromCanadian literature)
Image 76Sculpture ofAlfonso Reyes writer of influential pieces of Mexicansurrealism. (fromLatin American literature)
Image 77Illustration from theCodex Manesse, a German book from the Middle Ages (fromHistory of books)
Image 78Kings' Fairy Tale, 1909, byMikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (fromFairy tale)
Image 79The Story of Mankind (1921) byHendrik van Loon, 1stNewbery Award winner (fromChildren's literature)
Image 80Number of children's books titles published by the trade sector in 2020 (fromChildren's literature)
Image 81Gabriel García Márquez, one of the most renowned Latin American writers (fromLatin American literature)
Image 82Goethe's Italian Journey between September 1786 and May 1788 (fromTravel literature)
Image 83Illustration fromAlice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1865 (fromChildren's literature)
Image 84ATagore illustration of a Hindu myth (fromChildren's literature)
Image 85A 15th-centuryincunable. Notice the blind-tooled cover, corner bosses, and clasps. (fromHistory of books)
Image 86Peruvian poetCésar Vallejo, considered byThomas Merton "the greatest universal poet since Dante" (fromLatin American literature)
Image 87ASumerian clay tablet, currently housed in theOriental Institute at theUniversity of Chicago, inscribed with the text of the poemInanna and Ebih by the priestessEnheduanna, the first author whose name is known

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Selected work

Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

1897 illustration of La Peau de chagrin drawn by Adrien Moreau

La Peau de chagrin (The Magic Skin orThe Wild Ass's Skin) is an1831 novel byFrench novelist and playwrightHonoré de Balzac (1799–1850). Set in early 19th-centuryParis, it tells the story of a young man who finds a magic piece ofshagreen that fulfills his every desire. For each wish granted, however, the skin shrinks and consumes a portion of his physical energy.La Peau de chagrin belongs to theÉtudes philosophiques group of Balzac'ssequence of novels,La Comédie humaine.

Although the novel usesfantastic elements, its main focus is arealistic portrayal of the excesses ofbourgeois materialism. Balzac's renowned attention to detail is used to describe a gambling house, an antique shop, a royal banquet, and other locales. He also includes details from his own life as a struggling writer, placing the main character in a home similar to the one he occupied at the start of his literary career. The central theme ofLa Peau de chagrin is the conflict between desire and longevity. The magic skin represents the owner's life-force, which is depleted through every expression of will, especially when it is employed for the acquisition of power. Ignoring a caution from the shopkeeper who offers him the skin, the protagonist greedily surrounds himself with wealth, only to find himself miserable and decrepit at the story's end.

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Image 1
Cabinet card of W. S. Gilbert in about 1880 byElliott & Fry

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an Englishdramatist,librettist, poet and illustrator best known for hiscollaboration with composerArthur Sullivan, which produced fourteencomic operas. The most famous of these includeH.M.S. Pinafore,The Pirates of Penzance and one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre,The Mikado. The popularity of these works was supported for over a century by year-round performances of them, in Britain and abroad, by the repertory company that Gilbert, Sullivan and their producerRichard D'Oyly Carte founded, theD'Oyly Carte Opera Company. TheseSavoy operas are still frequently performed in the English-speaking world and beyond.

Gilbert's creative output included over 75 plays andlibretti, and numerous short stories, poems and lyrics, both comic and serious. After brief careers as a government clerk and a lawyer, Gilbert began to focus, in the 1860s, on writing light verse, including hisBab Ballads, short stories, theatre reviews and illustrations, often forFun magazine. He also began to writeburlesques and his first comic plays, developing a unique absurdist, inverted style that would later be known as his "topsy-turvy" style. He also developed arealistic method of stage direction and a reputation as a strict theatre director. In the 1870s, Gilbert wrote 40 plays and libretti, including hisGerman Reed Entertainments, several blank-verse "fairy comedies", some serious plays, and his first five collaborations with Sullivan:Thespis,Trial by Jury,The Sorcerer,H.M.S. Pinafore andThe Pirates of Penzance. In the 1880s, Gilbert focused on the Savoy operas, includingPatience,Iolanthe,The Mikado,The Yeomen of the Guard andThe Gondoliers. (Full article...)
Image 2

Barney in 1898

Natalie Clifford Barney (October 31, 1876 – February 2, 1972) was an American writer who hosted aliterary salon at her home in Paris that brought together French and international writers. She influenced other authors through her salon and also with her poetry, plays, andepigrams, often thematically tied to herlesbianism andfeminism.

Barney was born into a wealthy family. She was partly educated in France, and expressed a desire from a young age to live openly as a lesbian. She moved to France with her first romantic partner,Eva Palmer. Inspired by the work ofSappho, Barney began publishing love poems to women under her own name as early as 1900. Writing in both French and English, she supported feminism andpacifism. She opposedmonogamy and had many overlapping long and short-term relationships, including on-and-off romances with poetRenée Vivien and courtesanLiane de Pougy and longer relationships with writerÉlisabeth de Gramont and painterRomaine Brooks. (Full article...)
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Robert Marshall (January 2, 1901 – November 11, 1939) was an Americanforester, writer and wildernessactivist who is best remembered as the person who spearheaded the 1935 founding of theWilderness Society in the United States. Marshall developed a love for the outdoors as a young child. He was an avid hiker and climber who visited theAdirondack Mountains frequently during his youth, ultimately becoming one of the firstAdirondack Forty-Sixers. He also traveled to theBrooks Range of the far northernAlaskan wilderness. He wrote numerous articles and books about his travels, including the bestselling 1933 bookArctic Village.

A scientist with aPhD inplant physiology, Marshall became independently wealthy after the death of his father in 1929. He had started his outdoor career in 1925 as forester with the U.S. Forest Service. He used his financial independence for expeditions to Alaska and other wilderness areas. Later he held two significant public appointed posts: chief offorestry in theBureau of Indian Affairs, from 1933 to 1937, and head of recreation management in theForest Service, from 1937 to 1939, both during the administration of PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt. During this period, he directed the promulgation of regulations to preserve large areas of roadless land that were under federal management. Many years after his death, some of those areas were permanently protected from development, exploitation, and mechanization with the passage of theWilderness Act of 1964. (Full article...)
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Amir Hamzah,c. 1928–1937

Tengku Amir Hamzah (February 1911 – 20 March 1946) was an Indonesian poet andNational Hero of Indonesia. Born into aMalay aristocratic family in theSultanate of Langkat inNorth Sumatra, he was educated in bothSumatra andJava. While attending senior high school inSurakarta around 1930, Amir became involved with thenationalist movement and fell in love with aJavanese schoolmate, Ilik Sundari. Even after Amir continued his studies in legal school inBatavia (nowJakarta) the two remained close, only separating in 1937 when Amir was recalled to Sumatra to marry the sultan's daughter and take on responsibilities of the court. Though unhappy with his marriage, he fulfilled his courtly duties. AfterIndonesia proclaimed its independence in 1945, he served as the government's representative in Langkat. The following year he was killed ina social revolution led by the PESINDO (Pemuda Sosialis Indonesia), and buried in a mass grave.

Amir began writing poetry while still a teenager: though his works are undated, the earliest are thought to have been written when he first travelled to Java. Drawing influences from his own Malay culture and Islam, as well as from Christianity and Eastern literature, Amir wrote 50 poems, 18 pieces of lyrical prose, and numerous other works, including several translations. In 1932 he co-founded the literary magazinePoedjangga Baroe. After his return to Sumatra, he stopped writing. Most of his poems were published in two collections,Nyanyi Sunyi (1937) andBuah Rindu (1941), first inPoedjangga Baroe then as stand-alone books. (Full article...)
Image 5

Title page of the first edition of Wright'sCertaine Errors in Navigation (1599)

Edward Wright (baptised 8 October 1561; died November 1615) was an English mathematician andcartographer noted for his bookCertaine Errors in Navigation (1599; 2nd ed., 1610), which for the first time explained the mathematical basis of theMercator projection by building on the works ofPedro Nunes, and set out a reference table giving the linear scale multiplication factor as a function oflatitude, calculated for eachminute of arc up to a latitude of 75°. This was in fact a table of values of theintegral of the secant function, and was the essential step needed to make practical both the making and the navigational use of Mercator charts.

Wright was born atGarveston inNorfolk and educated atGonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he became afellow from 1587 to 1596. In 1589 the college granted him leave afterElizabeth I requested that he carry outnavigational studies witha raiding expedition organised by theEarl of Cumberland to theAzores to capture Spanishgalleons. The expedition's route was the subject of the first map to be prepared according to Wright's projection, which was published inCertaine Errors in 1599. The same year, Wright created and published the first world map produced in England and the first to use the Mercator projection sinceGerardus Mercator's original 1569 map. (Full article...)
Image 6

Wollstonecraftc. 1797

Mary Wollstonecraft (/ˈwʊlstənkræft/,alsoUK:/-krɑːft/; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was an English writer and philosopher best known for her advocacy ofwomen's rights. Until the late twentieth century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional (at the time) personal relationships, received more attention than her writing. Wollstonecraft is regarded as one of the foundingfeminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and her works as important influences.

During her brief career she wrote novels, treatises, atravel narrative, a history of theFrench Revolution, aconduct book, and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known forA Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men but appeared to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines asocial order founded on reason. (Full article...)
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Carson in 1943

Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an Americanmarine biologist, writer, andconservationist whose sea trilogy (1941–1955) and bookSilent Spring (1962) are credited with advancingmarine conservation and the globalenvironmental movement.

Carson began her career as an aquatic biologist in theU.S. Bureau of Fisheries, and became a full-time nature writer in the 1950s. Her widely praised 1951 bestsellerThe Sea Around Us won her a U.S.National Book Award, recognition as a gifted writer, and financial security. Its success prompted the republication of her first book,Under the Sea Wind (1941), in 1952, which was followed byThe Edge of the Seain 1955 — both were also bestsellers. This sea trilogy explores the whole of ocean life from the shores to the depths. (Full article...)
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Poe in 1849

Edgar Allan Poe (né Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an Americanwriter,poet,editor, andliterary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and themacabre. He is widely regarded as one of the central figures ofRomanticism andGothic fiction in the United States and of earlyAmerican literature. Poe was one of the country's first successful practitioners of theshort story, and is generally considered to be one of the pioneers of thedetective fiction genre. In addition, he is credited with contributing significantly to the emergence ofscience fiction. He is the first well-known American writer to earn a living exclusively through writing, which resulted in a financially difficult life and career.

Poe was born inBoston. He was the second child of actorsDavid andElizabeth "Eliza" Poe. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and when Eliza died the following year, Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan ofRichmond, Virginia. They never formallyadopted him, but he lived with them well into young adulthood. Poe attended theUniversity of Virginia but left after only a year due to a lack of money. He frequently quarreled with John Allan over the funds needed to continue his education as well as hisgambling debts. In 1827, having enlisted in theUnited States Army under the assumed name of Edgar A. Perry, he published his first collection,Tamerlane and Other Poems, which was credited only to "a Bostonian". Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement after the death of Allan's wife, Frances, in 1829. However, Poe later failed as an officer cadet atWest Point, declared his intention to become a writer, primarily of poems, and parted ways with Allan. (Full article...)
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Vargas Llosa in 1986

Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (28 March 1936 – 13 April 2025) was a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and politician. Vargas Llosa was one of the most significant Latin American novelists and essayists and one of the leading writers of his generation. Some critics consider him to have had a more substantial international impact and worldwide audience than any other writer of theLatin American Boom.In 2010, he won theNobel Prize in Literature for "his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat".

Vargas Llosa rose to international fame in the 1960s with novels such asThe Time of the Hero (La ciudad y los perros, 1963/1966),The Green House (La casa verde, 1965/1968), and the monumentalConversation in The Cathedral (Conversación en La Catedral, 1969/1975). He wrote prolifically across variousliterary genres, includingliterary criticism and journalism. His novels include comedies, murder mysteries, historical novels, and political thrillers. He won the 1967Rómulo Gallegos Prize and the 1986Prince of Asturias Award. Several of his works have been adopted as feature films, such asCaptain Pantoja and the Special Service (1973/1978) andAunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1977/1982). Vargas Llosa's perception of Peruvian society and his experiences as a native Peruvian influenced many of his works. Increasingly, he expanded his range and tackled themes from other parts of the world. In his essays, Vargas Llosa criticizednationalism in different parts of the world. (Full article...)
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Tolkien in the 1920s

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (/ˈruːlˈtɒlkiːn/, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer andphilologist. He was the author of thehigh fantasy worksThe Hobbit (1937) andThe Lord of the Rings (1954–55).

From 1925 to 1945 Tolkien was theRawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and aFellow ofPembroke College, both at theUniversity of Oxford. He then moved within the same university to become theMerton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow ofMerton College, and held these positions from 1945 until his retirement in 1959. Tolkien was a close friend ofC. S. Lewis, a co-member of theInklings, an informal literary discussion group. He was appointed aCommander of the Order of the British Empire byQueen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972. (Full article...)

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“

I don’t know why it should be so, but it is an undeniable fact that there is nothing makes a man look so supremely ridiculous as losing his hat. The feeling of helpless misery that shoots down one’s back on suddenly becoming aware that one’s head is bare is among the most bitter ills that flesh is heir to. And then there is the wild chase after it, accompanied by an excitable small dog, who thinks it is a game, and in the course of which you are certain to upset three or four innocent children—to say nothing of their mothers—butt a fat old gentleman on to the top of a perambulator, and carom off a ladies’ seminary into the arms of a wet sweep.

”

— Jerome K. Jerome,Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow

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... that inGoogled: The End of the World as We Know It,Ken Auletta uses the storyThe Purloined Letter to describe the attitude of the traditional media executives towardGoogle?
... thatMiriam Roth grew up in aHungarian-speaking town, studied at aGerman-speaking university, and wrote best-sellers inHebrew?
... that in the 1895 playTrilby, the role ofSvengali was created by American actorWilton Lackaye?
... thatLouisa Venable Kyle wrote a children's book onThe Witch of Pungo?
... thatWalter Arthur Berendsohn, who successfully nominatedNelly Sachs andWilly Brandt for their respectiveNobel Prizes, wroteDie humanistische Front, the seminal book on German exile literature?

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Selected illustration

Image 1
Puck of Pook's Hill
Illustrator:Harold Robert Millar; restoration:Adam Cuerden
An illustration from the story "On the Great Wall" from the first printing ofRudyard Kipling's 1906 fantasy bookPuck of Pook's Hill, featuring the legend "'And that is the Wall!'".

The book consists of a number of stories, all narrated to two children living nearBurwash, in the area of Kipling's own houseBateman's, by people magically plucked out of history by the elfPuck, or told by Puck himself.

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Image 2
The Sleeping Beauty
Illustration:W. E. F. Britten; restoration:Adam Cuerden
"The Sleeping Beauty" is a poem written byAlfred, Lord Tennyson, and published in 1830; it was later expanded and published in 1842 as "The Day-Dream". Based on the fairy taleSleeping Beauty, the poem (as with many of Tennyson's adaptations of existing literary works) focuses on a single aspect of the story, the appearance of the eponymous character as she sleeps.

This illustration byW. E. F. Britten was published in 1901 to accompany a reprinting of "The Sleeping Beauty". It accompanies the poem's final lines: "She sleeps, nor dreams, but ever dwells / A perfect form in perfect rest."
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Image 3
Divine Comedy
Restoration:Adam Cuerden
Anengraving ofCharon, inGreek mythology the ferryman ofHades who carried souls of the newly deceased across theRiver Styx that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. This illustration is from French engraverGustave Doré's 1857 set of illustrations forDante Alighieri'sDivine Comedy, anItalian epic poem depicting anallegorical vision of theChristian afterlife. Here, Charon is shown coming to ferry souls across the riverAcheron toHell. The caption is fromHenry Francis Cary's translation, from which this particular copy is taken:

And, lo! toward us in a bark
Comes on an old man, hoary white with eld,
Crying "Woe to you, wicked spirits!"
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Image 4
Caterpillar,Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Artist: SirJohn Tenniel
SirJohn Tenniel's illustration of theCaterpillar forLewis Carroll's classic children's book,Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The illustration is noted for its ambiguous central figure, which can be viewed as having either a human male's face with pointed nose and protruding lower lip or as the head end of an actualcaterpillar, with the right three "true" legs visible. The small symbol in the lower left is composed of Tenniel's initials, which was how he signed most of his work for the book. The partially obscured word in the lower left-center is the last name of Edward Dalziel, theengraver of the piece.
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Image 5
Guy Mannering
Artist:Norman Mills Price; Restoration:Adam Cuerden
A scene fromChapter XXVII ofGuy Mannering, ahistorical novel by SirWalter Scott that was originally publishedanonymously in 1815. It is set in the 1760s to 1780s, mostly in theGalloway area of southwestScotland. The eponymous character of Guy Mannering is actually only a minor character in the story, the plot being mostly concerned with Harry Bertram, the son of theLaird of Ellangowan, who is kidnapped at the age of five bysmugglers. It follows the fortunes and adventures of Harry and his family in subsequent years, and the struggle over the inheritance of Ellangowan. The novel also depicts the lawlessness that existed at the time, when smugglers operated along the coast and thieves frequented the country roads. The book was a huge success, selling out the day after its first edition.
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Image 6
Pride and Prejudice
Artist: George Pickering, Engraver: William Greatbatch; Restoration:Adam Cuerden
One of the two earliest illustrations ofJane Austen's novelPride and Prejudice, which was first published on January 28, 1813. Thisengraving comes from the first illustrated edition, published twenty years later, and depictsElizabeth Bennet (the main protagonist, right) and her father, infashions that were common in the 1830s, not the story's original time setting. The novel is told from Bennet's point of view and deals with issues ofmanners,upbringing,moral rightness,education andmarriage in the aristocratic society of early19th century England. The novel retains a fascination for modern readers, having sold some 20 million copies worldwide and continuing near the top of lists of 'most loved books'.
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Image 7
The Bride of Lammermoor
Artist:Charles Robert Leslie; Engraver: J. Cooper
Restoration:Adam Cuerden
A scene from an 1886 edition ofSir Walter Scott'shistorical novelThe Bride of Lammermoor, originally published in 1819. Althoughfictional, the story is based on an actual incident of the family ofJames Dalrymple: Dalrymple's daughter Janet wasbetrothed to one man in anarranged marriage, but in love with another. On her wedding night, Janet stabbed her husband. She was judged to be insane and died within a month. The book is part of Scott'sTales of My Landlord series and is the basis forGaetano Donizetti's 1835 operaLucia di Lammermoor.
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Image 8
The Princess and the Trolls
Illustration:John Bauer
The Princess and the Trolls, byJohn Bauer (1882–1918), was painted as an illustration for "The Changeling", a short story byHelena Nyblom. Awatercolour held by theNationalmuseum inStockholm, it was first published in the 1913 edition of the anthologyAmong Gnomes and Trolls. It shows the princessBianca Maria between two trolls in a forest. Bauer's illustrations of fairy tales and children's stories made him a household name in his native Sweden, and shaped perceptions of many fairy tale characters.
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Image 9
The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania
Painting:Joseph Noel Paton
The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania is an oil painting on canvas by the Scottish artistJoseph Noel Paton. Painted in 1849, it depicts the scene fromWilliam Shakespeare's comedy playA Midsummer Night's Dream, in which the fairy queenTitania and fairy kingOberon quarrel. When exhibited in Edinburgh in 1850, it was declared the "painting of the season". The painting was acquired by theNational Galleries of Scotland in 1897, having initially been bought by the Royal Association for Promoting the Fine Arts.
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Image 10
Jeeves
Illustration: Unknown; restoration:Adam Cuerden
Jeeves is a fictional character in a series ofcomedic short stories and novels by English authorP. G. Wodehouse, in which he is depicted as the highly competentvalet of a wealthy and idle young Londoner namedBertie Wooster. First appearing in the short story "Extricating Young Gussie" in 1915, Jeeves continued to feature in Wodehouse's work until his last completed novel,Aunts Aren't Gentlemen (1974). He also appeared in numerous films and television series, portrayed by such actors asArthur Treacher,Michael Aldridge, andDennis Price. The name and character of Jeeves have come to be identified with the quintessential valet orbutler.
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Image 11
Suikoden
Woodblock artist:Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Thiswoodblock print, titledKinhyōshi yōrin, hero of the Suikoden, is one of a series created by theJapanese artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi between 1827 and 1830 illustrating the 108Suikoden ("Water Margin"). The publication of the series catapulted Kuniyoshi to fame. The story of the Suikoden is an adaptation of the ChineseShuǐhǔ Zhuàn; during the 1800s, the publication of this woodblock series and other translations of the novel created a Suikoden craze in Japan. Following the great commercial success of the Kuniyoshi series, otherukiyo-e artists were commissioned to produce prints of the Suikoden heroes, which began to be shown as Japanese heroes rather than the original Chinese personages. The hero portrayed in this print isYang Lin.
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Image 12
The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby
Illustration:Jessie Willcox Smith; Restoration:ErikTheBikeMan
An illustration from a ca. 1916 edition ofThe Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby, achildren's novel written byCharles Kingsley and originallyserialised in 1862–63. The book, adidactic moralfable, tells the story of Tom (lower left), a young boy who drowns and isreincarnated as a "water-baby". He undergoes a series of adventures and eventually regains his human form. It was extremely popular during its day and through the 1920s, but has since fallen out of favour, perhaps due to Kingsley's expression of many of the commonprejudices of that time period, such as againstAmericans,Jews,blacks, andCatholics, particularly theIrish.
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Œnone
Illustration:William Edward Frank Britten; restoration:Adam Cuerden
Œnone is a poem written byAlfred, Lord Tennyson, in 1829. Inspired by the Greek mythological figureOenone, first wife ofParis of Troy, the poem is adramatic monologue following the lead-up to theTrojan War and the war itself. This illustration, byWilliam Edward Frank Britten, is accompanied by the lines "O motherIda, many-fountain'd Ida, / Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die".
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Image 14
The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby
Artist:Jessie Willcox Smith; Restoration:ErikTheBikeMan
Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, a character named after theGolden Rule, fromThe Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby, achildren's novel byCharles Kingsley. Published in 1863, the book was extremely popular in England, and was a mainstay of British children's literature for many decades. The book had been intended in part as asatire, a tract againstchild labour, as well as a serious critique of the closed-minded approaches of many scientists of the day in their response toCharles Darwin's ideas onevolution.
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Image 15
Wicked Witch of the West
Illustrator:W. W. Denslow; Restoration:Lise Broer
Dorothy(left) douses theWicked Witch of the West with water, melting her, in this illustration from the first edition ofL. Frank Baum'sThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The appearance of the witch in the1939 film adaptation of the novel has become anarchetype for human wickedness. This film is the source of the oft-quoted phrase, "I'll get you, my pretty ... and your little dog too!" The unique Broadway musical, Wicked, The Untold Story Of the Witches of Oz, tells of The Wicked Witch of the West, the Tin Man, The Cowardly Lion, The Scarecrow, and Glinda's shared history.
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... that the pastorJohn Littlejohn went from selling pornographic literature to sailors as a youth to protecting the Declaration of Independence?
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... that in her 2021 bookThe Origins of Early Christian Literature, Robyn Faith Walsh found thatGerman Romanticists were in part responsible for modern scholarly assumptions about thegospels?
... that the poetFernando Pessoa consideredAlberto Caeiro, one of his ownheteronyms, to be his master?
... thatHammersmith byGustav Holst was acclaimed byFrederick Fennell for having "some of the most treacherous stretches of music making" inband literature?

Today in literature

15 February

1835 –Demetrius Vikelas, Greek author born
1869 –Mirza Ghalib, Indian poet died
1883 –Sax Rohmer, English author born
1909 –Miep Gies, Dutch biographer ofAnne Frank born
1937 –Gregory Mcdonald, American author born
1958 –Chrystine Brouillet, Quebec novelist born

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