Ray Bradbury’s story “There Will Come Soft Rains” takes place today, August 4, 2026, detailing the programmed routines of an automated house left standing after nuclear war obliterates Allendale, CA. www.loa.org/books/659-no...

And the award for best bookshelf goes to... this longtime LOA fan, whose stunning collection caught our eye. (It certainly gives those of us with home libraries on the, um, messier side something to aspire to!)

Born on this day in 1849, the poet Emma Lazarus is perhaps best known for her sonnet to the Statue of Liberty, “The New Colossus.” “From her beacon-hand / Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command / The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.” loa.org/writers/121-emma-lazarus/

"... a Palace, / Lofter, fairer, ampler than any yet, / Earth's modern wonder... / with glass and iron facades, / Gladdening the sun and sky... / Over whose golden roof shall flaunt, beneath thy banner, Freedom." Walt Whitman wrote these lines for the 1853 World's Fair in NYC, which opened July 14.

Check out these behind-the-scenes photos of Kennedy and Grondahl as they prep for the livestream (glasses of red wine in hand), courtesy of Kennedy's son Brendan.

What would the real Mark Twain make of AI scams targeting writers, we wonder? Meanwhile, the bots in our inbox seem to think Twain (who died in 1910) would be a great fit for "a 12-month Managed Reader Experience" as part of a "2026 Year of Impact project." 🫠

Discover giants of American literature during our annual boxed set sale, going on now through May 31! 2-volume sets $50 3-volume sets $75 4-volume sets $95 Browse the full collection on the LOA Web Store: loa.org/books/collections/3-boxed-sets/

Last night, living legend William Kennedy celebrated publication of the LOA edition of his Albany Trilogy (which includes the masterful Ironweed) at the NYS Writers Institute @albany.edu. Joined by novelist Colum McCann, Kennedy read and signed copies for fans and friends. loa.org/books/832

Congratulations, Clemente Class of 2026! The partnership between the @theclemente.bsky.social and The Library of America goes back to 1999, and at this year’s Harlem graduation, LOA was proud to present students with volumes of Black Writers of the Founding Era to mark their accomplishment.

By happy chance, Earth Day coincides with the birthdays of four of America’s greatest nature writers: William Bartram, John Muir, John James Audubon, and Frederick Law Olmsted. Explore classics of the environmental imagination in the LOA series: loa.org/books/topics/20-nature-environmental-writing/

“The whole wilderness in unity and interrelation is alive and familiar,” wrote John Muir, the Scottish-born author and naturalist, born on this day in 1838. “The very stones seem talkative, sympathetic, brotherly. No particle is ever wasted or worn out but eternally flowing from use to use.”

John McPhee’s portraits of America’s wild places and the ingenious and resilient people who call them home are gathered in a new LOA collection, edited by David Remnick (@newyorker.com). Find the volume in bookstores today, or order a copy from our Web Store: loa.org/books/encounters-in-wild-america

Psst, Library of America is having a site-wide sale through this weekend. Get 15% off on all LOA books (including boxed sets and already discounted titles), no coupon code required. Browse new and recent volumes by William Kennedy, Jim Thompson, John McPhee, and many more at loa.org/books.

You may have seen that the British spy novelist Len Deighton died this week; what you may not have seen was that he illustrated the cover for the first UK edition of Jack Kerouac's On the Road in 1958! Check out this blog from the National Library of Scotland for more: blog.nls.uk/jack-kerouac...

In response to last year’s blockbuster Ursula K. Le Guin’s Book of Cats, we heard but one complaint from readers: what about the dogs? Now mankind’s other best friend gets its due with a deluxe reissue of Thurber’s Dogs, the classic collection of James Thurber’s meditations on canine companionship.

Previously known only to a small cadre of scholars, these brief, intriguing pieces of Nathaniel Hawthorne reveal a hidden dimension of one of America’s greatest writers. In Parables, Fantasies, Fragments, discover the gnomic, gemlike works of a singular storyteller.

Set in 1920s Paris and Spain, Ernest Hemingway’s immortal novel The Sun Also Rises receives the full annotated treatment in a deluxe anniversary edition featuring LOA’s authoritative text, ample illustrations, and running commentary from a leading Hemingway scholar.

Brief is beautiful in American Flash Fiction, a new anthology showcasing the visionary range of this miniature, mesmerizing form. Find famous voices like Mark Twain alongside Harlem Renaissance icon Zora Neale Hurston, hard-boiled maven Dashiell Hammett, and SF trailblazer Sofia Samatar.

A handsome new boxed set gathers the landmark writings of peerless essayist Susan Sontag, featuring nine complete nonfiction collections, six uncollected essays, and the celebrated works Against Interpretation, On Photography, Illness as Metaphor, and Regarding the Pain of Others.

Horror visionary Peter Straub enters the LOA series with three terrifying novels: Julia (1975), If You Could See Me Now (1977), and the best-selling Ghost Story (1979). For only the fourth time, the LOA volume is edited by the author’s child, in this case acclaimed writer Emma Straub.

Often placed alongside Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, @ursulakleguin.com’s Earthsea saga is far stranger and philosophically compelling than the fantasies to which it’s often compared. A new definitive two-volume edition presents Le Guin’s most popular fictional world in a timeless new collection.

This weekend only, catch a free, limited-time screening of Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry, a documentary exploring the world of Henry County, KY, and its great chronicler. RSVP at this link and you’ll receive a link and passcode to view the film: email.loa.org/h/i/3CEFCEC8...

Tonight, don’t miss our first free online program of the year, on the Civil War Diaries of George Templeton Strong—perhaps the greatest civilian account of the war, unfolding like a novel—with historian Brenda Wineapple and editor Geoff Wisner. RSVP for free: www.eventbrite.com/e/american-m...

Wendell Berry—novelist, poet, farmer, activist—has been compared to Faulkner for his revelatory writings. LOA and the Berry Center invite you to a free online screening of the evocative documentary Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry, streaming Feb. 20–22. RSVP now: email.loa.org/h/i/3CEFCEC8...

This March, celebrated author and teacher Edward Hirsch returns for a new online course with Library of America exploring the transformative language, ideas, and emotions that animate American poetry and connect it to our everyday lives. RSVP now on Eventbrite! www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-rea...

An incredible lineup of books in this NYPL list of 100 Black Voices, including many in the LOA series. One still-under-appreciated novel here is The Man Who Cried I Am by John A. Williams, an explosive combo of Black literary history and Cold War political thriller. www.nypl.org/books-more/r...

Spotted in John Woo’s 1992 Hong Kong action masterpiece Hard Boiled: the Library of America edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories and tales! Seems fitting, as Poe arguably invented the modern detective story with his works “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter.”

“Each word, like a stone dropped in a pond, creates a ripple around it,” writes Charles Bernstein of the poetry of Louis Zukofsky, cofounder of Objectivism, born OTD in 1904. “The intersecting ripples on the surface of the pond are the pattern of the poem.” www.loa.org/books/245-se...

Two LOA writers with a penchant for darkness and the depths of the human mind share a birthday this week (albeit 112 years apart): Edgar Allan Poe (b. 1809) and Patricia Highsmith (b. 1921). If Poe invented the detective story in the 19th century, Highsmith reimagined crime fiction in the 20th.

Unprecedented in scope, LOA's new two-volume anthology of 19th-century American short stories collects more than 100 pieces by 51 writers, from Charles Brockden Brown’s haunting gothic tales to the Gilded Age masterpieces of Henry James. Order your copy today: www.loa.org/books/the-am...