Book News & Features

Martin Luther King Jr., shown here with Stokely Carmichael during a voter registration march in Mississippi in 1966, regarded the younger Carmichael as one of the civil rights movement's most promising leaders.

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Stokely Carmichael, A Philosopher Behind The Black Power Movement

12:26pm March 10, 2014

by Karen Grigsby Bates

A new biography traces Carmichael's evolution from civil rights activist to an early proponent of the black power movement and international human rights advocate.

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Publisher Releases Lullabies From 'Goodnight Moon' Author

11:39am March 07, 2014

Goodnight Songs is a compilation of formerly unpublished lullabies and poems by the author of Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown. Linda Wertheimer talks to Amy Gary, who discovered the new material.

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'The Natural' Of 1952 Holds Lessons For Today's MLB

3:43pm February 26, 2014

A new edition of Bernard Malamud's classic baseball story, The Natural, was just released. NPR's Scott Simon talks to Howard Bryant of ESPN about how the 1952 novel is more relevant than ever.

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Remembering Activist Poet Amiri Baraka

9:02pm February 21, 2014

Baraka was one of the key black literary voices of the 1960s. The political and social views that inspired his writing changed over the years, from his bohemian days as a young man in Greenwich Village to his later years as a Marxist. He spoke to Fresh Air's Terry Gross in 1986.

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Romance Novels Sweep Readers Off Their Feet With Predictability

1:26pm February 10, 2014

by NPR Staff

At $1.4 billion, romance is by far the biggest sector of the publishing industry. Harper's editor Jesse Barron looked into the business of romance and its peculiarities for this month's issue. He says the key is copying the elements that made other authors successful — down to the cover model's pose.

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Published in 1943, The Little Prince is one of the world's most beloved books. AuthorAntoine Saint-Exupery wrote and illustrated the book in New York, between Long Island and Manhattan.

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Before He Fell To Earth, 'The Little Prince' Was Born In N.Y.

1:31pm January 25, 2014

by Margot Adler

Author Antoine Saint-Exupery was French, but his beloved book, The Little Prince, wasn't written in Paris. Saint-Exupery wrote it in New York, and even included references to the island in his original manuscript.

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A poster advertises a stage adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, starring actor William Gillette in 1899.

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Sherlock's Expiring Copyright: It's Public Domain, Dear Watson

9:53am January 08, 2014

by NPR Staff

The famous sleuth has discovered that U.S copyright law is anything but elementary. A federal judge recently ruled that elements of the Sherlock Holmes characters are now both licensed property of the Doyle estate and in the public domain. The Doyle estate plans to appeal the decision.

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Don't Call It Fanfic: Writers Rework Their Favorite Stories

12:43pm December 27, 2013

by Lynn Neary

When writers finish a book, they may think they've had the last word — but sometimes another writer will decide there's more to the story, or more to a background character. NPR's Lynn Neary explores the fine old literary tradition of writing new stories based on existing books.

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A London Cabbie's Guide To Lit Gifts

7:31am November 30, 2013

Will Grozier, the incredibly well-read London cabbie, joins host Scott Simon to help tick through shopping lists with book recommendations for all sorts of family members and friends.

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It Still Isn't Easy, But Independent Bookstores Are Doing Better

3:36pm November 27, 2013

by Wendy Kaufman

Despite intense competition from Amazon and big-box retailers, there are more independent bookstores now than there were four years ago. Borders' bankruptcy, the "buy local" movement and cooperative publishers have all contributed to the renaissance.

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