AbeBooks' Reading Copy

Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian novelist credited with helping to develop African literature, has died at 82. Achebe wrote novels, poetry and essays, and is most famous for his first novel Things Fall Apart, published in 1958. Things Fall Apart has sold more than 10 million copies and is one of the great novels of the [...]

Our latest AbeBooks Video Book Review explores the seven-volume work from German portrait photographer August Sander, called People of the 20th Century (or Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts). Sander, whose work spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was one of the most influential and well-respected photographers of his time in Germany and beyond. The [...]

Exciting and fascinating news from the BBC this morning – bones found beneath a parking lot in Leicester, England last August have been confirmed as those of King Richard III. Richard III was the King of England for a mere 26 months from 1483 until 1485. His defeat in battle and death in 1485 heralded [...]

At least 15,000 books have been written about Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. If you wish to learn about the man who led the North during the American Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862 then you are not going to be restricted by choice. (AbeBooks alone has more [...]

A treat for the fine booklover, or anyone who enjoys the excellent artistry of bookbinding: The Kelliegram Binding. Kelliegram bindings often involved intricate leather work, such as leather inlays or onlays to create an image, a scene, or a mosaic effect. It was common for the Kelliegram binders to choose an engraving from the body [...]

On this day in 1960, the landmark obscenity case over Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence ended with the acquittal of Penguin Books. The publisher had been sued for publishing Lawrence’s novel, which details the steamy affair between the wife of a wealthy, paralysed landowner and his gamekeeper. All this seems a million miles away [...]

Hold on, we hear you say – author? But Winston Churchill was a politician! True. But while Churchill had two stints as prime minister and is most famous for his wartime leadership, many people don’t realize that his real passion was writing. That should come as no surprise, really; his oft-quoted, inspiring and impassioned speeches [...]

Think you know everything about Jane Austen? Don’t be so sure. Our colleague Julie has compiled a list of 10 fascinating tidbits about Ms. Austen, and presents them in a most compelling – and creatively costumed- way in her video. Don’t miss out.

We at AbeBooks do so love a good literary letter. This 1917 example to Winston Churchill, written a year before the end of WWI, includes an early usage of “OMG”. It also includes a lot of exclamation marks. Lord Fisher (I assume naval fleet Admiral John Arbuthnot Fisher) was an enthusiastic writer, also seemingly randomly [...]

Shot by Thomas Edison in 1909, this short video (no sound, obviously) is apparently the only footage of Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) in existence. It became part of a two-reel short film based on Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper. Twain died the year following the filming. via MentalFloss