The “Chandos” portrait of William Shakespeare Credit: Portrait of William Shakespeare (c.1610), oil on canvas painting attributed to John Taylor; National Portrait Gallery, London (Bridgeman Art Library)

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. Many people regard him as the world’s greatest dramatist and the finest poet England has ever produced. Have you read anything written by Shakespeare? Some of his popular works include Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and Twelfth Night. Many popular movies, books, and television shows are based on Shakespeare’s plays.

William Shakespeare was born in the small market town of Stratford-upon-Avon, England, in 1564. He was the third of eight children. The register of Holy Trinity, the parish church in Stratford, records his baptism on April 26. According to the custom at that time, infants were baptized about three days after their birth. Therefore, the generally accepted date for Shakespeare’s birth is April 23.

Shakespeare wrote at least 38 plays, two major narrative poems, a sequence of sonnets, and several short poems. His works have been translated into a remarkable number of languages, and his plays are performed throughout the world. His plays have been a vital part of the theater in the Western world since they were written about 400 years ago. Through the years, most serious actors and actresses have considered the major roles of Shakespeare to be the supreme test of their art.

Shakespeare’s plays have attracted large audiences in big, sophisticated cities and in small, rural towns. His works have been performed on the frontiers of Australia and New Zealand. They were part of the cultural life of the American Colonies and provided entertainment in the mining camps of the Old West. Today, there are theaters in many nations dedicated to staging Shakespeare’s works.

Shakespeare used language of startling originality to portray many-sided characters and tell fascinating stories. Critics and readers celebrate him as a great student of human nature. A remarkable group of vivid characters populate his plays. They include rogues and aristocrats, housewives and stuffy teachers, soldiers and generals, shepherds and philosophers. The most successful of these characters create an impression of psychological depth never before seen in English literature.

Shakespeare has had enormous influence on culture throughout the world. His works have helped shape the literature of all English-speaking countries. His work has also had an important effect on the literary cultures of such countries as Germany and Russia. In addition, his widespread presence in popular culture extends to motion pictures, television, cartoons, and even songs.

Shakespeare’s characters, language, and stories are a source of inspiration, quotation, and imitation. Many words and phrases that first appeared in his plays and poems have become part of our everyday speech. Examples include such common words as assassination, bump, eventful, go-between, gloomy, and lonely, as well as such familiar phrases as fair play, a forgone conclusion, and salad days.

Shakespeare has so saturated modern culture that many people who have never read a line of his work or seen one of his plays performed can identify lines and passages as his. Examples include “To be, or not to be,” “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears,” “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” and “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!”

Shakespeare’s poetry is full of vivid metaphors and brilliant images. His verbal skill also reveals itself in a tendency for word play and puns. Critics and readers acknowledge his superb way with words even when the richness of his language blurs the sense of what his text means.

Besides influencing language and literature, Shakespeare has affected other aspects of our culture. His plays and poems have long been a required part of a liberal education. Generations of people have absorbed his ideas concerning heroism, romantic love, loyalty, and the nature of tragedy as well as his portraits of particular historical characters. To this day, most people imagine Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Cleopatra, and Richard III as Shakespeare portrayed them.

Shakespeare’s plays appeal to readers as well as to theatergoers. His plays—and his poems—have been reprinted and translated countless times. Indeed, a publishing industry flourishes around Shakespeare, as critics and scholars examine every aspect of the man, his writings, and his influence. Each year, hundreds of books and articles appear on Shakespearean subjects. Thousands of scholars from all over the world gather in dozens of meetings annually to discuss topics related to Shakespeare. Special libraries and library collections focus upon Shakespeare, such as the Folger Shakespeare Library. Numerous motion pictures have been made of his plays. Composers have written operas, musical comedies, and instrumental works based on his stories and characters.

The world has admired and respected many great writers. But only Shakespeare has generated such varied and continuing interest—and such constant affection. The extent and durability of Shakespeare’s reputation is without equal.

The play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child continues the story of Harry Potter, the hero of a series of novels by the British author J. K. Rowling. First performed in 2016, the play follows the boy wizard Harry into adulthood. Here, actors perform the play in New York City in 2018.
Credit: © Sara Krulwich, The New York Times/Redux Pictures

While the Philosopher’s stone gives immortality in the Harry Potter series, the first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has already lived for 25 years. On second thought, the Philosopher’s Stone might not work on books. Someone ask Granger what she thinks! On June 26, 1997, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published, and The Boy Who Lived shared his magical journey with the Muggle world.

British author J. K. Rowling came up with the idea for the Harry Potter characters while sitting on a train in London in 1990. She completed the first novel while she was an unemployed teacher in Edinburgh, Scotland. Rowling submitted the manuscript to several publishers before one saw the potential in the story of a young boy who finds out he is a wizard. That UK publisher, Bloomsbury, made a good call! The Harry Potter series is unique in publishing because of its widespread popularity among both adults and young people. In addition, both boys and girls enjoy the series, which is unusual in literature for children. Some literary critics proclaim the novels will be classics of children’s literature.

The magical “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling
Credit: © Shutterstock

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is a gripping story of loss, friendship, hope, and, of course, magic! After the wicked sorcerer Lord Voldemort murders Harry Potter’s parents, the orphaned boy is raised by his nasty Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon Dursley. Harry turns 11 years old as the series begins. In an incident with a talking snake at the zoo and its habitat wall disappearing, he learns that he is a wizard. Potter is invited to attend the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to study magic skills. Potter survives one danger after another, accompanied by his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Potter and his friends finish their first year at Hogwarts, ready for six more years of adventure in the seven-volume series.

Daniel Radcliffe is a British motion-picture and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of the boy wizard Harry Potter in the “Harry Potter” series of motion pictures, shown .
Credit: Warner Brothers Corp.

The novel became an immediate best seller in both the United Kingdom and the United States, where it was published under the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (1998) by Scholastic. Rowling continued the series with six more books, following Potter and his friends as they grow up and battle dark forces in the wizarding world. The motion-picture versions of the Harry Potter books were international box-office hits. In the motion pictures, Daniel Radcliffe plays Potter, Emma Watson plays Granger, and Rupert Grint plays Weasley. Additional books, prequel movies, and a play have been created, supplementing the original series.

The 25th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is a great excuse to reread the series or pick it up if you have never read it before. Some people read it every year or share it with their children. Go meet the Gryffindors, learn the flighted game of Quidditch, and most importantly, figure out just what the Philosopher’s stone is and who is trying to get their hands on it!

Timothée Chalamet as Paul and Rebecca Ferguson as his mother, Jessica, in Dune (2021).
Credit: Warner Bros.

This month, an exciting new motion-picture adaptation, titled Dune (2021), appeared in theaters. The film starred actor Timothée Chalamet as the lead character, Paul Atreides. Dune was directed by Denis Villeneuve.

Dune is a science fiction novel by the American author Frank Herbert. It was published in 1965. The title refers to the desert planet Arrakis, where the action of the novel takes place. Dune is notable for its imaginative desert setting and its religious and environmental themes.

The novel tells the story of Paul Atreides, the heir of a noble house that is taking control of Arrakis. The planet is important because it is the only place where deposits of the fictional spice melange are found. Melange is a druglike substance also used in interstellar travel (travel among the stars).

When House Atreides is betrayed by the evil House Harkonnen, Paul is cast out into the desert along with his mother, Jessica. Jessica is a member of an order of mystics called the Bene Gesserit. In the desert, Paul and Jessica take up with a mysterious people known as the Fremen. The Fremen survive in the desert wearing stillsuits, special suits that conserve and recycle their body fluids. The Fremen follow a religion that revolves around melange, giant sandworms that live in the open desert, and transforming Arrakis into a more habitable world.

Dune features a large and complex cast of characters. Notable people in House Atreides include Paul’s father, Duke Leto; the swordmaster Duncan Idaho; the minstrel Gurney Halleck; the doctor Wellington Yueh; and the mentat Thufir Hawat. Mentats are human beings trained to replace advanced computers, which have been banned. Notable characters in House Harkonnen include the evil Baron Vladimir; his nephews Glossu “the Beast” Rabban and Feyd-Rautha, and the mentat Piter de Vries.

Herbert wrote five more books in the “Dune” series. Dune‘s direct sequels are Dune Messiah (1969) and Children of Dune (1976). God Emperor of Dune (1981) shifts the action thousands of years into the future, to an Arrakis transformed by Paul’s son, Leto Atreides II. Heretics of Dune (1984) and Chapterhouse: Dune (1985) continue the saga of the Atreides family. Following Frank Herbert’s death in 1986, his son Brian and the American author Kevin J. Anderson wrote a number of additional novels set in the Dune universe.

A motion-picture adaptation, also titled Dune, was directed by David Lynch and released in 1984. The Dune saga has also been adapted into two television miniseries, “Dune” (2000) and “Children of Dune” (2003).

James Baldwin
Credit: Allan Warren (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature LGBTQ+ pioneers in a variety of areas.

The Black novelist, essayist, and playwright James Baldwin (1924-1987) has gained fame for his works about racial injustice and sexual identity. Baldwin was born in the United States, but he lived much of his life in France. Whether writing in the United States or abroad, he offered fiery protests against racial inequality.

Baldwin promoted civil rights and encouraged people to accept social differences in several powerful essay collections. These include Notes of a Native Son (1955), Nobody Knows My Name (1961), The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Devil Finds Work (1976). These five collections and other nonfiction pieces were compiled in The Price of the Ticket (1985).

Baldwin also explored interracial conflict in his fiction and drama, including the novel Another Country (1962), the play Blues for Mister Charlie (1964), and the short-story collection Going to Meet the Man (1965). In his novel Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone (1968), Baldwin presented his most detailed portrayal of civil rights activities during the 1960′s.

James Arthur Baldwin was born on Aug. 2, 1924, in the Harlem district of New York City. He was a minister as a teenager, and many of his works use the rich language and tone of Biblical scripture, Black sermons, and gospel and blues music. His early writings explore the characters’ psychological struggles with their religious faith and relationships. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), and first play, The Amen Corner (1955), portray tensions within Black families and churches. Baldwin explored the subject of homosexuality in his second novel, Giovanni’s Room (1956), and in other works of fiction.

Baldwin’s other works include the novels If Beale Street Could Talk (1974) and Just Above My Head (1979). A motion picture adaptation of If Beale Street Could Talk was released in 2018. Baldwin also wrote poetry and nonfiction with other writers and civil rights activists. He wrote one children’s book, Little Man, Little Man, that portrays the world of a black child growing up in Harlem during the 1970′s. The book was originally published in 1976 and reissued in a new edition in 2018. His essays were gathered in Collected Essays (published by the Library of America in 1998) and The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings (2010). The Library of America also published two volumes of Baldwin’s fiction, Early Novels & Stories (1998) and Later Novels (2015). Baldwin died on Dec. 1, 1987.

Credit: © metamorworks, Shutterstock

April 1 marks the first day of National Poetry Month in the United States, a celebration of this unique form of literature. Each week, Behind the Headlines will feature the art of poetry or a famous poet.

Throughout history, poetry has been used for many purposes. People have used poetry in religious rituals, to praise and celebrate remarkable individuals, and to express intense emotions, from love to rage. Various social groups have also used poetry to record events and stories. Such poems include lessons that are important for the group to remember and pass down from generation to generation.

The basic feature of poetic language is rhythm. Rhythm is the repetition of sounds in a particular pattern. All human beings enjoy rhythm. Children may clap their hands or rock their bodies to match the rhythm of nursery rhymes, with the rhythm helping the words stick in their memory. Adults may detect more subtle patterns in poems and find that such patterns deepen their response to the meanings and emotions conveyed by the words.

Poetry began in prehistoric times, as an oral (spoken) tradition. After the development of writing, poetry gradually became an important written art. In all languages throughout history, human beings have created poems, remembered them, recited them, and found deep meaning in them. There are times in life when every human being wants to say exactly the right thing in exactly the right words. That is what poets try to do. For people who do not write poetry, it can be a moving discovery to find a poem that expresses feelings or experiences for which they cannot find the words.

Poetry has come to seem strange to many people. Yet, we still discover poetry in many places in our world. Popular songs feature such poetic innovations as regular meter and rhyme. Nursery rhymes and children’s verse remain popular. At important events in life—a wedding or a funeral, for example—people may recite poetry to express their feelings and to mark the significance of the event.

People still turn to poetry to express romantic feelings, whether reciting well-known poems or writing their own. Poems remain not only among the most enjoyable uses of language but the most precise and significant as well. In some cultures, poetry remains highly valued, and many people have memorized numbers of poems.

Not every poem is well-written or memorable. But among the countless poems that have been written throughout the ages, every individual will find at least some that strike a deep and resonant chord.

American journalist and reformer Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Credit: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

On May 4, 2020, the American journalist and reformer Ida B. Wells-Barnett was awarded a special citation by the board that awards the Pulitzer Prizes. Pulitzer Prizes are given in the United States each year for distinguished achievement in journalism, literature, drama, and music. Wells-Barnett was known chiefly for her campaign against the lynching (lawless killing) of African Americans during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The Pulitzer citation honored her “outstanding and courageous” reporting during the era of lynching.

Ida B. Wells was born a slave in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862. She moved to Memphis in 1884. In 1889, she became part-owner and a reporter for Free Speech, a Memphis newspaper. In 1892, after three of her friends were hanged in Memphis, she began to investigate lynchings and other violence against African Americans. Her work led to the founding of many antilynching organizations.

In 1894, Wells moved to Chicago to continue her efforts. She married in 1895, becoming Ida B. Wells-Barnett. In 1909, Wells-Barnett helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She also took part in the campaign to give women the right to vote. Until her death in 1931, Wells-Barnett continued to fight for the rights of African Americans.

The Pulitzer Prize medal
Credit: © 2020 The Pulitzer Prizes

Wells-Barnett was far from the first African American to be recognized by the Pulitzer Prize board. In 1950, the American poet Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize. Also in 2020, the American author Colson Whitehead became one of a very few authors to have received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction twice.

March 25, 2020

World Book celebrates Women’s History Month with birthday wishes for the American writer Flannery O’Connor, who was born 95 years ago today on March 25, 1925. O’Connor is described as a Southern Gothic writer, meaning her stories often reflected the tensions and darker sides of the American South during her lifetime. Her novels and stories are filled with characters who are physically deformed or emotionally or spiritually disturbed. Some are obsessed with religion and the possibility of their own damnation or salvation. However, O’Connor’s works also contain humor, irony, and satire. O’Connor died of the disease lupus at age 39 on Aug. 3, 1964.

The American writer Flannery O’Connor was born 95 years ago today on March 25, 1925. credit: Will Schofield (licensed under CC BY 2.0)

Mary Flannery O’Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia. Her family later moved to Millidgeville in central Georgia, where she attended the Georgia State College for Women (now Georgia College and State University). O’Connor edited the college’s literary magazine and contributed essays, fiction, and cartoons. She later received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa’s famous writers’ workshop.

O’Connor suffered from poor health most of her life and could complete only a few works. They include two novels, Wise Blood (1952) and The Violent Bear It Away (1960). Her stories were collected in A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1955) and Everything That Rises Must Converge, published in 1965 after her death. The stories in these two collections are included in Flannery O’Connor: The Complete Stories, published in 1971. This collection won the 1972 National Book Award for fiction. Mystery and Manners, essays and lectures on literature and writing, was published in 1969. A collection of her letters called The Habit of Being was published in 1979. In 1988, the Library of America published an authoritative edition of her Collected Works.

January 17, 2020

Today, January 17, marks 200 years since the birth of the English writer Anne Brontë in 1820. Anne was the youngest and least-known of the literary Brontë sisters. She may have been overshadowed by her older sisters, but both Anne’s novels, Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), are considered classic of English literature.

This painting of the Brontë sisters shows Anne, left, Emily, center, and Charlotte, right. Credit: The Granger Collection

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Anne’s 200th birthday is being celebrated by Brontë200, a program run by the the Brontë Society and the Brontë Parsonage Museum (at the Brontë family home in Haworth, a village in West Yorkshire). A special exhibit, “Anne Brontë: Amid the brave and strong,” is currently at the museum, and a number of Anne Brontë-themed literary lectures and art exhibits are also taking place. Anne’s bicentennial is the final leg of Brontë200, which also marked the 200th birthdays of her sisters Charlotte (in 2016) and Emily (in 2018).

Anne, Charlotte, and Emily (and three other siblings) were brought up by their father, Patrick, and their Aunt Elizabeth, who moved in after the children’s mother died in 1821. The sisters went to several boarding schools, where they received a better education than was usual for girls at that time. But the school atmosphere was harsh.

Few jobs were available for women at that time. The Brontë sisters, except for occasional jobs as governesses or schoolteachers, lived their entire lives at home. They were shy, poor, and lonely. They occupied themselves with music, drawing, reading, and—above all—writing. Their isolation led to the early development of their imaginations. In 1846, under the masculine pen names of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, the sisters published a joint volume of poems. Although only two copies were sold, all three sisters soon had their first novels published.

Charlotte Brontë wrote four novels, the most famous of which is Jane Eyre (1847), before dying at age 38 in 1855. Emily Brontë wrote the famous novel Wuthering Heights (1847) before she died at age 30 in 1848. Anne also died young, probably of tuberculosis, at age 29 in 1849.

January 3, 2020

Yesterday, January 2, was the 100th anniversary of the birth of the American author Isaac Asimov in 1920. Asimov wrote about 400 books for young people and adults, mostly nonfiction emphasizing science and technology. However, he became best known for his science fiction.

The author Isaac Asimov was born 100 years ago on Jan. 2, 1920. Credit: © Everett Collection/Alamy Images

Many of Asimov’s short stories and novels feature robots as characters. Several were collected in I, Robot (1950). His popular Foundation series of science-fiction novels includes Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire (1952), Second Foundation (1953), Foundation’s Edge (1982), Foundation and Earth (1986), Prelude to Foundation (1988), and Forward the Foundation (published in 1993, after his death). He also wrote Fantastic Voyage (1966) and The Gods Themselves (1972).

Asimov’s nonfiction is notable for making complicated material understandable to the general reader. These works include Asimov’s New Guide to Science (1984). Asimov also wrote on such topics as history, humor, William Shakespeare, and the Bible. He wrote two volumes of autobiography, In Memory Yet Green (1979) and In Joy Still Felt (1980).

Asimov was born on Jan. 2, 1920, in Petrovichi, Russia, near Smolensk. When he was 3 years old, his family moved to New York City. Asimov became a United States citizen in 1928. He taught biochemistry at Boston University from 1949 to 1958 before becoming a full-time writer. He died on April 6, 1992.

October 16, 2019

Last week, World Book looked at the Nobel Prize winners in physiology or medicine, physics, and chemistry. Today, we present the Nobel Prize winners in literature, peace, and economics. Every year in the first week of October, the Nobel Foundation in Sweden awards Nobel Prizes to artists, economists, scientists, and peace workers who—in keeping with the vision of the Swedish chemist and industrialist Alfred Nobel—have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.

Nobel Prize medal (Credit: Nobel Foundation)

On October 10, the 2019 Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to the Austrian writer Peter Handke. Handke, an accomplished playwright, novelist, and screenwriter, was rewarded for his “influential work” and “linguistic ingenuity” in exploring human experience. On the same day, the 2018 literature prize (which was delayed over a scandal involving a foundation member) was given to the Polish author Olga Tokarczuk for her “narrative imagination” and “encyclopedic passion” representing all walks of life.

On Oct. 11, 2019, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for his successful efforts to create peace between his nation and neighboring Eritrea. In July 2018, Ahmed negotiated “a joint declaration of peace and friendship” with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, resolving a dispute that had festered since Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia and became an independent nation in 1993. Since coming to office in April 2018, Ahmed has also restored democratic freedoms within Ethiopia.

On Oct. 14, 2019, the Nobel Prize for economics was given to the United States-based economists Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer for creating an “experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.” Banerjee and Duflo (who are married and serve as professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) worked with the Harvard University academic Kremer to find scientific solutions to improve education and children’s health around the world. They broke large issues into simple questions and then searched for practical answers to those questions that could be instituted on a grand scale.