Last week the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin announced its acquisition of writer Ian McEwan's archive. The archive is comprised of a broad range of materials, from childhood items to his earliest stories to drafts of all McEwan's published works to correspondence with other notable literary figures. In addition to the spectrum of content represented in the archive, there ... [more]

Steve Green, President of the U.S. arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby, recently revealed his purchase of what some scholars believe may be the oldest known Jewish prayer book. The 11 x 10 centimeter, 50 page book is a siddur, a Jewish prayer book that contains daily prayers. It dates from 840 and is written in an ancient form of Hebrew that includes Babylonian vowel marks. This indicates that i... [more]