What better way to know Mark Twain than through his writings? Well, a fine documentary film by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan is a good place to start. This website is designed to complement their film on Twain which originally appeared on PBS. First-time visitors should start by clicking on the "Interactive Scrapbook" area. Here visitors can take a look through texts, photos, illustrations, and...

Mark Twain knew plenty about crafting a great narrative, but things like metadata encoding and primary user functionality were a bit before his time. Fortunately, all of these important tools of modern digital archive work and information science are put to their best use within this very comprehensive site. Dedicated to providing access to more than four decades' worth of archival research by...

Born in 1872 in Ohio, Paul Laurence Dunbar is generally recognized to be the first African-American poet to achieve world-wide recognition for the elegancy and honesty of his published work. This site, provided by the Wright State University Libraries, provides access to some of Dunbar’s lovely poetry, along with a selection of photographs of the poet himself. Visitors may want to start by reading...

During his life, Walt Whitman carried around a number of notebooks in which he jotted down his thoughts and feelings. It is estimated that during his life, Whitman created around 100 of these notebooks, and many of them are now in public repositories. This particular collection from the American Memory Project at the Library of Congress affords visitors access to four of these celebrated...

With offices in New York and Los Angeles, Poets & Writers, Inc. covers the world of creative writers across the United States. Created in 1970, it remains the largest nonprofit literary organization serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. Visitors to the site can read selected pieces from their magazine, and they can also learn about various funding opportunities for...

The Center for the Book, in the Library of Congress, was established in the late 1970s to promote reading, literacy and libraries. Their website offers a great many "Resources" on the menu on the left side of any page, including "Author Webcasts", "Booklists", and "Local/Community Resources". The "Author Webcasts" include videos of such authors as Tom Gjelten, Stephenie Meyer, Chinua Achebe, and...

Sometimes a spiritualist, and always a writer and a true Englishman, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's tales of detection and fantasy have delighted readers for well over a century. Lovers of his work will enjoy this site, and they can feel free to browse through a number of the Sherlock Holmes tales here along with the complete full novels. Visitors who are unfamiliar with the tales of Holmes may wish to...

Founded in 1919, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) was meant to assist in collaborative research and publications in the fields of philology, archaeology, history, and the “moral, political, and social sciences.” Scholars in these fields will be happy to know that their website provides ample material on ACLS’s fellowship and grant programs, along with a selection of links related...

University-sponsored presses are almost as old as the very enterprise of higher education itself, as their origins can be traced back to the publication of a commentary on the Apostle's Creed at Oxford in 1478. The Association of American University Presses (AAUP) was formed in 1946, and its website offers information that is both specific to the enterprise of scholarly publications and to the...

A book worker is one engaged in the hand book arts, which includes "bookbinding, conservation, printing, papermaking, calligraphy, marbling and artist's books." The Guild of Book Workers is a century-plus-old American organization that sponsors workshops, lectures, and exhibitions. Their website is a great resource for book workers, or for those interested in viewing and learning about the hand...