Today in Bookish and Literary History, September 26

1738 Scottish philosopher David Hume enters into a contract to publish the first two volumes of his seminal work "A Treatise of Human Nature" with John Noon in London

1926 JB Fagan's stage drama "And So to Bed", based on the life of Samuel Pepys, premieres in London

1946 1st edition of The Adventures of Tintin published by Hergé in Le journal de Tintin, continues until June 1993

2023 Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig

A small town is transformed when seven strange trees begin bearing magical apples

• Finalist for the Locus Award

2023 Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener

Alone in a museum in Paris, Gabriela Wiener confronts her complicated family heritage. She is visiting an exhibition of pre-Columbian artifacts, spoils of European colonialism, many stolen from her homeland of Peru. As she peers at countless sculptures of Indigenous faces, each resembling her own, she sees herself in them—but the man responsible for pillaging them was her own great-great-grandfather, Austrian colonial explorer Charles Wiener.

• Longlisted for the International Booker Prize

2023 The Adversary by Michael Crummey

In an isolated outport on Newfoundland's northern coastline, Abe Strapp is about to marry the daughter of a rival merchant to cement his hold on the shore when the Widow Caines arrives to throw the wedding and Abe's plans into chaos.

• Winner of the Dublin Literary Award

2025 Red Flags by J.E. Rowney (UK)

Clara is tired of bad dates, office gossip, and watching her ex move on without her. When she joins the new dating app Swiper, she finally matches with Elias—charming, attentive, and everything she’s been searching for. He seems to understand her in a way no one else ever has.