Today in Bookish and Literary History, November 12

1659 Crusoe begins his journal, making entries retrospectively from the date of his shipwreck.


1880 "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" by Lew Wallace

Ben-Hur is one of the best selling books of all times. This poignant novel intertwines the life stories of a Jewish charioteer named Judah Ben-Hur and Jesus Christ.


1890 The first edition of "Poems by Emily Dickinson"


2018 Becoming by Michelle Obama

An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States


2020 An Island by Karen Jennings (South Africa)

A "powerful" (The Guardian) novel about a lighthouse keeper with a mysterious past, and the stranger who washes up on his shores--the American debut of a major voice in world literature.

  • Longlisted for the Booker Prize


2024 Lazarus Man by Richard Price

In this electrifying novel, Richard Price, the author of Clockers and a writer on The Wire, gives us razor-sharp anatomy of an ever-changing Harlem.


2025 Trust Nothing by Dave Zeltserman

A woman shoots a man to death on a crowded street in Boston, claiming that he raped and murdered her eleven-year-old daughter. Except he didn't—because this woman never had a daughter.

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