The Open Road Blog

We won’t be the first to say it, but it has been a tough week for admirers of children’s literature. Last week we were saddened by the passing of Maurice Sendak, and today we mourn Open Road author Jean Craighead George, who died yesterday at age ninety-two.

Jean grew up in a family of naturalists, and raised her own children to care about the environment as much as she did. She spent a lifetime camping, hiking, and immersing herself in the outdoors. She loved children, loved wildlife—and loved telling stories about animals to children. In over 100 children’s books, such as ...

For today's National Short Story Month feature, Open Road celebrates Edna O'Brien, an award-winning Irish author of novels, plays, and short stories. She has been hailed as one of the greatest chroniclers of the female experience in the twentieth century, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review has described her as "a storyteller, an Irish storyteller, one of an ancient traditions of storytellers, people who tell the truth."

O'Brien is the 2011 recipient of the Frank O’Connor Prize, awarded for her short story collection Saints and Sinners. She has also received, among other honors, the Irish PEN ...

We're spotlighting archival photos a day early this week in honor of Mother's Day!

Check out two new slideshows featuring gorgeous archival snapshots of authors with their mothers—and, in the case of authors who are mothers, authors with their children! Have a look:

Mother's Day is tomorrow!

In celebration of this special day, we invite you to read "A Visit with My Grandmother" from memoirist Joyce Maynard's essay collection, Domestic Affairs.

Witty and insightful, Domestic Affairs is an extension of Joyce Maynard’s celebrated, widely syndicated newspaper column of the same name that ran from 1984 to 1990. Each essay gives an unfiltered look at the ups and downs of family life and a remarkable window into the challenges of modern motherhood. Topics range from babysitter woes to family visits to coping with a child’s burgeoning independence. These collected writings represent nine years’ ...

Jewish American Heritage Month celebrates "generations of Jewish Americans who have helped form the fabric of American history, culture and society." It’s supported by the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration (from which the image at left came), the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Gallery of Art, the National Park Service, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Open Road is proud to participate in the tribute by offering new videos, essays, and excerpts on Fridays throughout the month of May. Join us on Twitter by using the hashtag #JAHM.

As our first contribution, ...

Bel Kaufman—the acclaimed, bestselling author of Up the Down Staircase—turns 101 today. Happy birthday, Bel—we can't wait to publish your ebooks!

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, we are featuring Pat Conroy's 1964 semester report card from the Citadel. His only A was in comparative literature—a grade that foreshadowed his considerable skill as an author.

Pat Conroy is one of America’s most acclaimed and widely read authors and the New York Times bestselling writer of ten novels and memoirs, including The Water Is Wide, The Lords of Discipline, The Great Santini, The Prince of Tides, and South of Broad.

Conroy was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Growing up as the first of seven children in ...

Happy National Teacher Day! In honor, Open Road Media is proud to feature several moving videos, which explore the tremendous dedication and influence of teachers. Enjoy, and share with those special teachers who have impacted you.

Watch Michael Chabon, Mary Glickman, and Pat Conroy speak fondly about particular teachers who supported them. "As a student, I had a lot of encouragement at crucial moments from teachers," says Chabon. Remembering her Catholic education, Glickman talks about a nun who would take her to museums in Boston and Conroy, who attended a military college, reminisces about a teacher, named ...

Above: Lois Lenski in this picture with her son, Stephen, and  her husband, Arthur, in 1946, just after she had won the Newbery Award for Strawberry Girl. With them is their pet goat, Missy.

Lois Lenski graduated from high school in 1911 and moved with her family to Columbus, where her father joined the faculty at Capital University. Because Capital did not yet allow women to enroll, she attended college at Ohio State University. Lenski took courses in education, planning to become a teacher like her mother, but also studied art, and was especially interested in drawing. In 1915, with ...

May is National Short Story Month! In support, Open Road plans to share two short stories each week for the entire month.  We are launching this effort with "Training a Heavyweight," a story from F.X. Toole's Million Dollar Baby: Stories from the Corner, released in ebook form today.

“The stories are written sparely and derive much of their power from their authenticity,” says the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Indeed, "Training a Heavyweight" bears a strong sense of authenticity, as it is written from the intimate perspective of a trainer—discover what it takes to work with ...

For the last day of National Poetry Month, we are delighted to feature this photo of Josephine Hart at her Poetry Hour at the British Library celebrating Robert Browning in 2009 (from left: Charles Dance, Rupert Evans, Josephine Hart, and Jeremy Irons).

"The story of the individual soul on its journey is the only one worth telling. That’s why I write. I have little or no interest—nor, I believe, any ability whatsoever—to describe the surface experiences of life." – Josephine Hart

Hart is the international bestselling author of six novels and two poetry anthologies. Her novels, which include Damage (1991), ...

When Simon from Stuck in a Book suggested a week dedicated to reading Muriel Spark, the book blogging community responded with gusto! Harriet Devine quickly offered to co-host, and Thomas from My Porch designed the above badge to represent the occasion. Many a literary-minded blogger has spread the word and agreed to participate. Since Open Road recently published eight Spark titles as ebooks, we were delighted to discover this event and get onboard with fellow Spark enthusiasts.

We invite you to celebrate with us by:

• Following news on Muriel Spark Reading Week through Facebook and Twitter.
• Checking ...

The girl pictured here is a young Rachel Carson (1907–1964) with her pet dog. She would grow up to become one of the most influential American nature writers of the twentieth century. Born in the rural town of Springdale, Pennsylvania, near the Allegheny River, Carson spent much of her childhood roaming her family’s sixty-five-acre farm and exploring the woods around her home. She described herself as a “solitary girl” who was always happiest with “wild birds and creatures as companions.”

Grounded in the scientific discoveries of the day, Carson’s works were notable for their intimate lyric prose that appealed to ...

Today Open Road Media celebrates the birthday of Gertrude Chandler Warner, author of the beloved children’s book series The Boxcar Children.

Born in Putnam, Connecticut, in 1890, Warner dreamed of becoming an author. But in 1918, as male teachers were being called to serve in World War I, Warner was recruited to teach first grade. While teaching, she developed the idea for the Boxcar Children. The stories were perfect for children, although critics thought her books encouraged children to rebel. 

The series, which was originally published in 1924, is now available from Open Road in ebook format for a ...

Muriel Spark is on our minds here at Open Road: the sixth anniversary of her passing occurred on April 13^th; we recently released eight of her titles in ebook form; and we're gearing up for Muriel Spark Reading Week (April 23-29), hosted by a couple of literary-minded bloggers.

Spark was born and raised in Edinburgh and from an early age attended James Gillespie’s High School. There her education was closely guided by an idiosyncratic teacher named Christina Kay, the inspiration for the title character in her best-known novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. After school, Spark ...