Melville House Books

A few months ago… no, weeks? Last week?! Are you kidding me, last week, a meme went around reminding everyone that Shakespeare (probably, maybe) wrote King Lear while in the 16th-century equivalent of lockdown, from… Read more »

Lately we’ve written much about how a global pandemic is affecting the book industry, and how we can help our struggling bookstores and libraries. OK, I guess that’s all we’ve written… Read more »

Shelf Awareness and Publisher’s Weekly are reporting that BookExpo, Unbound and BookCon have moved their May 27-31 convention to July 22-26. This is a bullish and heartening response from the… Read more »

For the next week our top ten bestselling fiction ebooks are just $1.99. (Ebooks only, folks.) From classics like Every Man Dies Alone to newer favorites like Juliet the Maniac, there’s something for… Read more »

Dear Friends and Colleagues, In this astounding time we find ourselves in, we wanted to update you on the status of our company, on our goals and strategies, and share… Read more »

As the novel coronavirus continues to spread, its rapidly escalating toll on civil life has begun to extend to the book business. On the retail end, the news spread rapidly… Read more »

The necessity of social distancing became real for many Americans this weekend as more people started working from home and schools, libraries, and businesses announced closures in response to COVID-19… Read more »

Contemporary artist Edmund de Waal, known mostly for his installations of row upon row of porcelain vessels, has a new installation on view at the British Museum. This time around,… Read more »

Earlier this week, Misfits—the famous punk band famously litigious about their famous monsters (and about one another)—has sued book publisher Abrams for what they claim are unlicensed reproductions of the… Read more »

The ongoing war between Macmillan honcho John Sargent and librarians over e-book pricing continues to simmer, with the publisher’s latest plan hinting at a compromise, while librarians remain skeptical. To… Read more »

Happy Women’s Month! Get inspired by these incredible books by women, about women. —– A Woman Like Her: The Story Behind the Honor Killing of a Social Media Star by Sanam… Read more »

Hello, everyone. We come to you this bright Monday morning to sit you down and remind you of your advancing age and terminally increasing lethargy. Grab a coffee—let’s break it… Read more »

On Wednesday it was announced—after much speculation, and a raft of major publisher withdrawals—that the London Book Fair, scheduled for March 10th-12th, would not be going ahead. In an announcement… Read more »

So begins a petition addressed to the editors of the august Oxford Dictionary of English. (Side note: a little-known law stipulates that the adjective “august” must precede every written reference… Read more »

Mary Beard, the famed classicist, Cambridge don, and author of reader favorites like SPQR and Women & Power was rejected by the UK government as an appointee to the board… Read more »

In a recent piece in the Guardian, Patrick Barkham writes up what he calls the “Greta Thunberg effect”—the creation of a new canon of children’s books about climate change, which… Read more »

Big news for us, we’re now on GoodReads and making up for lost time with three giveaways running right now. The Gringa by Andrew Altschul Available 3/10/2020 Enter the giveaway… Read more »

Last year we wrote about booksellers petitioning Waterstones, the UK’s biggest book chain, to pay them a living wage. It has just be announced that as of April 1, 2020, Waterstones… Read more »

When it comes to the death of Edgar Allan Poe, we know that he was found, in his 40th year, more or less raving mad on the streets of Baltimore wearing… Read more »