The Story of America

Examining everything from the paper ballot to Benjamin Franklin's Way to Wealth, Jill Lepore's new collection of essays explores how Americans have created themselves through the medium of print. The result is a history of American origins -- through the stories we tell ourselves and others about where we come from.

May 21: The musical smash hit Gypsy opened on Broadway on this day in 1959. The bestseller upon which the show is based, Gypsy Rose Lee's memoir Gypsy, told her life as a rags-to-naked success story, and added to…

Ethan Rutherford and Matt Burgess (Dogfight: A Love Story) on the writing of Rutherford's surreal and fiercely funny story collection The Peripatetic Coffin

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