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How Gutenberg's printing press revolutionized literacy

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Mesopotamian Religion. Cuneiform tablet in the British Museum, London, England, 7th Century BC, describing the Flood Epic, a deluge story in the Epic of Gilgamesh added as Tablet XI to the ten original tablets of the Gilgamesh Epic by an editor who copied or altered parts of the flood story from the Epic of Atrahasis. (flood tablet, Neo Assyrian, clay tablet)

What Was the First Book Ever Written?

Close up of papyrus in a museum.

Before the E-Reader: 7 Ways Our Ancestors Took Their Reading on the Go

poem. A poet in a Heian period kimono writes Japanese poetry during the Kamo Kyokusui No En Ancient Festival at Jonan-gu shrine on April 29, 2013 in Kyoto, Japan. Festival of Kyokusui-no Utage orignated in 1,182, party Heian era (794-1192).

World Poetry Day

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Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. Engraving by Cosomo Colombini (d. 1812) after a Leonardo self portrait. Ca. 1500.

10 Famous Artworks by Leonardo da Vinci

Thumbnail for flags that look alike quiz Russia, Slovenia, Iceland, Norway

Flags That Look Alike

Artist interpretation of a Space meteoroid impact. Meteor impact. Asteroid, End of the world, danger, destruction, dinosaur extinct, Judgement Day, Planet Earth, Doomsday Predictions, comet

10 Failed Doomsday Predictions

Close up of books. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society

12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written”

New York NY/ USA- November 23, 2018 Hordes of shoppers throng the Macy's Herald Square flagship store in New York looking for bargains on the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday.

Why Is It Called Black Friday?

Santa Claus flying in his sleigh, christmas, reindeer

Was Santa Claus a Real Person?

Baseball laying in the grass. Homepage blog 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society, sports and games athletics

10 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time

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Key People

William Morris

British artist and author

Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch

Australian-born American publisher

Marc Brown

Marc Brown

American author and illustrator

A pioneering librarian

Belle da Costa Greene

American librarian and bibliographer

Larry McMurtry

American author

William Caxton

William Caxton

English printer, translator, and publisher

Aldus Manutius

Italian printer

Robert Maxwell, 1991.

Robert Maxwell

British publisher

Walter Hines Page, detail of a portrait by P.A. de Laszlo; in the collection of the Department of Archives and History, North Carolina

Walter Hines Page

American author and diplomat

Alden, Cynthia May Westover

Cynthia May Westover Alden

American social worker and journalist

Times New Roman

Stanley Morison

English typographer

Henri II Estienne

French scholar and printer

Walker, Emery: Brooks's in the Olden Time

Sir Emery Walker

English printer

Sir Victor Gollancz

British author and publisher

Robert Foulis

Scottish printer

Alfred A. Knopf

Alfred A. Knopf

American publisher

Virginia Kirkus

American critic, editor and author

Title page to the Biblia, showing olive-tree motif adopted as Estienne family emblem, 1532

Robert I Estienne

French scholar and printer

Wilfrid Sheed

Wilfrid Sheed

American author

John Lehmann

British poet