Dear Friends and Members,

No matter where your journeys take you this summer, there’s no better traveling companion than a compelling book. With a wealth of programs on writing and writers, this month’s guide offers pages and pages of inspiration for your vacation (or staycation) choices.

Spend three fascinating Saturdays with a Bard College literature professor as he delves into the lives and works of Jane Austen (p. 19) and Virginia Woolf (p. 21) and examines two of Russian literature’s most enduring novels (p. 24). Gain new insights into how the distinctive and controversial personalities of Ayn Rand (p. 22) and William Faulkner (p. 23) shaped their novels and legacies.

Discover how the alchemy of art and literature produces powerful creative collaborations among poets, painters, and photographers (p. 37), then circle back to your high school required reading list with fresh perspectives on Moby-Dick (p. 20), The Scarlet Letter, and The Catcher in the Rye (p. 24)

Authors abound in our offerings, discussing new books on topics ranging from the 1814 burning of Washington (p. 12) to discoveries of exoplanets (p. 28), and from how war affects advances in medicine (p. 11) to recent discoveries about owls (p. 28). Make space in your beach tote for some perfect summer themes like North Carolina barbeque (p. 17) and the mysteries of the ocean depths (p. 29).

If you’d rather write than read, bookmark a pair of workshops sparked by summer-themed art and poetry (p. 33). We’re also opening the doors of one of the Smithsonian’s most fascinating collections, the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History, providing an inside look at this rare-book research library (p. 60).

Whatever your warm-weather plans, the entire Smithsonian Associates team is glad to make your summer stories memorable ones!

June 2023

On the cover: Dorothy Liebes Studio, New York City, ca. 1957; Dorothy Liebes Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

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