Abdel Kader Haidara is a Malian librarian whose story is recounted in Joshua Hammer’s essay, “The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu (And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts).” In 2012, along with his colleagues, he organized the rescue of more than 350,000 ancient manuscripts of Islamic culture from the destructive violence of fundamentalist […]

“The immortals” is what members of the French Academy, founded by Cardinal de Richelieu, are called. The French Academy is cultivating a new friendship today – with Vladimir Putin. The Academy’s permanent secretary Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, born in Georgia and author of numerous books on Russian history, has repeatedly received Putin in the Academy’s substantial […]

The Publishing House Puffin (an imprint of Penguin) is at it again. A language of the past that seems less inclusive or (God forbid!) exclusive is now censored to suit the sensitive children in contemporary society. Roald Dahl’s estate and mentioned book publisher have allowed an organization called Inclusive Minds – “a collective for people […]