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European explorers spent centuries searching for a passage through the ice at the top of the world. The Northwest Passage, a shortcut to Asia Europe, proved elusive until about 100 years ago. These days, thanks to global warming and a receding ice cover, the voyage is far easier to complete.

Lorenzo Da Ponte wrote the librettos for Don Giovanni and other Mozart operas. The Venice-born writer helped bring the Mozart's works to life, seeming to know exactly what the composer wanted to say, the author of a new Da Ponte biography says.

Adriana Martinez of Santa Clarita, Calif., remembers her uncle Carlos Herrera, 65, who died of COVID-19 last year. He listened to Israel Kamakawiwoʻole's version of the song when he felt down.

From Player Piano to Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut has entranced readers with his incisive and often sardonic view of world events. He talks about A Man Without a Country, a new book of essays and speeches.

Han Ong, a playwright and MacArthur "genius grant" winner, has written a novel called The Disinherited. The book is set in his homeland, the Philippines, but written at a distance. Ong describes his work in a conversation with NPR's Liane Hansen.

Three days after the Rev.. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968, performer Nina Simone and her band played at the Westbury Music Festival on Long Island, N.Y. They performed "Why? (The King of Love is Dead)," a song they had just learned, written by their bass player Gene Taylor in reaction to King's death.

In the late 18th century, revolutionary fervor gripped the world. Americans had just finalized their constitution, a history-making event that inspired other countries. In his new book, author Jay Winik explores the connections between world events in this pivotal era.

With characters like Maniacal Marvin and Henrietta the hare, writer and actor Steve Martin joins with New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast in a new book that turns the alphabet upside down and sideways.

As an English teacher at West Point, Elizabeth Samet teaches America's future warriors about Shakespeare, Emerson and Homer. In her new book, Soldier's Heart: Teaching Literature through Peace and War at West Point, Samet shares her decade of experience at the military academy.

As history marches on, space for memorials on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is shrinking. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, which officially begins construction Nov. 13, may perhaps be the last monument to be built on the parcel.