Explore William Faulkner's fictional Mississippi county

Sartre admired American novelist William Faulkner

In addition to writing philosophy and fiction, Jean-Paul Sartre was also a literary critic. His 1939 essay on Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" focused on the way the American novelist commented on time, favorably comparing him to Marcel Proust. Ultimately, Sartre argues Faulkner's "despair" about a "closed future" is a result of the "social conditions of our present life." Ever the existentialist, though, Sartre suggests this reality is something that should inspire rather than depress.

Searching for 'The Great Gatsby' in Kentucky

F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel "The Great Gatsby" is usually associated with New York and its extremely wealthy enclaves, but this Atlas Obscura podcast tracks down another location Fitzgerald portrayed in the book: Louisville, Kentucky, the setting for Daisy and Tom Buchanan's wedding, as well as the place where Fitzgerald spent two miserable months during World War I.

King sets many of his stories in Maine

In the process, he has created a few fictional towns. This extensive travelogue by a superfan explores the writer's favorite haunts, pinpointing specific details from and inspirations for King's fiction. Helpfully, it also provides plenty of photos, allowing you to venture through King's haunted version of the state without ever leaving the comfort of your home.

Twain grew up in Missouri near the Mississippi River

When Twain (then known as Samuel Clemens) was 4 years old, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, a port town along the Mississippi River. Hannibal would eventually be the setting for two of his most famous works: “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.”

Uncovering corruption in rural Mississippi

In 1997, Curtis Flowers was convicted of murdering four furniture store employees. The Black Mississippi native was tried in the 1996 crime six times over 21 years, during which he maintained his innocence and continued to appeal his case. This is the first episode in a 2018 investigative podcast series that heavily contributed to Flowers' conviction being overturned and all charges dropped.

Why Percival Everett decided to reimagine 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'

Percival Everett's novel "James"—a retelling of Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Jim, an escaped slave—was one of the most acclaimed books of 2024. In this interview, Everett explains why he decided to rework the classic American novel and why he felt it was necessary to infuse his own with a different voice.

Napa Valley, explained

Some of the most valuable agricultural land in the US is in California's Napa Valley. Located about an hour's drive north of San Francisco, Napa has more than 400 wineries employing upward of 44,000 people and drawing in nearly 4 million annual visitors. The price per acre in the valley can exceed $500K because some of the best wines in the world are grown and produced in the roughly 30-mile-long area.

Null Island: the most real fictional island you can almost visit

This article explores Null Island, which can be found on most maps at exactly 0° latitude and 0° longitude. If someone were to paddle out to those coordinates, they'd find themselves in front of a buoy named Soul off the west coast of Africa. User...

See the plot of land where Thoreau built his Walden cabin

Harvard's Lawrence Buell takes viewers down to Walden Pond to show them the spot in the woods where Thoreau constructed his modest cabin. Along the way, he reads from "Walden" and explains why Thoreau's text still matters 170 years after its publication.

Steinbeck's novel 'The Grapes of Wrath' was inspired by a series of newspaper reports he wrote about migrant farm workers.

Some believe L. Frank Baum wrote 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' on vacation

The writer vacationed in Macatawa, Michigan, in 1899. His great-grandson claims most of the book was written while staying there on the shores of Lake Michigan. The nearby town of Holland commemorated the book with the Oz Sculpture Garden.

A Native American city in present-day Illinois once rivaled the size of medieval London

Around 1100, the city of Cahokia, the largest Mississippian settlement, reached a population of 15,000 to 20,000. Located across the Mississippi River from present-day St. Louis, it featured massive earthen pyramids and a central plaza the size of 35 football fields.

A beginner's guide to Toni Morrison

The legendary American writer died in 2019, but her fiction is still as relevant as ever. This primer walks aspiring Morrison fans through her body of work, outlining the ideal starting point for several different kinds of readers. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

After being diagnosed with lupus, O'Connor moved to her family's Georgia farm

In 1950, O'Connor began feeling ill and returned to Georgia, where she was diagnosed with lupus, the same disease that killed her father when O'Connor was just 15. After the diagnosis, O'Connor and her mother moved to Andalusia, the family farm north of Milledgeville, Georgia.

At just over $1K, Mississippi has the lowest average weekly wage in the country

The mean weekly wage in the US is $1,459—more than a $1K difference from Washington, DC, where the average weekly wage is nearly $2.4K. Also among the highest earning states are Washington, Massachusetts, and California. Likewise, Mississippi, West Virginia, and Arkansas have the lowest weekly averages.

The fall foliage map

Fall's beautiful color changes don't happen all at once, which makes planning that peak fall foliage weekend a bit tricky. Get some confidence with this map which allows you to choose a week from now until November and see which parts of the country...

Explore the Valley of the Kings

The ruins of ancient Egypt are so widely dispersed throughout the Nile River Valley it can be hard to keep track of everything. The Theban mapping project from the American Research Center in Egypt provides beautiful interactive explorations of dozens of sites along the Valley of the Kings, which served as the necropolis for New Kingdom royalty.

Why one city in Minnesota isn't on Google Maps

North Oaks, Minnesota, is a city of a little over 5,000 people that spans just nine square miles. It's also the wealthiest place in the state, which is part of the reason it's been able to stay undocumented by Google. In this short documentary, one man attempts to film it himself.

Missouri's nickname refers to its residents' skepticism

While the exact origins of the nickname are unclear, many attribute it to Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1897 to 1903. In a 1899 speech, he said, "I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me."

Louisiana has parishes instead of counties

Louisiana is the only US state that uses parishes rather than counties as its primary local government unit. The distinction traces back to the state's French and Spanish Catholic colonial heritage.

Stretching from Texas to the Dakotas, Tornado Alley is a US tornado hotspot

The region experiences atmospheric instability and extensive wind shear due to the convergence of warm, moist air from the Gulf with cooler, drier air from the Rockies. However, some recent data suggests tornadoes are more frequent and more powerful in the Dixie Valley, which includes much of the lower Mississippi Valley.

The story of the real-life 'Lord of the Flies'

William Golding's 1954 novel "Lord of the Flies" is about a group of schoolboys who crash land on a remote island and are forced to fend for themselves. It's a situation that ends in chaos and, at least according to generations of English teachers, reveals the cruelty lurking in all of us. But a real-life story eerily similar to Golding's novel suggests something very different.

Frank Lloyd Wright designed hundreds of buildings

Frank Lloyd Wright was a prolific architect and built hundreds of structures across America, and even a few in Japan and Canada. From humbler homes in Illinois to sprawling mansions in California, Wright experimented with different styles throughout his career and varied in each of his designs.

The 100 best Pulitzer-winning books

No ranking is definitive, but this site compiled expert analysis with book sales and other factors to rank the best books to win the Pulitzer. The list is topped by Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” and includes fiction and nonfiction winners, providing a starred fan ranking and endorsements from experts and famous people.

Why Nevada is home to a real-life 'Simpsons' house

The home, a strikingly accurate recreation of the cartoon family's home on Evergreen Terrace, was built for a 1997 promotional contest. Back then, it was painted to look exactly like it did on TV, but the contest winner declined to move in, choosing a $75,000 cash prize instead.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Poison ivy was sent to Europe in the 1600s as an exotic, ornamental oddity, where it was purposefully grown in the English royal gardens at Kew, the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and a few other locations.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

Ebola is a filovirus, meaning it resembles a thread under a microscope, though it sometimes twists and can resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

The concept of phantom limbs, the perception that amputated limbs are still present, dates back to a French military surgeon in the 16th century.

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.