Fussy’s favorites: Week of October 31, 2021

It’s easy to miss the occasional post or two online, so we’ve rounded up some of the highlights from our reader blog this week. 

Artifacts 

• Franz Kafka's sketches reveal a much sunnier creative side 

• It's officially roof repair time for the Jane Austen’s House Museum 

• Rent the London house where Herman Melville briefly lived 

Anniversaries 

• For his birthday, give author Stephen Crane a little more credit 

• The time Walt Whitman declined his pen pal's marriage proposal

Dramatic reveals 

• Department of Justice files suit to block Big Five publishing deal 

• Actor Paul Newman's memoir will come out next fall

Awards, both dubious and prestigious 

• "Vax" is the 2021 Oxford Word of the Year 

• Damon Galgut wins the 2021 Booker Prize for The Promise 

• The Prix Goncourt finally has a winner from sub-Saharan Africa