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August 2009 is the 400^th Anniversary of Henry Hudson's famous voyage into the New York Bay on his ship the Half Moon. He recognized at once the beauty and potential the city held and now the Hudson River and Hudson Valley both carry this great explorer's name as tribute.

To honor the history of New York City, this week's Cup of Poetry is a poem called "Mannahatta" by Walt Whitman from the Penguin Classics collection The Portable Walt Whitman.

Penguin has honored the high bar set by the early settlers who brought freedom, ingenuity, and talent to this nation by bringing these great perennial bestsellers to readers all over the world:

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The phenomenon of the "overnight star" may be exaggerated, yet every year when we revise my Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide we find ourselves updating our cast lists of films made two, five, or ten years ago to add names that didn't mean anything then-but do today.

Did you know Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame was in Vanity Fair in 2004? Or that Michael Shannon, who made such an impression in Revolutionary Road that he earned an Oscar nomination, has been in films since Groundhog Day in 1993?

In the new 2010 edition of my book we've added credits for three other recent Oscar nominees, Richard Jenkins (from The Visitor), Viola Davis (from Doubt), and Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) as well as Sally Hawkins, Michael Sheen, and James Franco.

Last year we tracked down early credits for Amy Adams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, and James McAvoy. (Did you know Casey Affleck appears unbilled in American Pie, way back in 1999?)