Book briefs: Intrigue on the Pulitzer Prize committee

Welcome to your weekly roundup of book news and literary highlights from The Thread.

This week, book lovers in Colorado hope to turn a ghost town into a live-in library and controversy creeps into the Pulitzer Prize for fiction once again.

The Pulitzer Prize mystery: Which was the fourth book?

Intrigue at the Pulitzers! Fiction fans will remember the 2012 upset, in which the jury decided not to award the prize.

This year, instead of a repeat performance of that literary uproar, the jury tried a different tactic. When their discussions stalled, they requested a belated, fourth book to consider. Normally, only three finalists are considered.

In the end, the Pulitzer went to Anthony Doerr's "All The Light We Cannot See." The other three books in contention were "Let Me Be Frank With You," by Richard Ford; "The Moor's Account," by Laila Lalami; and "Lovely, Dark, Deep," by Joyce Carol Oates.

Pulitzer officials have declined to say which of these was the late addition, and jury members have been mum as well.

A new view of "A Wrinkle in Time"

What will they dig up next? After the surprise of Harper Lee's new book and the discovery of a long-lost Dr. Seuss manuscript, it seems we're in the middle of a gold rush for literary artifacts. The latest discovery: An unknown three-page passage from an early draft of Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time."

L'Engle's granddaughter, Charlotte Jones Voiklis, found the passage buried in a typewritten draft while researching material for the book's 50th anniversary edition.

The politics of "A Wrinkle in Time" are no secret; scholars and readers alike have called the fantasy novel a Cold War allegory since its publication. The dark planet Camazotz, where conformity reigns, stands in for the Soviet Union. But the newly discovered passage hints at a more nuanced world view. The section comes right after Meg Murry rescues her father from Camamotz. In it, he warns her that evil comes not just from totalitarianism, but from democracies that place too much value on security.

The Wall Street Journal published the excerpt: "This sick longing for security is a dangerous thing, Meg," her father says. "As insidious as the strontium 90 from our nuclear explosions..."

This frank political discussion was ultimately cut from the book, as were direct references to Hitler and Kruschev — references that would have dated the story, the publisher felt. There are no plans to include them in a new edition, either, but Voiklis released them, The Wall Street Journal wrote, because "she wanted readers to know the book wasn't a simple allegory of communism."

"The Little Prince" hits the big screen

The little book that could is out to charm you all over again. The French classic "The Little Prince" has been adapted into an animated movie by Mark Osborne (the man behind "Kung Fu Panda").

The French trailer was released first, but now you can enjoy it without flipping through votre dictionnaire. They've recruited an A-list cast of actors — Jeff Bridges, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams, James Franco and Benicio del Toro — to provide the English-language voices.

From this brief peek at the film, it seems they've found a way to marry modern animation with the beloved original illustrations. No word yet on the U.S. release date, but it will premiere at Cannes in July.

A live-in library takes over a ghost town

Imagine a library you can live in. That's the dream of Jeff Lee and Ann Martin, who have been collecting books and planning the Rocky Mountain Land Library for more than 20 years.

The two book lovers met, and continue to work, at the Tattered Cover bookshop in Denver. On a trip to the London Book Fair in 1991, the couple stayed at a castle-like residential library (Anyone else in love with the phrase "residential library"?) that captured their imagination.

The Welsh location, bursting with more than 250,000 volumes, quickly became the model for the pair's own project. In 2013, they leased an abandoned ranch in the ghost town of Garo, Colo., two hours outside Denver. So far, they've amassed more than $250,000 and 32,000 books in the name of the Rocky Mountain Land Library. Their collection focuses on the American West, covering history, land and literature.

There's still plenty of work to be done on the ranch, but Lee and Martin hope to shape it into a destination research library with dormitories and a dining hall. Their dreams are big, The New York Times wrote: "The couple envisions a visitors' center in the main house, a library in the hayloft, watercolorists on the porch, Boy Scouts by the bristlecone pines, culinary students in the kitchen and policy makers in the yard, hashing out deals over water rights."

The world's most influential authors

TIME Magazine's annual list of the "100 Most Influential People" features two authors this year. That isn't to say that none of the other honorees have written books — quite a lot of them have — but these writers made the cut specifically for being writers.

So which authors are influencing the world and shaping the future? TIME gave the honor to Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami and Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Yoko Ono penned TIME's tribute to Murakami, writing: "In recent years, as the government in Japan has become more conservative, Murakami-san has become a valuable voice for peace."

Meanwhile, TIME editor Radhika Jones praised Adichie for her novels and for her cultural criticism, showcased in her viral TED talk: "We Should All Be Feminists."