The New York Public Library's iconic Rose Main Reading Room at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building reopened today after a two-year closure for repairs and restorations. Since its opening in 1911, the Reading Room has served as a valuable resource for researchers, scholars, and writers. In honor of this morning's Reading Room reopening, we look at some of the books whose authors have acknowledged writing or researching at the Schwarzman Building over the years.

The Power Broker by Robert Caro
Robert Caro's exhaustive and fascinating book about the life of Robert Moses, the city planner who shaped New York throughout the mid-20th century, is a landmark work of nonfiction and considered one of the best biographies of all time. Caro researched and wrote much of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book in The New York Public Library in the 1960s and 70s.

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
Betty Friedan spent two years at the Library writing this groundbreaking book about American gender inequality, which scholars credit with sparking second-wave feminism in 1963. Writes Friedan in her introduction to this revolutionary work: "I wouldn't have even started it if The New York Public Library had not, at just the right time, opened the Frederick Lewis Allen Room."

Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow
The emblematic New York novelist E.L. Doctorow conducted research at the Library for his best-known work, Ragtime, the story of three New York families from the turn of the 20th century to World War I. A far-reaching work of historical fiction, the novel interweaves the stories of actual figures of the 1900s, including Evelyn Nesbit, J.P. Morgan, and Harry Houdini.

Many others have also credited the Library as the location at which they wrote. Critic Alfred Kazin, a Library devotee, wrote his breakout book On Native Grounds at the Library in between table tennis matches with historian Richard Hofstadter. Nancy Milford wrote Zelda, her biography of Zelda Fitzgerald here; Pulitzer Prize-winner Theodore H. White wrote The Making of The President, 1964; and long distance swimmer Diana Nyad wrote her memoir, Other Shores, over the course of six months in the Library.

In more recent years, the Library has hosted contemporary literary luminaries at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. Many of the Cullman Fellows have published highly acclaimed works of literature, including Jennifer Egan's novel The Keep, Stacy Schiff's history A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, and Richard McGuire's experimental graphic novel Here. Since its beginning in 1999, the fellowship has supported the creation of dozens of incredible works whose authors drew on the Library's research collections. Other novels created at the Library include Colum McCann's Zoli, Colson Whitehead's Sag Harbor, and Colm Tóibín's Lady Gregory's Toothbrush. Many more works published in the past two years that were written at the Library are now featured in a display case in the Bill Blass Public Catalog Room.

The Library has also been cited as a resource by many other writers: Tom Wolfe, Nora Ephron, Isaac Singer, Elizabeth Bishop, E.B. White, and Jerzy Kosiński among them. Norman Mailer and John Updike have been spotted using the collections in the Rose Main Reading Room. With the reopening of this storied space, the Library continues its legacy of helping authors and scholars learn, create, and spread knowledge around the world. Walking into the Rose Main Reading Room, you might just get inspired to do some writing yourself. Join us at the Library's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building to visit this incredible room.

Thanks to the Library's Carolyn Broomhead for help with this post.