Summer 2007

Articles

The Mystery of Ales

The argument that Alger Hiss was a WWII-era Soviet asset is flawed. New evidence points to someone else

by Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya

The Mystery of Ales (Expanded Version)

The argument that Alger Hiss was a WWII-era Soviet asset is flawed. New evidence points to someone else

by Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya

Love on Campus

Why we should understand, and even encourage, a certain sort of erotic intensity between student and professor

by William Deresiewicz

Remember Statecraft?

What diplomacy can do and why we need it more than ever

by Dennis Ross

Gazing Into the Abyss

The sudden appearance of love and the galvanizing prospect of death lead a young poet back to poetry and a “hope toward God”

by Christian Wiman

‘Mem, Mem, Mem’

After a stroke, a prolific novelist struggles to say how the mental world of aphasia looks and feels

by Paul West

Between Two Worlds

The familar story of Pocahontas was mirrored by that of a young Englishman given as a hostage to her father

by Christopher Clausen

Fragments of Paradise

Gardens like those of Friedrich II at Sanssouci help us to read the world

by Alberto Manguel

Departments

Book Essay

A Seductive Spectacle

A Seductive Spectacle

The languid bazaar of Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet still beckons 50 years later

Charles Trueheart

Book Reviews

The Whirling Princess

How a little rich girl known as Pussy Jones became Edith Wharton, writing her way into the aristocracy of American letters

Sandra M. Gilbert

The Heroic and the Crass

Case studies in American presidential backbone

Gary Hart

Wide World

An essayist and activist who makes eloquent connections

Sarah Fay

The Meandering Naturalist

William Howarth

Magical Mind

Albert Einstein's life

Stephen Petranek

Dismantling the Dream

Sandra Beasley