David Lehman

David Lehman, a contributing editor of the Scholar, is a poet, critic, and the general editor of The Best American Poetry annual anthology and author of the book One Hundred Autobiographies. He currently writes our Talking Pictures column.

Above the River of Your Longing

Two new prompts

By David Lehman | Thursday January 16, 2025

“What a Strange Path”

Three new prompts

By David Lehman | Monday December 16, 2024

“I Have Had My Vision”

Three prompts

By David Lehman | Friday November 22, 2024

In Reprise: Next Line, Please

A new poetry prompt for players new and old

By David Lehman | Friday October 25, 2024

Tunneling to Freedom

In The Great Escape (1963), the true story of a harrowing breakout from a German POW camp

By David Lehman | Thursday June 6, 2024

Homage to the Uncanny

Dead of Night (1945), a masterpiece of horror

By David Lehman | Thursday February 29, 2024

How Well Do You Know Your Hitchcock?

A multiple-choice test for the maestro’s fans

By David Lehman | Friday January 19, 2024

“Mr. Lucky” Didn’t Know Who He Was

How Cary Grant’s magical film career paralleled a lifelong identity crisis

By David Lehman | Thursday September 28, 2023

Brilliant Carnage

Sam Peckinpah’s slow-motion bullet ballet

By David Lehman | Thursday February 23, 2023

What Hath Gable Got?

“Rhett Butler” romances Claudette Colbert in Frank Capra’s comic masterpiece It Happened One Night

By David Lehman | Monday November 28, 2022
Black-and-white photo of the "Running Wild" scene from Some Like it Hot. Cast members, including Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe, play various instruments in the photo.

Great Movie Music

By David Lehman | Tuesday April 28, 2020

Epitaph for a Genre

By David Lehman | Wednesday April 1, 2020
Still from The Time of Our Lives

Souvenirs of War

By David Lehman | Thursday March 5, 2020
Gregory Peck in "Gentleman's Agreement"

A Matter of Pride

By David Lehman | Monday February 10, 2020
Don Taylor and William Holden in Stalag 17

William Holden, Model Prisoner

By David Lehman | Tuesday January 14, 2020
Still from Cape Fear

The Shadow of Evil

By David Lehman | Tuesday December 3, 2019
Harold Bloom

A Prophet of the Truly Great

By David Lehman | Monday October 21, 2019
Pencil

A Valediction, Forbidding Mourning

By David Lehman | Tuesday September 17, 2019

Poetry Noir

By David Lehman | Tuesday July 30, 2019

Get Hurt—or Go Back to Work

By David Lehman | Tuesday July 23, 2019

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