The Widower’s Lament
After the death of the poet Wendy Barker, her grieving husband turns to the literature of loss
Down and Out
A woman excised from her eminent husband’s story
Errant Thought
Can we keep the Enlightenment from dimming?
More Than Mere Words
The strange allure of the printed page
Jena-Gadda-Da-Vida
The brief flowering of an intellectual mecca in 1790s Germany
A Whale of a Story
The parallel lives of Moby-Dick’s creator and the historian who rescued him from obscurity
Found in Translation
An Iranian emigrant finds solace in Western literature
Poet of the Extreme
A noted novelist considers the life of an American master
Admired and Abhorred
The German composer whose legacy continues to confound
Not Quite Forgotten
The unheralded success ofa fine American novelist
