Schmaltz of Significance
How the first talkie treated the myth of the melting pot
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
