The Brahmin and His Imaginary Friend
How a classic paean to the honest virtues of a Maine fisherman obscured several ugly truths
By Janna Malamud Smith Friday, January 24, 2025
Divided Providence
Faith’s pivotal role in the outcome of the Civil War
By Robert Wilson Thursday, January 23, 2025
Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln’s Union by Richard Carwardine
“The Terrorist, He’s Watching” by Wislawa Szymborska
Poems read aloud, beautifully
By Amanda Holmes Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Keepers of the Old Ways
Eliot Stein on the people keeping cultural traditions alive
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, January 17, 2025
“The Purse-Seine” by Robinson Jeffers
Poems read aloud, beautifully
By Amanda Holmes Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Island Royalty
A new biography of a Caribbean revolutionary
By Madison Smartt Bell Monday, January 13, 2025
The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe by Marlene L. Daut
The Writer in the Family
The fiction of E. L. Doctorow gave a young man hope of connecting his father and his literary hero
By Jonathan Liebson Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Kalawar
Who really killed Abdur, an Afghan goatherd-turned-informant?
By Nathaniel Rich Thursday, March 1, 2012
Letter from Afghanistan: A Gathering Menace
Traveling with U.S. troops gives insights into the recent massacre
By Neil Shea Thursday, March 1, 2012
Death by Treacle
Sentiment surfaces fast and runs hot in public life, dumbing it down and crippling intimacy in private life
By Pamela Haag Thursday, March 1, 2012
Dirty Books
A publisher’s lifelong battle against censorship
By John McIntyre Thursday, March 1, 2012
The Tender Hour of Twilight: Paris in the ’50s, New York in the ’60s: A Memoir of Publishing’s Golden Age By Richard Seaver
The Universe as Kitchen
Cosmic ovens, nebular refrigerators, and the predictive power of physical law