The Importance of Being Idle
What Paul Lafargue taught us about work
By Robert Zaretsky Monday, March 30, 2026
The Bottom of the Ninth
In baseball and in life, there is a cost to our pursuit of an error-free existence
By Elizabeth D. Samet Thursday, March 26, 2026
“Field and Forest” by Randall Jarrell
Poems read aloud, beautifully
By Amanda Holmes Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Shotgun Ornithology
James H. McCommons on the first American efforts to save the birds
By Stephanie Bastek Friday, March 20, 2026
Thinking in the Margins
What Oliver Sacks jotted down in the books he read
By Bill Hayes Thursday, March 19, 2026
Arthur of Camelot
Remembering Arthur Schlesinger, a knight-errant with typewriter
By Ted Widmer Friday, June 1, 2007
The Short Reign of Fred Allen
Jack Benny’s comic rival starred in a program refiguring “Weekend Update” and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
By Dennis Drabelle Friday, June 1, 2007
The Invasion of Privacy
From the Autumn 1958 issue of The Scholar
By Richard H. Rovere Friday, June 1, 2007
The Whirling Princess
How a little rich girl known as Pussy Jones became Edith Wharton, writing her way into the aristocracy of American letters
By Sandra M. Gilbert Friday, June 1, 2007
Edith Wharton By Hermione Lee, Alfred A. Knopf
The Heroic and the Crass
Case studies in American presidential backbone
By Gary Hart Friday, June 1, 2007
Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989 By Michael Beschloss, Simon & Schuster
A Seductive Spectacle
The languid bazaar of Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet still beckons 50 years later
By Charles Trueheart Friday, June 1, 2007
