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
The Weight of a Stone
Searching for stability in an erratic world led Oliver Sacks and other writers to the realms of geology
By Megan Craig Thursday, January 2, 2025
Verde
Learning a foreign language isn’t just about improving cognitive function—it can teach us to sense the world anew
By Jesse Lee Kercheval Thursday, December 12, 2024
Aging Out
Many of us do not go gentle into that good night
By Anne Matthews Thursday, December 5, 2024
Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age by James Chappel
Under a Spell Everlasting
Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain, published a century ago, tells of a world unable to free itself from the cataclysm of war
By Samantha Rose Hill Monday, December 2, 2024
Divided Providence
Faith’s pivotal role in the outcome of the Civil War
By Robert Wilson Monday, December 2, 2024
Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln’s Union by Richard Carwardine
The Fair Fields 
Only rarely did the outside world intrude on an idyllic Connecticut childhood, but in the tumultuous 1960s, that intrusion included an encounter with evil
By Rosanna Warren Monday, December 2, 2024
Ideology as Anatomy
How shifting ideas about women’s bodies have affected their lives
By Sierra Bellows Monday, December 2, 2024
Immaculate Forms: A History of the Female Body in Four Parts by Helen King
Connect or Die
The high cost of going it alone
By Scott Stossel Thursday, October 5, 2023
This Exquisite Loneliness: What Loners, Outcasts, and the Misunderstood Can Teach Us About Creativityby Richard Deming
Lionized
The life and death of a celebrity puma—and what it really means to be wild
By Sophie Newman Friday, September 29, 2023
Origin Stories
What we know of Flannery O’Connor’s childhood—and how her views on race took shape—is incomplete if her caretaker Emma Jackson remains in obscurity
By Caroline McCoy Friday, September 22, 2023
To Get to the Other Side
Roads and the future of life on Earth
By Miranda Weiss Thursday, September 21, 2023
Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet by Ben Goldfarb
Patience, Practice, Perseverance
How Octavia E. Butler became a writer
By Lynell George Thursday, September 14, 2023
A Turn to the Dark Side
Reckoning with 9/11, the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan,
and most recently the Covid-19 pandemic has compelled
historians to rethink the Civil War and its aftermath
By Drew Gilpin Faust Monday, September 11, 2023
This Is Not the Zombie Apocalypse
Is a new form of methamphetamine really to blame for a host of urban problems?
By Jessica Gregg Friday, September 8, 2023
Shostakovich in South Dakota
A manifesto for the future of American classical music
By Joseph Horowitz Thursday, September 7, 2023
Queen of the Castle
Looking for Mama Lou, the legendary singer whose work helped inspire American ragtime
By Eric McHenry Wednesday, September 6, 2023
The Grinberg Affair
One of Mexico’s most curious missing-persons cases involves a scientist who dabbled in the mystical arts
By Ilan Stavans Tuesday, September 5, 2023
