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
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
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
Lives of the Artists
The vistas and losses of two great English painters
By Meryle Secrest Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Elegy Landscapes: Constable and Turner and the Intimate Sublimeby Stanley Plumly
Her Too
A daughter calculates the cost of her mother’s electrical career
By Johanna Droubay Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Four Poems
“On Vacation,” “Stonehenge Sandwich,” “Creazzo Alto,” and “Orvieto Classico”
By Henry Sloss Tuesday, September 4, 2018
The End of Literature
Even if writing is reduced to tweeted epigrams to keep readers reading, won’t writers still tell stories?
By Robert Coover Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Visual Music
Is it possible to “hear” a painting as if it were a fugue by Bach?
By Lincoln Perry Tuesday, September 4, 2018
News or Not?
When native advertising blends in too well