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
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
Reading Thoreau at 200
Why is the seminal work of the great American transcendentalist held in such scorn today?
By William Howarth Monday, June 5, 2017
Chasing Henrietta
Why one novelist keeps returning to the same inscrutable character
By Andrea Barrett Monday, June 5, 2017
A Legacy in Ruins
What now for Iraq’s Mosul Museum, recently liberated from ISIS?
By Cathy Otten Monday, June 5, 2017
My Mongolian Spot
An ephemeral birthmark is a rare gift, connecting me to generations spanning the centuries
By Jennifer Hope Choi Monday, June 5, 2017
Back From Oblivion
A writer who refused to live in a world robbed of meaning
By Dana Gioia Monday, June 5, 2017
The Poetry of Weldon Kees: Vanishing as Presenceby John T. Irwin
Broken Bodies, Broken Forms
What relation does art bear to suffering?
By Roy Scranton Monday, June 5, 2017
Draw Your Weaponsby Sarah Sentilles
Things Sweet to Taste
Much to my regret, I never truly knew the woman who helped raise me
By Leslie Stainton Monday, June 5, 2017
A Wink and a Nod
The French artist Nadar at his most subversive and sly
By Adam Begley Monday, June 5, 2017
