A Whole Day Nearer Now

But all life’s passion not quite spent

Where Are the People?

Evangelical Christianity in America is losing its power—what happened to Orange County’s Crystal Cathedral shows why

My Kingdom for a Wave

If your life as a public intellectual takes you to the highest crests, be prepared for the troughs that follow

My Friend Melanie Has Breast Cancer

How it might have happened, and why we are looking in the wrong places to prevent similar cases

Homeless in the City

A writer describes the decade he has spent living on the streets

Our Farm, My Inspiration

How a weekend getaway became a poet’s muse

Tutors

My many mentors at Oxford, from Lincoln College to All Souls, linger like spirits in the mind

Eric Rohmer and Me

What a classic film from the French new wave taught me about the illusions of my youth

Leaks and Consequences

Why treating leakers as spies puts journalists at legal risk

Federal Student-Loan Sharks

Why is the government gouging our college kids? The new law on loan rates just makes things worse

Tiger Mom

At a forest preserve in India, a writer sees the world anew and learns how to focus her son’s restless mind

American Carthage
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Echoes from the ancient conflicts between Hannibal’s city and Rome continue to reverberate well into the present

Lessons From Harlem
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A white blues player’s streetside education

Maximalisma
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A professor endeavors to separate treasure from trash—before her children have to do it for her

Raspberry Heaven
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A yearly back-yard harvest opens a door to the divine

In the Matter of the Commas
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For the true literary stylist, this seemingly humble punctuation mark is a matter of precision, logic, individuality, and music

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

The Brahmin and His Imaginary Friend

How a classic paean to the honest virtues of a Maine fisherman obscured several ugly truths

The Writer in the Family

The fiction of E. L. Doctorow gave a young man hope of connecting his father and his literary hero

The Weight of a Stone

Searching for stability in an erratic world led Oliver Sacks and other writers to the realms of geology

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