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
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
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
In the Mushroom
True foraging isn’t the domain of the weekend warrior; it’s serious, serious business
By Michael Autrey Monday, December 2, 2024
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 Monday, December 2, 2024
Granaries of Language
Dictionaries are far more than alphabetized collections of words
By Ilan Stavans Monday, December 2, 2024
Reborn in the City of Light
At a time when Paris was an incubator of modernism, a group of bold American women arrived to make art out of their lives
By Rosanna Warren Thursday, October 24, 2024
Thoreau’s Pencils
How might a newly discovered
connection to slavery change
our understanding of an abolitionist
hero and his writing?
By Augustine Sedgewick Thursday, October 17, 2024
The Gravity of the Situation
Popular physics books make science cheap, easy, and entertaining. The problem is, they often mislead.
By Jethro K. Lieberman Tuesday, September 1, 2020
Our Post-Privacy World
Total information awareness may make us feel safe, but will we regret living in a surveillance state?
By Thomas A. Bass Tuesday, September 1, 2020
Looking Back From the End of the World
What Thoreau can teach us about living life during—and after—the pandemic
By David Gessner Tuesday, June 2, 2020
The Patriot Slave
The dangerous myth that blacks in bondage chose not to be free in revolutionary America
By Farah Peterson Tuesday, June 2, 2020
Guardian of the Glaciers
As climate change threatens the future of the Himalayas, might the mountains’ salvation lie in endowing them with legal rights?
By Alex Basaraba Tuesday, June 2, 2020
Adrift in Sunlit Night
When searching St. Petersburg for the shadows of Dostoyevsky, Gogol, and Pushkin, the best strategy may simply be to get lost
By André Aciman Tuesday, June 2, 2020
Camouflage
Recalling a past of sound and silence, and secrets that could never be told
By Sheila Kohler Tuesday, June 2, 2020
No Ghost in the Machine
Artificial intelligence isn’t as intelligent as you think
By Mark Halpern Monday, March 2, 2020
The Uncertainty Principle
In an age of profound disagreements, mathematics shows us how to pursue truth together
By Cristopher Moore and John Kaag Monday, March 2, 2020
