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
For Richer, For Poorer
A Jewish immigrant married a Gilded Age scion. They worked together for social justice until they didn’t.
By Adam Hochschild Monday, March 2, 2020
Peggy’s War
A pioneering American journalist traveled the world while fighting her own battles at home
By Pamela D. Toler Monday, March 2, 2020
Why the Egg Matters
A meditation on remembrance, family, and time
By Laura Bernstein-Machlay Monday, March 2, 2020
My Hairy Past
Shoulder length or longer, my mane was about my looks, yes, but also about the need for justice
By David Owen Monday, March 2, 2020
This Man Should Not Be Executed
Billy Joe Wardlow murdered a man, but mitigating facts say he should not pay for that crime with his life
By Lincoln Caplan Monday, December 2, 2019
The Greatest Sexual Revolution
How World War II prefigured the ’60s
By Jon Zobenica Monday, December 2, 2019
Changing Trains
In Stuttgart, in 1943, my mother escaped bombs falling on the station. Has her terror expressed itself in me?
By Catharina Coenen Monday, December 2, 2019
Channeling Emerson
At work in his timeless, smoke-scented, ghost-crammed study at the old manse
By James Marcus Monday, December 2, 2019
A Transcendentalist at Work
Thoreau spent his last dozen years in this garret, making sense of what he could see from his windows
By Richard Higgins Monday, December 2, 2019
Encounters Of f the Page
After conducting 250 author interviews over four decades, I’m still engaged but a lot less awestruck
By Wendy Smith Monday, December 2, 2019
