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
Corruption in the Courts
To understand how Ukraine became the center of Trump’s impeachment inquiry, it helps to understand the country’s troubled judiciary.
By Megan Buskey Monday, November 25, 2019
New World Prophecy
Dvořák once predicted that American classical music would be rooted in the black vernacular. Why, then, has the field remained so white?
By Joseph Horowitz Friday, September 13, 2019
Moral Courage and the Civil War
Monuments ask us to look at the past, but how they do it exposes crucial aspects of the present and has an inescapable effect on the future
By Elizabeth D. Samet Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Reflections on a Silent Soldier
After the television cameras went away, a North Carolina city debated the future of its toppled Confederate statue
By Robin Kirk Tuesday, September 3, 2019
The Crisis of University Research
Academia’s pursuit of corporate and government dollars has undermined its commitment to learning
By Richard Drake Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Required Reading
Sometimes teachers need to reach beyond the canon
By Anne P. Beatty Tuesday, September 3, 2019
How I Learned to Talk
Conversation once offered entry into other people’s minds. Has that disappeared?
By Emily Fox Gordon Tuesday, September 3, 2019
The NASA You Never Hear About
No, the agency did not invent Tang or Velcro, but its discoveries have many applications in our day-to-day lives
By Isabelle Taft Monday, June 3, 2019
Our Fate Is in the Stars
Today’s space program still does amazing things, but nothing like Apollo. It’s time to begin again.
By George Musser Monday, June 3, 2019
Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea
In search of the places that inspired the Iliad—and the traces of upheaval, conflict, and migration that led to its creation
By Caroline Alexander Monday, June 3, 2019
