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
Sex Workers of the World United
Last year’s SESTA/FOSTA legislation aimed to limit sex trafficking—but it’s just the latest in a long line of policies designed to criminalize the oldest profession
By Scott W. Stern Monday, June 3, 2019
Rape Trees and Rosary Beads
Field notes of a Border Patrol agent
By Brendan Lenihan Monday, June 3, 2019
Aaron Burr in Exile
Surviving against all odds, his journal tells the story of one of the most maligned figures in American history
By Penelope Rowlands Monday, June 3, 2019
The End of Driving
Yes, autonomous autos will make roads safer and more efficient, but what wonders will be lost?
By Steve Lagerfeld Monday, June 3, 2019
The First President To Be Impeached
Andrew Johnson beat the charges against him by a single vote, but what did the nation lose?
By Brenda Wineapple Monday, March 4, 2019
Present-Day Thoughts on the Quality of Life (1969)
Jacques Barzun delivered this lecture half a century ago
By Jacques Barzun Monday, March 4, 2019
The Hedgehog’s Great Escape
A young Frenchwoman who ran the Allies’ most persistent spy group was in the Gestapo’s grasp
By Lynne Olson Monday, March 4, 2019
Orwell’s Last Neighborhood
While envisioning the darkest of futures and grappling with mortality, the English writer retreated to an idyllic Scottish isle to write Nineteen Eighty-Four
By David Brown Monday, March 4, 2019
At Play in the Fields of the Bored
America’s newest city parks are chock-full of things to do—but what happened to the delights of idle time in a natural setting?
By John King Monday, March 4, 2019
The Man Behind the Counter
A neighborhood grocer, inscrutable and gruff, lingers mysteriously in my memory
By Lynne Sharon Schwartz Monday, March 4, 2019
