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
Paying to Be Locked Up
Private prison companies treat immigrant detainees like convicted criminals—and reap huge profits from the people they hold
By Keramet Reiter Monday, December 3, 2018
Black Lives and the Boston Massacre
John Adams’s famous defense of the British may not be, as we’ve always understood it, the ultimate
expression of principle and the rule of law
By Farah Peterson Monday, December 3, 2018
No Harmony in the Heartland
Two small towns in northeast Iowa are caught up in the national struggle over immigration
By Tom Zoellner Monday, December 3, 2018
The Sleeper
In a rural hospital, a patient passes the night without knowing how lucky he is to have avoided death
By Frank Huyler Monday, December 3, 2018
Whiskey Foxtrot One-One
My father was training to fight a war, but his real battle was with himself
By Jon Zobenica Monday, December 3, 2018
Launching the Greatest Fleet
How American war surplus helped build the world’s most successful merchant marine
By John Psaropoulos Monday, December 3, 2018
This Side of Paradise
Aging has its rewards until it doesn’t. I am ready to contemplate the end but not, yet, to give in to it
By Paula Marantz Cohen Monday, December 3, 2018
Stress Test for Free Speech
Social media are destroying the democratic culture that the First Amendment is meant to protect
By Lincoln Caplan Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Finding Time
Geochronologists establish precise dates for events that occurred eons ago
By Michael W. Robbins Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Dangerous Ground
When confronting matters of race, some boundaries are more easily breached than others
By David Gessner Tuesday, September 4, 2018
