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 Life Unlived
On W. G. Sebald and the uncertainties of time
By André Aciman Monday, December 5, 2016
Good Neighbors
When beavers came between us and a farmer down the road, we knew something more was at stake
By Tamara Dean Monday, December 5, 2016
Homebodies
A life spent mainly in the company of cats has meant relishing the comforts of domesticity and solitude
By Kyoko Mori Monday, December 5, 2016
Tales From Motor City
Left for dead yet pulsing with life again, Detroit survives as a place of inconsistency and contradiction
By Laura Bernstein-Machlay Monday, December 5, 2016
The Last Bursts of Memory
As my father’s dementia progressed, the stories of his life became less accurate but more vivid
By James VanOosting Monday, December 5, 2016
The Virtue of an Educated Voter
The Founders believed that a well-informed electorate preserves our fragile democracy and benefits American society as a whole
By Alan Taylor Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Chicago Hope
Can the collaboration between a progressive boarding school and a big-city charter academy transform American Public High School Education?
By Lincoln Caplan Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Writing the Unimaginable
When future generations look back at the fiction of our time, what will they make of the failure to address the crisis of climate change?
By Amitav Ghosh Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Put a Bird on It
How did a beguiling South American hummingbird end up in the basement of a Pennsylvania museum?
By Erik Anderson Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Turbulence
Death can come at any time, from above or below, but life requires putting fear aside
By Brandon Lingle Tuesday, September 6, 2016
