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
A New Heaven and a New Earth
During the Spanish Civil War, an alternative vision of society briefly flourished in Barcelona
By Adam Hochschild Monday, February 29, 2016
I Will Love You in the Summertime
Between the rupture of life and the rapture of language lies a world of awe and witness
By Christian Wiman Monday, February 29, 2016
The Remains of My Days
Fond and fading memories of a robust literary life
By Doris Grumbach Monday, February 29, 2016
Meditation on a Rat
Who would have thought that this unlikely creature could help make a family whole again?
By Lucy Ferriss Monday, February 29, 2016
Kindly Nervous
My sweet, gentle parents had their demons, but they kept me safe
By Lee Smith Monday, February 29, 2016
Medication Nation
Our increasing reliance on drugs—prescribed, over-the-counter, illegal, and ordered online like pizza—suggests we have a deeper problem
By Philip Alcabes Monday, December 7, 2015
How Chemistry Became Biology
And how LUCA, Earth’s first living cell, became Lucas, my adorable grandnephew
By Priscilla Long Monday, December 7, 2015
Awakenings
The advent of new religions in the 1800s led to fierce debates that persist today
By Susan Jacoby Monday, December 7, 2015
My Newfoundland
The sensations of landing on the island long ago haunted a writer’s final memories
By Paul West Monday, December 7, 2015
A Life in Letters
A decades-long correspondence with the Italian writer Arturo Vivante covered it all: hardship, love, and the endurance of art
By Merrill Joan Gerber Monday, December 7, 2015
