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
Where the Heart Is
A grandmother’s life in five moves, from Hitler’s Europe to the American Midwest
By Leslie Berlin Monday, December 7, 2015
The Well Curve
Tropical diseases are undermining intellectual development in countries with poor health care—and they’re coming here next
By Harriet A. Washington Monday, September 7, 2015
The Sweet Briar Opportunity
Small colleges with too few applicants and large universities with too many should work together
By Carol T. Christ Monday, September 7, 2015
Hope Is the Enemy
Caring for a patient suffering from dementia means coming to terms with the frustrating paradoxes of memory and language
By Dasha Kiper Monday, September 7, 2015
The Mysteries of Attraction
Its many splendors do not only include the carnal: animate, inanimate … love it all
By Edward Hoagland Monday, September 7, 2015
Capital of Willows
On a trip to North Korea, a writer remembers his troubled father, a victim of the “Forgotten War”
By Eben Wood Monday, September 7, 2015
Test of Faith
The Roman Catholic Church may forgive us our sins—but can it be forgiven for its own?
By Mark Edmundson Monday, September 7, 2015
Talk of the Town
At the Concord Lyceum, Emerson tried out his lectures on his neighbors
By Robert A. Gross Monday, June 8, 2015
Matters of Taste
A work of literature and a bottle of wine require similar skills of their respective critics
By Paul Lukacs Monday, June 8, 2015
