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
Frankfurt, Farewell
A family escaped the Nazis in 1939, finding refuge in America, but its hardships were far from over
By Werner Gundersheimer Monday, September 8, 2014
Silences
A South African family of privilege kept its secrets
By Sheila Kohler Monday, September 8, 2014
A Tale of War and Forgetting
Rescuing the memory of a cataclysm
By Neil Shea Monday, September 8, 2014
The Fear Factor
Long-held predictions of economic chaos as baby boomers grow old are based on formulas that are just plain wrong
By Lincoln Caplan Monday, June 9, 2014
4 Popes, 4 Saints, One New Guy
Perhaps you’ve heard the news from Rome. But what does it really have to do with the man from Assisi?
By Ingrid D. Rowland Monday, June 9, 2014
On Visitors
When the Bachelor Girl and the Red Death come calling, are they mirrors for our eccentricities?
By Ann Beattie Monday, June 9, 2014
Proust Goes to the Country Club
At a largely forgettable class reunion, remembrances of things past
By Willard Spiegelman Monday, June 9, 2014
A Prophet Without Honor
There’s no authoritative biography yet for Joseph Smith, the notorious founding figure in Mormonism
By Alex Beam Monday, June 9, 2014
Loving Animals to Death
How can we raise them humanely and then butcher them?
By James McWilliams Tuesday, March 11, 2014
