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 Deal
Looking for an apartment in Manhattan takes patience, courage, and, sometimes, a bag full of cash
By Martha McPhee Friday, March 1, 2013
A New Birth of Reason
Robert Ingersoll, the Great Agnostic, inspired late-19th-century Americans to uphold the founders’ belief in separation of church and state
By Susan Jacoby Friday, December 7, 2012
On Friendship
The intimacies shared with our closest companions keep us anchored, vital, and alive
By Edward Hoagland Friday, December 7, 2012
Our Imperiled World
It took billions of years to make the earth habitable for humans. A distinguished astronomer warns the United Nations how quickly that can be reversed.
By Owen Gingerich Friday, December 7, 2012
Water in the Empty Part of the Map
The treacherous quest for the source of the Nile was the downfall of John Hanning Speke
By Sierra Bellows Friday, December 7, 2012
Survival Skills at a School in LA
Street killings of students are so familiar in South Central that kids practice their own grim rituals
By Anne P. Beatty Friday, December 7, 2012
A Song for Molly
In which I tell how I fell hard for a dog, why I have problems with women, and what I know about Ludwig Wittgenstein
By Jeremy Bernstein Friday, December 7, 2012
The Clintons Up Close
A friendship between two couples yields insights into a presidency and a marriage
By Jane Warwick Yoder and Edwin M. Yoder Jr. Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Too Big to Fail and Too Risky to Exist
Four years after the 2008 financial crisis, banks are behaving more recklessly than ever
By William J. Quirk Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Liberty Is a Slow Fruit
Lincoln the deliberate emancipator
By Louis P. Masur Tuesday, September 4, 2012
