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
What Occurred at Linz: A Memoir of Forgetting
Hitler’s hometown has disowned its most infamous son, but a writer finds signs of him everywhere
By Robert Hahn Thursday, March 1, 2012
Crazy Enough to Care
Peer counseling, long used in the humane treatment of the mentally ill, is getting new attention as a cost saver because of the Affordable Care Act
By Brad Edmondson Thursday, March 1, 2012
Reading Fast and Slow
The speed at which our eyes travel across the printed page has serious (and surprising) implications for the way we make sense of words
By Jessica Love Thursday, March 1, 2012
The Wine of Life
How as a young soldier in the Trentino, I passed my evenings in a lovely bookshop in a town near camp
By Mario Rigoni Stern Thursday, March 1, 2012
Death by Treacle
Sentiment surfaces fast and runs hot in public life, dumbing it down and crippling intimacy in private life
By Pamela Haag Thursday, March 1, 2012
Affirmative Inaction
Opposition to affirmative action has drastically reduced minority enrollment at public universities; private institutions have the power and the responsibility to reverse the trend
By William M. Chace Thursday, December 1, 2011
How to Pay for What We Need
Congress could create money, as it did during the Civil War, funding public projects that shock the economy back to life
By Richard Striner Wednesday, November 30, 2011
The Gravity of Falling
Having hurtled through the American century, we are distracted and confused. But can we find our way again?
By Edward Hoagland Wednesday, November 30, 2011
A Jew in the Northwest
Exile, ethnicity, and the search for the perfect futon
By William Deresiewicz Wednesday, November 30, 2011
His Hour Upon the Stage
As a lifelong reader of Shakespeare’s plays, Lincoln had reservations about how they were presented
By Douglas L. Wilson Wednesday, November 30, 2011
