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
Nabokov Lives On
Why his unfinished novel, Laura, deserved to be published; what’s left in the voluminous archive of his unpublished work
By Brian Boyd Monday, March 1, 2010
They Get to Me
A young psycholinguist confesses her strong attraction to pronouns
By Jessica Love Monday, March 1, 2010
When the Light Goes On
How a great teacher can bring a receptive mind to life
By Mike Rose Monday, March 1, 2010
To Die of Having Lived
A neurological surgeon reflects on what patients and their families should and should not do when the end draws near
By Richard Rapport Monday, March 1, 2010
My Brain on My Mind
The ABCs of the thrumming, plastic mystery that allows us to think, feel, and remember
By Priscilla Long Tuesday, December 1, 2009
The Stolen Election
An expatriate Iranian writer travels her troubled homeland in the weeks after a disputed presidential vote
By Gelareh Asayesh Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Seventy Years Later
The Second World War destroyed Adolf Hitler, but his legacy is showing disturbing signs of life
By John Lukacs Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Strange Matter
The physics and poetics of the search for the God particle
By John Olson Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Wrestling with Two Behemoths
A longtime New Yorker, and New Yorker writer, gets the cold shoulder from powerful New York cultural institutions
By Ved Mehta Tuesday, December 1, 2009
