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 Doctor Is IN
At 88, Aaron Beck is now revered for an approach to psychotherapy that pushed Freudian analysis aside
By Daniel B. Smith Tuesday, September 1, 2009
The Decline of the English Department
How it happened and what could be done to reverse it
By William M. Chace Tuesday, September 1, 2009
A Mindful Beauty
What poetry and applied mathematics have in common
By Joel E. Cohen Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Armchair Travelers
The Renaissance writers and humanists Petrarch and Boccaccio turned to geography to understand the works of antiquity
By Toby Lester Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Mother Country
A daughter examines a life played out in romantic defiance of bad fortune
By Evelyn Toynton Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Not Ready for Mt. Rushmore
Reconciling the myth of Ronald Reagan with the reality
By Matthew Dallek Monday, June 1, 2009
Shock Waves
A blast in Baghdad tests the endurance of a soldier and his family
By Bethany Vaccaro Monday, June 1, 2009
The Devil You Know
Keeping the peace in Ramadi calls for a little moral dexterity
By John B. Renehan Monday, June 1, 2009
Blue-Collar Brilliance
Questioning assumptions about intelligence, work, and social class
By Mike Rose Monday, June 1, 2009
