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 Mystery of Ales
The argument that Alger Hiss was a WWII-era Soviet asset is flawed. New evidence points to someone else
By Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya Friday, June 1, 2007
The Mystery of Ales (Expanded Version)
The argument that Alger Hiss was a WWII-era Soviet asset is flawed. New evidence points to someone else
By Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya Friday, June 1, 2007
Love on Campus
Why we should understand, and even encourage, a certain sort of erotic intensity between student and professor
By William Deresiewicz Friday, June 1, 2007
Remember Statecraft?
What diplomacy can do and why we need it more than ever
By Dennis Ross Friday, June 1, 2007
Gazing Into the Abyss
The sudden appearance of love and the galvanizing prospect of death lead a young poet back to poetry and a “hope toward God”
By Christian Wiman Friday, June 1, 2007
‘Mem, Mem, Mem’
After a stroke, a prolific novelist struggles to say how the mental world of aphasia looks and feels
By Paul West Friday, June 1, 2007
Between Two Worlds
The familar story of Pocahontas was mirrored by that of a young Englishman given as a hostage to her father
By Christopher Clausen Friday, June 1, 2007
Fragments of Paradise
Gardens like those of Friedrich II at Sanssouci help us to read the world
By Alberto Manguel Friday, June 1, 2007
The Invasion of Privacy
From the Autumn 1958 issue of The Scholar
By Richard H. Rovere Friday, June 1, 2007
A New Theory of the Universe
Biocentrism builds on quantum physics by putting life into the equation
By Robert Lanza Thursday, March 1, 2007
