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
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 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
Not Compassionate, Not Conservative
A political traditionalist critiques our pseudo-conservative president
By Ethan Fishman Friday, December 1, 2006
Scooter and Me
Professing liberal doubt in an age of fundamentalist fervor
By Nick Bromell Friday, December 1, 2006
Fear of Falling
Working in the mop-and-bucket brigade in college created the perspectives of a lifetime
By James McConkey Friday, December 1, 2006
Glorious Dust
The posthumous masterwork of an influential black historian tells how slavery itself undermined the Confederacy
By Robert Roper Friday, December 1, 2006
Getting It All Wrong
The proponents of Theory and Cultural Critique could learn a thing or two from bioculture
By Brian Boyd Friday, September 1, 2006
Lincoln the Persuader
Seeking to get people behind his policies, he made himself the best writer for all our presidents
By Douglas L. Wilson Friday, September 1, 2006
The Man Who Loved Languages
A scholar with the ability and audacity to rebuild the Tower of Babel died a year ago, but his controversial project lives on
By Richard B. Woodward Friday, September 1, 2006
My Mother’s Body
Just remembering her is not enough; resurrecting her is the ultimate goal
By Mary Gordon Friday, September 1, 2006
