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
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 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
Know Me Come Eat With Me
In the world of Ulysses, food turns out to be everything
By Flicka Small Thursday, June 9, 2022
It Happened One Day in June
Why Ulysses is as vital as ever— compelling, complex, and direct
By Robert J. Seidman Wednesday, June 1, 2022
For the Joy of Joyce
Abandon the notion of high-minded seriousness and simply enter into the novel’s flow
By Amit Chaudhuri Wednesday, June 1, 2022
The Bomb Next Door
Eighty years into the atomic age, U.S. nuclear power reactors have produced several million tons of radioactive waste—and we still have no idea how to dispose of it
By Thomas A. Bass Wednesday, June 1, 2022
The Lions and the San
How could a people survive for thousands of years with so many predators in their midst?
By Elizabeth Marshall Thomas Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Confessions of a Cyclist
Traversing New York City on two wheels can be both life-affirming and perilous
By Jonathan Liebson Wednesday, June 1, 2022
The Scar on the Hand
Writers and the early loss of parents
By Janna Malamud Smith Thursday, April 28, 2022
The Last Naturalist
A zoologist happiest in the fields and streams of Ohio wrote major works about the state’s birds and fishes
By Parker Bauer Thursday, April 21, 2022
American Mandarins
David Halberstam’s title The Best and the Brightest was steeped in irony. Did these presidential advisers earn it?
By Edward Tenner Thursday, March 24, 2022
Safer Than Childbirth
Abortion in the 19th century was widely accepted as a means of avoiding the risks of pregnancy
By Tamara Dean Friday, March 4, 2022
