A Mind on Fire
In his acclaimed trilogy of intellectual biographies, Robert D. Richardson sought to help us overcome the burden of the past
By Sam Gee Wednesday, September 23, 2020
Words Preserved Against a Day of Fear
Remembering Joseph Brodsky
By Peter Filkins Tuesday, June 2, 2020
Searching for Amos Oz in Jerusalem
The acclaimed novelist, who died in 2018, translated Israeli reality
By Randy Rosenthal Monday, March 2, 2020
Norman Maclean and Me
Advice for living and drinking from the author of A River Runs Through It
By Rebecca McCarthy Monday, December 2, 2019
Finding Your Voice
How one writer discovered his when he stopped looking for it and learned instead to listen
By Larry Woiwode Monday, June 3, 2019
Southern Cassandra
Lillian Smith was a writer and a radical who called out her region’s lies about sex and race
By Tracy Thompson Monday, March 4, 2019
A Pleasure to Read You
Shouldn’t literature enchant, surprise, and teach us? And to make this happen, shouldn’t we be the most expert readers we can be?
By Arthur Krystal Monday, December 3, 2018
Bringing In the Horse
Virgil’s account of the sacking of Troy has similarities to the political situation of our day
By Mary Lefkowitz Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Force of Nature
The racing tides beneath Peter Matthiessen’s literary achievement
By Jeff Wheelwright Monday, June 4, 2018
Patience, Practice, Perseverance
How Octavia E. Butler became a writer
By Lynell George Thursday, September 14, 2023
Will the Real Vergil Please Stand Up?
Making sense of the life of a poet about whom we know so little
By Sarah Ruden Thursday, August 17, 2023
The Friend Zone
Mary Wollstonecraft’s ideas on what makes a marriage tick were downright radical for their time
By Robert Zaretsky Sunday, February 19, 2023
Declassified
How genre-bending tales of espionage emerged from a childhood of pain, anger, and deception
By James Gibney Thursday, December 8, 2022
A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré Edited by Tim Cornwell; Viking, 752 pp., $40
Freedom Tales
Long before the contentious school board fights of today, Lydia Maria Child tried to help America’s children understand their country’s racial transgressions
By Lydia Moland Monday, September 19, 2022
Dissident Lit 
Vladimir Nabokov and the novel that nourished the souls of a generation of would-be revolutionaries
By Richard Roper Thursday, September 1, 2022
She Was the Toast of the World
The dramas and diaries of Edna St. Vincent Millay
By Sandra M. Gilbert Wednesday, June 1, 2022
The Birth of the Egghead Paperback
How one very young man changed the course of publishing and intellectual life in America
By Mark LaFlaur Saturday, May 7, 2022
At the Corner of Byron and Shelley
Poetry and philhellenism at the Greek bicentennial
By A. E. Stallings Thursday, September 16, 2021
Remembering Brad
What a stroke of luck when some of your favorite books were written by one of your dearest friends
By David Gessner Wednesday, June 2, 2021
