A Poet of the Soil
The legacy of a writer who struggled with his celebrity
By Richard Tillinghast Friday, September 27, 2024
The Letters of Seamus Heaney selected and edited by Christopher Reid
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
Living on $500,000 a Year
What F. Scott Fitzgerald’s tax returns reveal about his life and times
By William J. Quirk Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Remembering John Updike
A critic and his decades-long correspondence with one of America’s best “freelance writers”
By William H. Pritchard Monday, June 1, 2009
Literary Cubs, Canceling Out Each Other’s Reticence
Letters between Federal Writers’ Project cohorts Richard Wright and Nelson Algren depict a mutual admiration rare among young novelists
By David A. Taylor Sunday, March 1, 2009
The Grasshopper and His Space Odyssey
A scientist remembers the celebrated science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke
By Jeremy Bernstein Sunday, June 1, 2008
The Art of Literature and the Science of Literature
The delight we get from detecting patterns in books, and in life, can be measured and understood
By Brian Boyd Saturday, March 1, 2008
Souls Hungering After Meaning
In Aegypt, John Crowley’s just-completed four-book masterwork, ordinary people bear a faint symbolic glow through real and mythological realms
By Michael Dirda Saturday, December 1, 2007
A Seductive Spectacle
The languid bazaar of Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet still beckons 50 years later
By Charles Trueheart Friday, June 1, 2007
War Weary
If Iraq is not another Vietnam, why do I find myself rereading Dispatches?
By Wendy Smith Thursday, March 1, 2007
Going Native
When American literature became good enough for Americans, what happened to the literary canon?
By Morris Dickstein Friday, December 1, 2006
