Sonic Geographer
The composer whose music bears witness to a planet in peril
By Sudip Bose Monday, October 5, 2020
A Writer by Nature
An excerpt from World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
By Jayne Ross Tuesday, September 29, 2020
The Founder and the Epidemic
Dr. Benjamin Rush, who signed the Declaration of Independence, could not save Philadelphia from yellow fever
By Bruce Kilstein Thursday, June 4, 2020
Feminism’s First Think Tank
The very different women of the Radcliffe Institute’s inaugural class
By Sandra M. Gilbert Wednesday, May 27, 2020
The Equivalents: A Story of Art, Female Friendship, and Liberation in the 1960s Maggie Doherty
Farm to Fable
How a now-forgotten writer changed American agriculture
By Tim Carman Monday, May 11, 2020
The Planter of Modern Life: Louis Bromfield and the Seeds of a Food Revolution by Stephen Heyman
Revolutionary Chaos
The first-ever English translation of a 20th-century Russian masterpiece
By Gary Saul Morson Friday, January 17, 2020
Why Book Reviewing Isn’t Going Anywhere
A researcher explores the future of a changing practice
By Scott Nover Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Lessons of a Starry Night
A Rachel Carson essay teaches a new mother how to imbue her growing child with an awe for nature
By Kelly McMasters Friday, March 1, 2013
Kodachrome Eden
With purple prose and oversaturated images, National Geographic reimagined postwar America as a dreamspace of hope and fascination
By James Santel Friday, March 1, 2013
The Deal
Looking for an apartment in Manhattan takes patience, courage, and, sometimes, a bag full of cash
By Martha McPhee Friday, March 1, 2013
Coursera, Sera
A mixed message about MOOCs and other online college offerings
By Margaret Foster Friday, March 1, 2013
Oracle in Pearls
Ada Louise Huxtable, able to depict a building in a few memorable words, set the standard for informed and fearless criticism
By Stanley Abercrombie Friday, March 1, 2013
Christmas Reading
A lot more than Dickens can help invoke the Yuletide spirit
By Michael Dirda Friday, December 14, 2012
Water in the Empty Part of the Map
The treacherous quest for the source of the Nile was the downfall of John Hanning Speke
By Sierra Bellows Friday, December 7, 2012
Survival Skills at a School in LA
Street killings of students are so familiar in South Central that kids practice their own grim rituals
By Anne P. Beatty Friday, December 7, 2012
