SPOTLIGHT

Keepers of the Old Ways

Eliot Stein on the people keeping cultural traditions alive

By Stephanie Bastek Friday, January 17, 2025

SPOTLIGHT

Keepers of the Old Ways

Eliot Stein on the people keeping cultural traditions alive

By Stephanie Bastek Friday, January 17, 2025

Web Essays

Witness to an Unfolding Disaster

On this 50th Earth Day, a painter meditates on the changing relationship between her art and our imperiled planet

Asturias Days

Along the Quay

A fisherman stands holding an oar on a narrow wooden raft, floating in a calm sea, sunlight breaking through clouds in the distance.
The Guest List

Take Me Away From Here

Nine books to transport you to other lands as you face the growing number of days at home

Read Me a Poem

“Nod” by Walter de la Mare

Poems read aloud, beautifully

COVID-19: A Primer

Beyond Technical Fixes for Coronavirus

This time, we must not leave the poor behind

Viral Days

Our Fifth Extreme Isolation

Why we’re thankful that we’re all here to shelter in place

Smarty Pants Podcast

Here’s to Drinking at Home

Resurrecting a 500-year-old classic on how to partake

Viral Days

When Parents Work

A bit of advice by way of a Russian master

Viral Days

Can You Hear Me Now?

Especially now, telephones offer an intimacy that texting cannot

Next Line, Please

Above the River of Your Longing

Two new prompts

Asturias Days

Casa Gorín

Read Me a Poem

“The Purse-Seine” by Robinson Jeffers

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Book Reviews

Island Royalty

A new biography of a Caribbean revolutionary

Article

The Writer in the Family

The fiction of E. L. Doctorow gave a young man hope of connecting his father and his literary hero

Asturias Days

Birthday Boy

Read Me a Poem

“The Horses” by Ted Hughes

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Portrait of the Artist

Amy Wetsch

Life, magnified

Article

The Weight of a Stone

Searching for stability in an erratic world led Oliver Sacks and other writers to the realms of geology

NEWSLETTER

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Old Christ Church in Alexandria. Virginia, attended by General Robert E. Lee in his youth and pictured here in 1911 (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign/Wikimedia Commons)
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Old Christ Church in Alexandria. Virginia, attended by General Robert E. Lee in his youth and pictured here in 1911 (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign/Wikimedia Commons)
Book Reviews

Divided Providence

Faith’s pivotal role in the outcome of the Civil War

Article

The Fair Fields
loading

Only rarely did the outside world intrude on an idyllic Connecticut childhood, but in the tumultuous 1960s, that intrusion included an encounter with evil

Poetry

The Art of Tuning In

Celebrating 20 years of poetry in the Scholar

Commonplace Book

Winter 2025