SPOTLIGHT

The Epic Viking Saga of the Everyday

Eleanor Barraclough on the ordinary people of Norse history

By Stephanie Bastek Friday, January 31, 2025

SPOTLIGHT

The Epic Viking Saga of the Everyday

Eleanor Barraclough on the ordinary people of Norse history

By Stephanie Bastek Friday, January 31, 2025

Essays

The Next New Thing

In architecture, the gulf between the traditional and the modern seems wider than ever before

Asturias Days

Hot and Cold

Read Me a Poem

“Daybreak in Alabama” by Langston Hughes

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Portrait of the Artist

Jane Skafte

The language of trees

Smarty Pants Podcast

Turning the World to Powder

Jay Owens on the tiny particles that float through our lives

Web Essays

A Terrifying Delight

Following Robert Frost into the depths

Asturias Days

The Scales

Read Me a Poem

“The Answering Machine” by Linda Pastan

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Tuning Up

Just When You Thought It Wasn’t Safe …

How Wilbert Longfellow turned America into a nation of swimmers

Book Reviews

All Talk

Ease of communication will not save us

Asturias Days

Burned

Read Me a Poem

“The White Heart of God” by Jack Gilbert

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Portrait of the Artist

Paige Ledom

Out of the ordinary

Article

The Brahmin and His Imaginary Friend

How a classic paean to the honest virtues of a Maine fisherman obscured several ugly truths

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

Asturias Days

Cudillero

Read Me a Poem

“The Terrorist, He’s Watching” by Wislawa Szymborska

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Smarty Pants Podcast

Keepers of the Old Ways

Eliot Stein on the people keeping cultural traditions alive

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current issue

Book Reviews

Aging Out

Many of us do not go gentle into that good night

Article

The Fair Fields
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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

Book Reviews

Aging Out

Many of us do not go gentle into that good night

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