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

Close-up photograph of dandelions, with storm clouds in the background
Poetry

May: A Sonnet

Stylized sepia photograph of John Knowles Paine
Measure by Measure

A Symphony for Springtime

Or, when is an American symphony not American enough?

Two children, one black and one white, play in an airport terminal in the 1960s
View from Rue Saint-Georges

Life in Black and White

A new volume commemorates the work of a brilliant photographer of the 1960s

Portrait of the Artist

Yvonne Claveloux

Bursts of Color

A stylized pink-and-white cat toy waves hello
Smarty Pants Podcast

Totes Adorbs

A philosopher digs into the subversive meaning of “cuteness”

Asturias Days

Magnífico

People ride e-scooters through a Parisian plaza
View from Rue Saint-Georges

Scootering Around Town

The automobile’s appeal is in decline thanks to the proliferation of alternatives

A photo of a metal faucet
Shelf Life

A City in Crisis

An excerpt from Flint Fights Back by Benjamin J. Pauli

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

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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