SPOTLIGHT

“The Frog Prince” by Stevie Smith

Poems read aloud, beautifully

By Amanda Holmes Tuesday, February 4, 2025

SPOTLIGHT

“The Frog Prince” by Stevie Smith

Poems read aloud, beautifully

By Amanda Holmes Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Works in Progress

Growing Up

Five questions about the future of cities

Works in Progress

Renaissance Woman

Recognizing the female actors, dancers, and singers of 1920s Harlem

Essays

The Hedgehog’s Great Escape

A young Frenchwoman who ran the Allies’ most persistent spy group was in the Gestapo’s grasp

Works in Progress

Alone, Together

Do coffee shops encourage conversation or isolation?

Commonplace Book

Spring 2019

American Places

The Hardworking Places of Vermont

Paintings of barnyards, gas stations, and silos

Essays

Orwell’s Last Neighborhood

While envisioning the darkest of futures and grappling with mortality, the English writer retreated to an idyllic Scottish isle to write Nineteen Eighty-Four

Works in Progress

The Ghosts in the Hills

“One person’s secluded paradise is another person’s isolated nightmare.”

Arts

The Fantastical Little Dyer

Few artists could match Tintoretto’s mastery of color and form—or his sense of playfulness

Smarty Pants Podcast

The Epic Viking Saga of the Everyday

Eleanor Barraclough on the ordinary people of Norse history

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

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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