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

Article

The Dragon Amid the Tigers

Ever since a weeks-long war in 1962, the influence of Chinese culture on the lives of many Indians hasn’t always been so evident

Asturias Days

In-Between Time

Read Me a Poem

“Snow” by David Berman

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Cover Story

Tales From an Attic

Suitcases once belonging to residents of a New York State mental hospital tell the stories of long-forgotten lives

Web Essays

Iris as Pupil

Before this canonical English writer published novels, she was a student of French postwar philosophy

Talking Pictures

Homage to the Uncanny

Dead of Night (1945), a masterpiece of horror

Asturias Days

A Line of Kittens

Read Me a Poem

“I Want to Write” by Margaret Walker

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Web Essays

Starving

The feelings of yearning and loss, when faced with an empty nest, can manifest in striking ways

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