SPOTLIGHT

The Writer in the Family

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

By Jonathan Liebson Wednesday, January 8, 2025

SPOTLIGHT

The Writer in the Family

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

By Jonathan Liebson Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Viral Days

What Masks Signify

Decades ago, the sociologist Erving Goffman had the answer

Smarty Pants Podcast

The Late, Great, Country House

Dissecting the myth of the deteriorating British estate

Article

Whatever Happened to Frankie King?

A tale of Brooklyn, basketball, brothers, and madness

Asturias Days

The Hillside

Read Me a Poem

“The Lightkeeper” by Carolyn Forché

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Web Essays

Still Audacious

Dante’s Divine Comedy at age 700

Portrait of the Artist

Christine Buckton Tillman

The Art of Joy

Strange Bedfellows

The Dating Game

If you’re dead or fictional, we’re the dating service for you!

Web Essays

To Dance an Exclamation Point

The case for An American in Paris as Gene Kelly’s best

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

Asturias Days

New Year, Old Year

Read Me a Poem

“The Horses” by Edwin Muir

Poems read aloud, beautifully

Smarty Pants Podcast

The Snow Maiden

Our final episode of 2018 is a send-off to the solstice

Smarty Pants Podcast

Ho Ho Horror

Why not make this Christmas a little darker?

Asturias Days

A Story for Christmas

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current issue

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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

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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

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Celebrating 20 years of poetry in the Scholar

Commonplace Book

Winter 2025