V.S. Naipaul’s Defense of Civilization
As a public figure, V.S. Naipaul is often outrageous, but his 30+ books speak eloquently in defense of civilization.
“What’s a life, anyway?” Remembering E. B. White
E.B. White was born on this day in 1899, and in lieu of a proper celebration—a lobster dinner ...
The Real Story Behind Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway's famous, career-launching debut novel, "The Sun Also Rises," was so autobiographical, it was essentially gossipy reportage.
A Bloomsday Remembrance of James Joyce
June 16th is Bloomsday, the day on which James Joyce's sprawling Modernist novel Ulysses takes place. Celebrate literature, Dublin, and, well, pubs!
The Utopian Roots of the Artists’ Retreat
The modern artist's retreat has roots in industrial-era utopian communes.
Geek Love: Our Modern Monster Story
The writer Katherine Dunn died last week at age 70. Anyone who ever felt like an outsider found a friend in her 1989 novel Geek Love.
“What a lark! What a plunge!”: Celebrating Mrs. Dalloway
Mrs. Dalloway was published on May 14, 1925. We look at the book 91 years on.
The One Thing Parents Really Need
The prologue of Catherine Newman’s new parenting memoir Catastrophic Happiness: Finding Joy in Childhood’s Messy Years, evocatively called ...
The Lonely City: What Past Artists Tell Us About the Present
What can we learn from Lonely City artists like David Wojnarowicz in our age of hyper-connectivity?
The Submerged Sexuality of Constance Fenimore Woolson’s Fiction
Constance Fenimore Woolson was a renown American Realist writer in her day, but has since almost disappeared. Two new books attempt to change that.