Summer Brennan

Summer Brennan is the author of The Oyster War (2015), High Heel (2019), and the forthcoming The Parisian Sphinx: A True Tale of Art and Obsession, a new biography of Victorine Meurent. Her ongoing nonfiction series The Book of the Courtesans and her newsletter A Writer’s Notebook can be found on Substack. She lives in Paris.

Art & Art History

A Natural History of the Wedding Dress

The history of the wedding dress is shorter than the history of weddings, and even shorter still than the history of marriage.

Editors' Picks

Arts & Culture

James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni in Conversation

In 1971, two legends of Black letters discussed Black manhood, white racism, the role of the writer, and the responsibility to teach.

Science & Technology

Can We Build a Better Facebook?

Is it time to turn our back on Facebook? And if so, what social network could possibly replace it?

Science & Technology

The Anatomists of Ancient Alexandria

Cultural forces under the Ptolemaic dynasty briefly allowed scholars like Herophilus to practice dissection—and possibly vivisection—on human subjects.

Politics & History

The Genocide Before the Shoah

For a century, Jews in Turkey have maintained a strategic silence when it comes to recognizing the Armenian genocide. Could that be changing?

Politics & History

Wilhelm Reich: Twice Burned

A psychoanalyst and physician, Reich fled the Nazis only to be detained by the US as an “enemy alien” during World War II. And then came the sexual revolution.

Summer Brennan

A Natural History of the Wedding Dress

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