Feb. 3, 2023 | Thelonious Monk put a lasting stamp on pianism. But his compositions and creativity are overshadowed by his public image as a weirdo... more »
Feb. 2, 2023 | The first ordinary woman in English literature, the Wife of Bath gossips, drinks, and tells her husband’s secrets... more »
Feb. 1, 2023 | How a canvas bag with reinforced handles and a flat bottom became a literary trophy and status symbol... more »
Jan. 31, 2023 | Women’s magazines like Mirabella, Elle, and Allure were not second-class citizens in the Grand Republic of Letters... more »
Jan. 30, 2023 | Across 60 books, 3,000 judicial decisions, and myriad essays and articles, Richard Posner held no dogma sacred, and no norm beyond question... more »
Jan. 28, 2023 | The Transylvanian Marxist Gáspár Miklós Tamás watched as leftists became liberals; he didn’t make that transition himself... more »
Jan. 27, 2023 | The work of Edward Hopper presents an enigma: Why is a great city like New York both a cause and a cure of loneliness?... more »
Jan. 26, 2023 | Glenn Loury on God, incarceration, higher ed, political correctness, race, and retirement after 46 years of teaching... more »
Jan. 25, 2023 | Victor Navasky — writer, editor, publisher, wry iconocast — is dead at 90... more »
Jan. 24, 2023 | Janet Malcolm's personal papers reflect the care and concern of someone deeply wary of becoming another writer's subject ... more »
Jan. 23, 2023 | Jean Valtin’s 1941 autobiography was a sensation. But just how truthful was his account of life in the German underground? ... more »
Jan. 21, 2023 | When Truman Capote went to jail. In 1970, playing fast and loose with the facts finally caught up with him... more »
Jan. 20, 2023 | Charles Simic: “The truth is, everything I wrote in books — it was the money. I was tempted by the money” ... more »
Jan. 19, 2023 | Club Freud. At a party for a new literary magazine dedicated to psychoanalysis, analysts and analysands mingle on the dance floor ... more »
Jan. 18, 2023 | Struggling with bipolar disorder and the drama of the book world, a romance writer faked her own death. Now she’s back ... more »
Jan. 17, 2023 | Sandro Botticelli was the great painter of hair. Enter the Church, for which hair was a theological superfluity... more »
Jan. 16, 2023 | With an obsessive interest in food, Katherine Mansfield constructed her best stories as snacks for modern appetites... more »
Jan. 14, 2023 | Graduates from even elite Ph.D. programs in the humanities have virtually no chance of a tenure-track job. What’s to be done? ... more »
Jan. 13, 2023 | For Duchamp, "Nude Descending” and the uproar it caused were transformative. He dropped painting and chose to be a provocateur... more »
Jan. 12, 2023 | The Islamic painting at the heart of the controversy that led to an adjunct professor losing her job: Is it truly Islamophobic?... more »
Jan. 11, 2023 | A stampede to Substack? The platform provides the best answers to some of journalism’s perennial problems ... more »
Jan. 10, 2023 | What it’s like to win a Nobel Prize. The typical entreaties for photos and autographs arrive, along with much stranger requests as well... more »
Jan. 7, 2023 | Environmental activists are targeting works of art in protests. Are they justified? Peter Singer makes the case... more »
Jan. 6, 2023 | Is the pace of scientific discovery slowing down? Data suggests that we live in an age of incrementalism... more »
Jan. 5, 2023 | Richard Bernstein considered Arendt, Rorty, and Habermas not just philosophical interlocutors. They were also his friends... more »