J. D. McClatchy on W. S. Merwin: “A new sound for American poems”
“Pure imagining,” within limits: Ursula K. Le Guin on The Hainish Novels & Stories
John O’Hara in the 1930s: “he habitually told Americans the truth about themselves”
Library of America interviews Rafia Zafar about the Harlem Renaissance
Andy Borowitz on the challenge of selecting the 50 funniest American writers
Mindy Aloff: “Most writers . . . are fascinated by dancing”
James Fenimore Cooper reveals “deeply hidden truths” about the American Revolution
John Updike, Pennsylvania, and “the matter of America”
The War Before the War: Andrew Delbanco on fugitive slaves and the fragility of the American Republic
Four books—and a flawed Everyman—that made John Updike’s name as a novelist
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom recasts the life of one of our major literary figures
From “lovelorn, insecure young man” to resolute commander—the private side of Ulysses S. Grant
Lisa Yaszek: We get the history of women in science fiction “thoroughly wrong”
Leonard S. Marcus on Madeleine L’Engle, the “fearless experimenter” of children’s literature
“Monsters lurk everywhere”: Sarah Weinman uncovers the real-life crime behind Nabokov’s Lolita
The first rule of Fight Club: Violence in Congress and the road to civil war
