Stony the Road: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., on Reconstruction, white supremacy, and the rise of Jim Crow
Liz Petry on her mother, Ann Petry: private but dedicated to service—and her art
Always Coming Home: The Ursula K. Le Guin book that breaks the novel form “wide open”
The power of Ann Petry: “the issues . . . she faces resonate with our times”
John O’Hara in the 1930s: “he habitually told Americans the truth about themselves”
James Fenimore Cooper reveals “deeply hidden truths” about the American Revolution
John Updike, Pennsylvania, and “the matter of America”
Mindy Aloff: “Most writers . . . are fascinated by dancing”
Four books—and a flawed Everyman—that made John Updike’s name as a novelist
The War Before the War: Andrew Delbanco on fugitive slaves and the fragility of the American Republic
From “lovelorn, insecure young man” to resolute commander—the private side of Ulysses S. Grant
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom recasts the life of one of our major literary figures
Leonard S. Marcus on Madeleine L’Engle, the “fearless experimenter” of children’s literature
The first rule of Fight Club: Violence in Congress and the road to civil war
“Monsters lurk everywhere”: Sarah Weinman uncovers the real-life crime behind Nabokov’s Lolita
Lisa Yaszek: We get the history of women in science fiction “thoroughly wrong”
