“One backward glance” — Daniel H. Weiss on Michael O’Donnell and the tragic era of Vietnam

Love unknown: Thomas Travisano on the life and worlds of Elizabeth Bishop

Nicholas Kristof shifts his focus to the crisis at home: “Attention does make a difference”

The children’s literature of Frances Hodgson Burnett: “values that we need and can relate to” today

David L. Ulin on the early Joan Didion: Dread, disruption, and “a writer responding to her moment”

“Humor at first sight” as James Thurber’s art is celebrated for his 125th birthday

Gary K. Wolfe: Reinvention and revolution in 1960s science fiction

Andrew Blauner: The humanity, humility, and humor of Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts

Harold Bloom’s The American Canon: “He is speaking directly to you about his passions”

Thomas Jefferson’s Education: Alan Taylor on the troubled origins of “Mr. Jefferson’s University”

Listen: Lauren Groff introduces the “wickedly smart” Nancy Hale

“A project of self-transformation”—Benjamin Moser on the life and work of Susan Sontag

Mary Berry: Extending Wendell Berry’s legacy is “the most hopeful work I can think of”

LOA celebrates Herman Melville’s 200th birthday with his Complete Poems

Thomas Mallon on Booth Tarkington: “he sees things through to their bitter, true conclusion”

John Logan on James Fenimore Cooper: “Dive in and get reading”