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
New biography of Madeleine L’Engle by her granddaughters is a “journey of becoming”
Brad Gooch: Flannery O’Connor’s apocalyptic tall tales “give us the news that we need to hear”
Terrence Rafferty: Elmore Leonard’s West is “an idea of the West”
The novels and poetry of Albert Murray: “He is beyond category”
