James Wood: Reality, not realism, in three mid-period Bellow novels
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on “an implicit political victory for our people”
Edgar Allan Poe’s “extraordinary nonsense” inspires an ingenious modern art exhibition
Henry James, John Singer Sargent, and the “masterpiece of painting” that survived a meat cleaver attack
Remembering James Tate, 1943–2015: “I love my funny poems, but I’d rather break your heart”
Playwright-turned-novelist Kirk Lynn on Joe Brainard, James Thurber, and other influences on Rules for Werewolves
Ross Macdonald, Margaret Millar, and the traumas that encompassed literature and life
Bill Littlefield on how sportswriter W. C. Heinz listened to athletes—and knew their glory was fleeting
Ross Macdonald: “Chandler tried to kill me”
Ross Macdonald, perpetual stranger in his native California