Thomas Mallon
What if Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used to Be?
As our faith in the future plummets and the present blends with the past, we doomscroll and catastrophize and feel certain that we’ve reached the point where history has fallen apart.
The Making of Jackie Kennedy
As a student in Paris and a photographer at the Washington Times-Herald, the future First Lady worked behind the lens to bring her own ideas into focus.
A Serbian British Writer Revitalizes the Novel of the Émigré
Long caught between the Western imagination and the Soviet sphere of influence—much like the Balkans themselves—the novelist Vesna Goldsworthy forges something new.
Finding My Way—and Staying Alive—During the AIDS Crisis
A diary of nineteen-eighties Manhattan.
When Barbara Pym Couldn’t Get Published
The English novelist was coming into her prime when publishers decided that she was outdated. But some of her contemporaries knew better.
In Thomas Grattan’s Début Novel, Historical Fiction Gets Personal
Set in the wake of Germany’s reunification, “The Recent East” follows a country coming together and a teen-ager coming out.
How the Promise of Normalcy Won the 1920 Election
A hundred years ago, the U.S. was riven by disease, inflamed with racial violence, and torn between isolation and globalism. Sound familiar?
Marriage, Betrayal, and the Letters Behind “The Dolphin”
How the correspondence between Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick gave rise to a scandal about the ethics of turning life into art.
Hippies and Yippies in Historical Fiction
In “Revolutionaries,” Joshua Furst depicts a counterculture hero from the perspective of his disaffected kid.
The Irreducible Niceness of George H. W. Bush
Bush, who has died, at ninety-four, is likely to be remembered as the last President of the Republic not to have been intensely despised by a significant portion of its population.
Can the G.O.P. Ever Reclaim Wendell Willkie’s Legacy?
He ran for President as a business mogul with no political experience, but his similarities with Donald Trump end there.
Weegee the Famous, the Voyeur and Exhibitionist
The street photographer turned gritty, grisly New York scenes into art.
Martin Amis, Style Supremacist
Few writers are as rapt and rigorous in their celebration of prose.
When a New York Baron Became President
In the case of Chester Arthur, the story is one of surprising redemption.
Trying to Remember J.F.K.
On the centenary of his birth, seeking the man behind the myth.
George Saunders Gets Inside Lincoln’s Head
“Lincoln in the Bardo,” the writer’s first novel, is a stunning depiction of the sixteenth President’s psyche.
2016: The Novel
The campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump offer plenty of dramatic material for a writer of historical fiction.
How Bad Can a President Be?
A new biography exposes the mysterious confidence behind George W. Bush’s greatest failures.
What if Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used to Be?
As our faith in the future plummets and the present blends with the past, we doomscroll and catastrophize and feel certain that we’ve reached the point where history has fallen apart.
The Making of Jackie Kennedy
As a student in Paris and a photographer at the Washington Times-Herald, the future First Lady worked behind the lens to bring her own ideas into focus.
A Serbian British Writer Revitalizes the Novel of the Émigré
Long caught between the Western imagination and the Soviet sphere of influence—much like the Balkans themselves—the novelist Vesna Goldsworthy forges something new.
Finding My Way—and Staying Alive—During the AIDS Crisis
A diary of nineteen-eighties Manhattan.
When Barbara Pym Couldn’t Get Published
The English novelist was coming into her prime when publishers decided that she was outdated. But some of her contemporaries knew better.
In Thomas Grattan’s Début Novel, Historical Fiction Gets Personal
Set in the wake of Germany’s reunification, “The Recent East” follows a country coming together and a teen-ager coming out.
How the Promise of Normalcy Won the 1920 Election
A hundred years ago, the U.S. was riven by disease, inflamed with racial violence, and torn between isolation and globalism. Sound familiar?
Marriage, Betrayal, and the Letters Behind “The Dolphin”
How the correspondence between Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick gave rise to a scandal about the ethics of turning life into art.
Hippies and Yippies in Historical Fiction
In “Revolutionaries,” Joshua Furst depicts a counterculture hero from the perspective of his disaffected kid.
The Irreducible Niceness of George H. W. Bush
Bush, who has died, at ninety-four, is likely to be remembered as the last President of the Republic not to have been intensely despised by a significant portion of its population.
Can the G.O.P. Ever Reclaim Wendell Willkie’s Legacy?
He ran for President as a business mogul with no political experience, but his similarities with Donald Trump end there.
Weegee the Famous, the Voyeur and Exhibitionist
The street photographer turned gritty, grisly New York scenes into art.
Martin Amis, Style Supremacist
Few writers are as rapt and rigorous in their celebration of prose.
When a New York Baron Became President
In the case of Chester Arthur, the story is one of surprising redemption.
Trying to Remember J.F.K.
On the centenary of his birth, seeking the man behind the myth.
George Saunders Gets Inside Lincoln’s Head
“Lincoln in the Bardo,” the writer’s first novel, is a stunning depiction of the sixteenth President’s psyche.
2016: The Novel
The campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump offer plenty of dramatic material for a writer of historical fiction.
How Bad Can a President Be?
A new biography exposes the mysterious confidence behind George W. Bush’s greatest failures.