The Adventures of the Real Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain prowled the rough-and-tumble streets of 1860s San Francisco with a hard-drinking, larger-than-life fireman
October 2012 |
By Robert Graysmith
Q and A: Judy Blume
The children's book author speaks about her career and what it means to write a "banned book"
January 2012 |
By Jeff Campagna
When Gertrude Stein Toured America
A 1934 barnstorming visit to her native country transformed Stein from a noteworthy but rarely glimpsed author into a national celebrity
October 14, 2011 |
By Megan Gambino
How E.B. White Wove Charlotte’s Web
A new book explores how the author of the beloved children’s book was inspired by his love for nature and animals
June 03, 2011 |
By Chloë Schama
Odd McIntyre: The Man Who Taught America About New York
For millions of people, their only knowledge about New York City was O.O. McIntyre’s daily column about life in the Big Apple
April 25, 2011 |
By Greg Daugherty
The Trouble With Autobiography
Novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux examines other authors' autobiographies to prove why this piece will suffice for his
January 2011 |
By Paul Theroux
A Murder in Salem
In 1830, a brutal crime in Massachusetts riveted the nation—and inspired the writings of Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne
November 2010 |
By E.J. Wagner
Las Vegas: An American Paradox
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist J.R. Moehringer rolls the dice on life in Sin City
October 2010 |
By J.R. Moehringer
Patience Worth: Author From the Great Beyond
Pearl Curran, a St. Louis housewife, channeled a 17th-century spirit to the heights of 20th-century literary stardom
September 2010 |
By Gioia Diliberto
Harper Lee's Novel Achievement
With To Kill a Mockingbird, published 50 years ago, Lee gave America a story for the ages. Just don't ask her about it
June 2010 |
By Charles Leerhsen
Vermont's Venerable Byway
The state's Route 100 offers an unparalleled access to old New England, from wandering moose to Robert Frost's hideaway cabin
May 2010 |
By Jonathan Kandell
Mark Twain in Love
A chance encounter on a New Orleans dock in 1858 haunted the writer for the rest of his life
May 2010 |
By Ron Powers
Joyce Carol Oates Goes Home Again
The celebrated writer returns to the town of her birth to revisit the places that haunt her memory and her extraordinary fiction
March 2010 |
By Joyce Carol Oates
A Forgotten Tennessee Williams Work Now a Motion Picture
Written in the 1950s, The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond was forgotten until it was recently adapted into a major motion picture
January 04, 2010 |
By Chloë Schama
Buckhannon, West Virginia: The Perfect Birthplace
A community in the Allegheny foothills nurtured novelist Jayne Anne Phillips' talent for storytelling
January 2010 |
By Jayne Anne Phillips
A Whirlwind Tour Around Poland
The memoirist trades Tuscany for the northern light and unexpected pleasures of Krakow and Gdansk
September 2009 |
By Frances Mayes
Great Road Trips in American Literature
From Twain to Kerouac to Bryson, writers have found inspiration in hitting the road and traveling the United States
August 20, 2009 |
By Abby Callard
A New Taste of Hemingway’s Moveable Feast
The re-edited version of Ernest Hemingway’s Paris-based memoir sheds new light on the heartbreaking breakup of his first marriage
July 27, 2009 |
By Chloë Schama
Thornton Wilder's Desert Oasis
For the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Douglas, Arizona was a place to "refresh the wells" and drive into the sunset
July 2009 |
By Tom Miller
