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Interview with Louise Erdrich
"A Writer's Beginnings" by Louise Erdrich originally appeared in the August 2006 issue of Smithsonian magazine. Here, Erdrich speaks about notable weather, Wal-Mart and writing.
August 01, 2006 |
By Courtney Jordan
What's Eating America
Corn is one of the plant kingdom's biggest successes. That's not necessarily good for the United States.
July 2006 |
By Michael Pollan
35 Who Made a Difference: Maya Angelou
By singing of her own hardships, she has given strength to others
November 01, 2005 |
By Richard Long
35 Who Made a Difference: Wendell Berry
A Kentucky poet draws inspiration from the land that sustains him
November 01, 2005 |
By Paul Trachtman
Tocqueville's America
The French author's piquant observations on American gumption and political hypocrisy sound remarkably contemporary 200 years after his birth
July 2005 |
By Clell Bryant
One Writer's Garden
In Jackson, Mississippi, preservationists are restoring the verdant retreat that sustained novelist Eudora Welty
April 2005 |
By Wendy Mitman Clarke
Prescient and Accounted For
A century after his death, novelist Jules Verne, who imagined Moon flight and deep-sea voyages, looks more prophetic than ever
March 2005 |
By Doug Stewart
James Boswell's Scotland
The author of the Life of Samuel Johnson spent much of his own life trying to escape the country of his birth
January 2005 |
By Tom Huntington
Walden's Ripple Effect
One hundred fifty years after its publication, Henry David Thoreau's meditation remains the ultimate self-help book
August 2004 |
By Robert D. Richardson
Supremely Wilde
How an 1882 portrait of the flamboyant man of letters reached the highest court in the land and changed U.S. law forever
May 2004 |
By Mitch Tuchman
Seeing Sylvia Plath
A new movie rekindles curiosity about the poet's life, love and suicide at age 30
November 2003 |
By Robert F. Howe
Keeping Up with Mark Twain
Berkeley researchers toil to stay abreast of Samuel Clemens' enormous literary output, which appears to continue unabated
September 2003 |
By Ron Powers
Land Shark
In his noir satires, novelist and eco-warrior Carl Hiaasen ravages those who dare to desecrate.
June 2003 |
By Linton Weeks
Still Ahead of His Time
Born 200 years ago this month, Ralph Waldo Emerson had some strange ideas about the natural world. Recent research suggests they might even be true
May 2003 |
By Frederick Turner
Growing Up Maya Angelou
The famed writer discusses her childhood, her writing and the importance of family
April 2003 |
By Lucinda Moore
Southern Comfort
Traveling back roads, brothers Matt and Ted Lee track down authentic foods for mail-order customers hankering after a taste of the Deep South
February 2003 |
By Marialisa Calta
Betting on Seabiscuit
Laura Hillenbrand beat the odds to write the hit horse-racing saga while fighting chronic fatigue syndrome, a mysterious disorder starting to reveal its secrets
December 2002 |
By Larry Katzenstein
Matter of the Heart
Graham Greene's letters to his paramour, Catherine Walston, trace the hazy line between life and fiction
June 2002 |
By Bob Cullen
Prince of Tides
Before "ecology" became a buzzword, John Steinbeck preached that man is related to the whole thing
January 2002 |
By Bil Gilbert
October Surprise
Any other year, giving reactionary author V. S. Naipaul a Nobel Prize would have sparked debate
December 2001 |
By Paul Gray
