The Sunkist Utopian The Sunkist Utopian
One hundred years ago, Upton Sinclair exposed the meatpacking industry. Three new books expose Sinclair as an activist dreamer with a messianic streak.
Jul 27, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Brenda Wineapple
Shadows Shadows
George Hutchinson's new biography of the mystery woman of the Harlem Renaissance reconsiders both Nella Larsen and a key moment of black cultural history.
Jun 28, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Darryl Pinckney
The Passion of Anna The Passion of Anna
In Elaine Feinstein's new biography, the complicated life of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova is flattened into a fable of suffering and redemption.
Jun 21, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Elif Batuman
Life Is Sweet Life Is Sweet
Federico Fellini: His Life And Work effaces nearly everything written about the great Italian director, offering a distinct critical analysis and an absorbing account of his privat...
Mar 2, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Peter Cowie
Bad Will Hunting Bad Will Hunting
Two new books on Shakespeare examine his shadowy life, his times and the origins of his imagination. A third explores whether the Bard of Avon was, in fact, Edward de Vere.
Feb 28, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Swift
Compromising Positions Compromising Positions
Richard Schickel's biography of Elia Kazan is a laudatory postscript to a life marked by social turmoil, political strife and artistic intensity.
Feb 23, 2006 / Books & the Arts / David Bromwich
In a Lonely Place In a Lonely Place
Elizabeth Cady Stanton's legacy as both an admirable revolutionary and a profound thinker is brought to life in Vivian Gornick's The Solitude of Self.
Feb 9, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Martha C. Nussbaum
Heidegger Made Kosher Heidegger Made Kosher
Two new books explore the work of philosophers Emmanuel Levinas and Martin Heidegger.
Feb 2, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Richard Wolin
Music for the End of Time Music for the End of Time
A new biography examines the life and work of composer and theorist Olivier Messiaen, who moved French music out of the cafes and back to the cathedrals.
Jan 25, 2006 / Books & the Arts / David Schiff
The Tower of Babel The Tower of Babel
Jerome Charyn's Savage Shorthand: The Life and Death of Isaac Babel examines the life the revolutionary idealist murdered by Stalin in 1940 and explodes the literary myths that hav...
Nov 17, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Lee Siegel