July 16, 1951: J.D. Salinger’s ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ Is Published July 16, 1951: J.D. Salinger’s ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ Is Published
“Why has this unpretentious, mildly affecting chronicle of a few days in the life of a disturbed adolescent been read with enthusiasm?”
Jul 16, 2015 / Richard Kreitner
July 15, 1919: Iris Murdoch Is Born July 15, 1919: Iris Murdoch Is Born
“She is a sophisticated philosopher, and it is her evident aim to put us back in intimate touch with our own being.”
Jul 15, 2015 / Richard Kreitner
The Passivity Project The Passivity Project
In Rachel Cusk’s fiction, the self is suppressed to the point of destruction.
Jul 2, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Alexandra Schwartz
June 30, 1936: Margaret Mitchell’s ‘Gone with the Wind’ Is Published June 30, 1936: Margaret Mitchell’s ‘Gone with the Wind’ Is Published
"Margaret Mitchell gives us our Civil War through Southern eyes exclusively, and no tolerant philosophy illumines the crimes of the invaders."
Jun 30, 2015 / Richard Kreitner
Blackness as Being, Whiteness as Nothingness Blackness as Being, Whiteness as Nothingness
Nell Painter and Herman Melville on American racism as existentialism.
Jun 23, 2015 / Greg Grandin
June 16, 1938: Joyce Carol Oates Is Born June 16, 1938: Joyce Carol Oates Is Born
"Oates believes strongly in the authority of the individual’s experience of reality."
Jun 16, 2015 / Richard Kreitner and The Almanac
Why Science Fiction Is a Fabulous Tool in the Fight for Social Justice Why Science Fiction Is a Fabulous Tool in the Fight for Social Justice
With their anthology Octavia’s Brood, Adrienne Brown and Walidah Imarisha evoke a world of radical possibility.
Jun 2, 2015 / Laura Flanders
Delmore’s Way Delmore’s Way
How the stormy eloquence of Delmore Schwartz made possible the glittering prose of Saul Bellow.
Jun 2, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Vivian Gornick
Against the Barricades Against the Barricades
Exposing the debasement of language in service to ideologies was Renata Adler’s cause.
May 27, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Katie Ryder
Entering the Mind of My Rapist: An Exercise in Extreme Empathy Entering the Mind of My Rapist: An Exercise in Extreme Empathy
What would it be like, I suddenly wondered, to put myself in the head of my rapist?
May 13, 2015 / Feature / Deborah Copaken Kogan