Montage

Three book covers displayed on a light background, featuring titles and authors.

Must-Read Harvard Books Winter 2025

From aphorisms to art heists to democracy’s necessary conditions 

by Gabriella Gage

Photograph of the iconic Monticello, suggesting that Jefferson’s role as an owner of enslaved people needs to be made part of his history

Getting Close to the Past

A powerful public history of slavery in America

by Drew Gilpin Faust

Composite illustration of African American poets Phillis Wheatley, Melvin B. Tolson, Dudley Randall, Gwendolyn Brooks, Yusef Komunyakaa, Paul Laurence Dunbar

Critique and Joy

Kevin Young’s anthology of African American poetry, from Phillis Wheatley to hip hop

by Elisa New

An image from Gilens's "Reading Forest" installation, a sketched cross-section of a tress with words interspersed in the rings. They read: "The effects of climate change are rippling through the landscape and will intensify in ways that are difficult to predict."

The outdoor artwork of designer—and experimenter—Todd Gilens

Todd Gilens brings wilderness into urban public art.

by Lydialyle Gibson

The painting, "Overseers in the Field #1" (2007), informed by Winfred Rembert

Open Book: Hiding in a Tick Mattress

Wilfred Rembert’s escape from a lynching

Nabaneeta and Nandana Dev Sen embracing in 2018

A Beloved Bengali Poet in Translation

A new book presents a mother and daughter’s final collaboration

by Lydialyle Gibson

Chapter & Verse: Who wrote...?

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Mark Saltveit writes "Wow" on a piece of glass

The "King of Palindromes"

Mark Saltveit and the art of the palindrome

by Nancy Walecki

Photograph of a mathematician's blackboard, from the book Do Not Erase

Off the Shelf

Recent books with Harvard connections

A photograph of Zoe Sarnak performing on stage

Putting the Music in Musical Theater

Composer Zoe Sarnak’s warm-hearted songs

by Lydialyle Gibson

<i>Puck<i> magazine cartoon from 1895 lampooning the income tax

Off the shelf: Recent books with Harvard connections

Tax follies, Thomas Sowell, Donald Hall, and more