Books & Literary Life

Literary criticism, author interviews, and book culture from within and beyond Harvard.

Three climbers seated on a snowy summit, surrounded by clouds, appearing contemplative.

These Harvard Mountaineers Braved Denali’s Wall of Ice

John Graham’s Denali Diary documents a dangerous and historic climb.

by Lydialyle Gibson

British soldiers and local police searching homes to interrogate subjects during Mau May rebellion, c. 1954

Realities of Empire

A new history indicts the British imperium.

Illustration depicting social fissures during pandemic by tearing of the U.S. Constitution

The Broken Social Contract

Danielle Allen on America’s broken social contract

Tracy K. Smith

Tracy K. Smith to Speak at Harvard Alumni Day

An alumna and faculty member at a new Harvard tradition

by Nell Porter-Brown

Jarvis Givens

Fugitive Pedagogy

Jarvis Givens rediscovers the underground history of black schooling.

by Lydialyle Gibson

Photograph of the Lincoln Memorial

Open Book

Michael Ignatieff on Abraham Lincoln on solace

Woodblock print based on The Tale of Genji

Off the Shelf

Recent books with Harvard connections

Photograph from staging of Eurydice, opera by Matthew Aucoin

Music and Language, Reconciled

Matthew Aucoin on opera

by Thomas Forrest Kelly

Looking for the Real Stan Lee

Biographer Abraham Riesman plumbs the dark mysteries of the Marvel auteur

by Dan Kelly

Rudy Ruiz

Border Crossing

Author Rudy Ruiz carries on his Mexican-American family’s storytelling tradition.

by Nancy Walecki

Portrait of Harvard Law professor and author Randall Kennedy

Off the Shelf

Recent books with Harvard connections