Books & Literary Life

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

A woman with long hair stands confidently with crossed arms next to a pickup truck.

In her memoir All That's Unseen, Emilee Hackney explores religion, friendship, and home.

by Nina Pasquini , Nell Porter-Brown

Photograph of Emily Dickinson’s family home, The Homestead, an elegant wooden building

The Emily Dickinson Museum

Delving into the world of Emily Dickinson

by Nell Porter-Brown

German author Karl May dressed as his Old West hero, Old Shatterhand

Karl May, best-selling German novelist

Brief life of a myth-making writer: 1842-1912

by Eugene Stelzig

Photograph of the two actors on stage

Playwright Antoinette Nwandu, profiled

Playwright Antoinette Nwandu confronts race, religion, and her personal history.

by Olivia Schwob

Photo of a young boy reading a book

Excerpt from Bernard Bailyn, “Illuminating History”

An addiction to reading

A view of the Frank House study in 1940, with many books and examples of modern art from the 1930s

Recent books with Harvard connections

Recent books with Harvard connections

Chapter & Verse

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Photograph of Jack Gross

Excerpt from Adam Cohen, “Supreme Inequality”

A thumb on the scales

Photograph of Yangsze Choo

Profile of novelist Yangsze Choo

Malaysian-born Yangsze Choo writes novels infused with the tropical mysteries of her childhood.

by Stuart Miller

Illuminated manuscript page

Rare books at risk

Consequences of book-breaking

by Diane E. Booton

An official Houghton envelope with the words: "Memorandum regarding Eliot Hale letters, instructions enclosed."

Houghton unveils TS Eliot letter about his muse Emily Hale

A bombshell letter from modernist poet T.S. Eliot, 50 years after his death

by Lydialyle Gibson