Books & Literary Life
Literary criticism, author interviews, and book culture from within and beyond Harvard.
Open Book: A New Nuclear Age
Harvard historian Serhii Plokhy’s latest book looks at the rising danger of a new arms race.
Philip Johnson biography by Mark Lamster reviewed by Spencer Lee Lenfield
A “star-chitect” as P.T. Barnum
Chapter and verse quotation-citation correspondence site
Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words
Image and the Arc of Feeling
Jorie Graham’s challenging lyrics use language to give readers the experience of the poem.
Excerpt from “Not Quite Not White” by Sharmila Sen
A “first-gen” American explores race and assimilation in the United States.
Casey Cep reviews “These Truths: A History of the United States,” by Jill Lepore
Jill Lepore excavates the history of America, down to its bedrock values.
by Casey N. Cep
Recent books with Harvard connections
Recent books with Harvard connections
Boston by Foot’s “Dark Side of Boston” tour
“Stories the Chamber of Commerce doesn’t want you to hear”
Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon in the Spotlight
Fresh efforts to understand the writer’s history and craft
Laura van den Berg and “The Third Hotel”
In Laura van den Berg’s fiction, the deeply strange is ordinary.
Excerpt from “The Known Citizen” by Sarah E. Igo
A sweeping history of the idea of privacy in America