Books & Literary Life

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

These Harvard Mountaineers Braved Denali’s Wall of Ice

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

by Lydialyle Gibson

A Harvard undergraduate assesses his unfinished works

Pre-Commencement, the Undergraduate assesses his unfinished works.

by Bailey Trela

Brief life of mathematician Nathaniel Bowditch

Brief life of a mathematician and businessman: 1773-1839

by Tamara Plakins ...

Excerpt from Amy Tuteur's "Push Back: Guilt in the Age of Natural Parenting"

Strong words from a combatant in the childbirth wars

Houghton Library Celebrates the Quatercentenary of Shakespeare's Death

Celebrating four centuries of Shakespeare at Harvard

by Olivia Munk

Salem's House of the Seven Gables survives

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Salem muse was preserved by philanthropist Caroline Emmerton.

by Nell Porter-Brown

“Remembering Monomoy” honors a special part of Cape Cod

Fred Crafts ’50 combines memoir and appreciation of Cape Cod’s natural wonders in Remembering Monomoy.

by Jean Martin

Recent books with Harvard connections

Fireflies, dating and love, growing old, and other recent books with Harvard connections

“The Rise and Fall of American Growth,” reviewed by Shane Greenstein

Definitive economic history—and a debatable, despairing forecast

by Shane Greenstein

Chapter and verse quotation-citation correspondence site

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Dustin Tingley on the domestic politics of foreign policy

Political scientists demystify unseen institutional tensions.