Books & Literary Life

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

From Appalachia to Harvard, a Woman’s Struggle to Find Herself

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

by Nina Pasquini , Nell Porter-Brown

Chapter & Verse

Marcia Chellis requests a source for “Everything is high school.” Barbara Murray would like to verify an anecdote involving...

"...In My Mind I Am Perplexed"

The Civil War transformed American society and institutions. It brought about the formal end of slavery (but not of racial discrimination). It...

by Drew Gilpin Faust

Vanished Acts

"Your wooden arm you hold outstretched to shake with passers-by." Three worthy books full of Harvard references have arrived...

The Rebellion of E.E. Cummings

Literary critics have found any number of ways to divide writers into opposing teams. Isaiah Berlin distinguished between...

by Adam Kirsch

The Mysterious Mr. Shakespeare

Cogan University professor Stephen Greenblatt set out to solve a mystery about Shakespeare

by Jonathan Shaw

Open Book

Poet and literary figure John Hall Wheelock '08 (1886-1978) was an editor at Charles Scribner's Sons for 46 years, working with Hemingway...