Books & Literary Life
Literary criticism, author interviews, and book culture from within and beyond Harvard.
America’s Past, Opera's Future: 11 New Books from Harvard Authors
These newly released novels, histories, and memoirs grapple with identity in all its forms.
Chapter & Verse
Suzanne Ekman hopes someone can identify a source for the following line, possibly from a Mark Van Doren poem: “…but where were...
Gift Ideas from a Valentine's-Day Doubter
The book selections include titles from fiction, memoir, self-help/advice, cookbooks, travel guides, and poetry...
Off the Shelf
The Complete Fables of Jean de La Fontaine, translated by Norman R. Shapiro ’51, Ph.D. ’58 (University of Illinois, $80 cloth, $25...
Venerable, Valuable Volumes
With its muted hues and pine floorboards, the store resembles a medieval library with a blinking Apple iMac on the counter. Inventory at James...
Chairman of the Bored
Improbable as it may seem, James D. Watson—the co-discoverer (with Francis Crick) of the structure of DNA—has written a Book of...
"Poems Are Not Position Papers"
Porter University Professor Helen Vendler grew up with her mother’s poetry books, which “stopped with the Victorians.” It was...
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...
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