Irritable Reachings: On John Keats Irritable Reachings: On John Keats
A new biography of John Keats is no match for Keats’s poetic inventions.
Jan 9, 2013 / Books & the Arts / James Longenbach
A Dash for It: On Lisa Cohen A Dash for It: On Lisa Cohen
The unconventional story of three women and their unconventional lives in the early twentieth century.
Dec 5, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Ruth Scurr
Chicken Wire and Telephone Calls: On Robert Caro’s LBJ Chicken Wire and Telephone Calls: On Robert Caro’s LBJ
In The Passage of Power, Robert Caro shows that LBJ’s brilliance as a politician lay not in his idealism but his opportunism.
Nov 20, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Thomas Meaney
Raw Judicial Power: On William Rehnquist Raw Judicial Power: On William Rehnquist
The Partisan is a weak account of the career and legal thinking of a conservative and obstreperous chief justice.
Oct 3, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Michael O’Donnell
The Unconquered Flame: On Robert Duncan The Unconquered Flame: On Robert Duncan
A new biography shows how the poet Robert Duncan fed a line backward into the labyrinthine history of human imagination.
Sep 18, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Ange Mlinko
The Generalist: On Charles de Gaulle The Generalist: On Charles de Gaulle
How Charles de Gaulle’s story became a collective fairy tale that the French have agreed to believe in.
Sep 12, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Thomas Meaney
The Antagonist: On Lillian Hellman The Antagonist: On Lillian Hellman
How did Lillian Hellman become the archetype of hypocrisy?
Aug 29, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Victor Navasky
A Charismatic Chameleon: On Luis Buñuel A Charismatic Chameleon: On Luis Buñuel
Hitchcock delighted in manipulating the audience. Early on Luis Buñuel learned to be satisfied with amusing himself.
Apr 25, 2012 / Books & the Arts / J. Hoberman
A Double Inheritance: On Margaret Fuller A Double Inheritance: On Margaret Fuller
A nineteenth-century feminist's exceptional life.
Apr 3, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Vivian Gornick
Alice Kaplan: Angela Davis’s France Alice Kaplan: Angela Davis’s France
For a young black student, France was not the refuge it was reputed to be.
Mar 15, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Francis Reynolds