A Life of His Own

Victoria Glendinning’s biography of Leonard Woolf looks at a remarkable public intellectual whose life and work were eclipsed by his more famous spouse.

Brenda Wineapple

The Sunkist Utopian

One hundred years ago, Upton Sinclair exposed the meatpacking industry. Three new books expose Sinclair as an activist dreamer with a messianic streak.

Brenda Wineapple

Nancy Has Two Mommies

Nancy Drew has been a fixture in young girls’ lives since 1930. But the continuing appeal of this spunky American icon–never sad, wrinkled or misunderstood–is both heartwarming and a little scary.

Brenda Wineapple

About Henry

Henry James is not a name that springs to mind when we think of adventure stories, prose epics or historical fiction.

Brenda Wineapple

Le Gai Savoir

“Paris is a very old story,” Henry James wrote in 1878–so old, in fact, that it’s hard to write about it without falling into clichés about chestnut trees, couture, freedom and