Arts & Letters
A selection of recent articles on this topic
The Death and Life of Bohemia
Talkin’ Greenwich Village:The Heady Rise and Slow Fall of America’s Bohemian Music Capitalby david brownehachette, 352 pages,…
Goethe’s Bargain
Goethe:His Faustian Lifeby a. n. wilsonbloomsbury, 416 pages, $35 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is among the most…
What to Remember
I had thought of calling this piece “Against Memory.” Hyperbolic, perhaps, but I had my reasons. I’ve started…
Exemplary
A vagabond, seduced by impish godsTo jaywalk the downtown interstate, is dead.Addled with booze, he managed against…
Epistle to a Former Friend
When I say a prayerfor the wicked I despairand think, of course, of youand how your late-night…
Saint Gobnait of the Honeybees
She’d have naught of silvery turnings like fish,The Celtic knot of wedded, bedded love.She stole away to…
Seeing Sacred Scripture
Is there a visual language to Sacred Scripture? Some passages of the Bible have become inextricably entwined…
2024: Our Year in Books
R. R. Reno I was in a Goodwill in Denver when my eyes fell upon a paperback…
Our Most Popular Articles of 2024
On the last day of the year, here’s a glance back at our most-read essays of 2024.…
The Poetry of Opera
The latest installment of an ongoing interview series with contributing editor Mark Bauerlein. Dana Gioia joins in to…
A Year of Reading: 2024
A year ago, after a series of annual lists that grew longer and longer, I changed the…
Real Persons
How to Know a Person:The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seenby david brooksrandom house,…
Taking God Seriously
I first picked up a copy of First Things about fifteen years ago. I spent several years…
Stained Glass
My father holds a panel of glassbetween us: we are both bathed blue.Wordlessly, we let the light…
My Mother’s Teeth
My mother’s teeth were kept in a bottlemarked with the sign of the cross. I usedto shake…
