Essays

Essays

The Unfolding of Time in Paint

My encounters with Joan Mitchell's panels
Rachel Cohen
Sepia toned photograph showing painter Joan Mitchell behind a canvas in her studio
Memoir

The Talented Ms. Highsmith

I worked for the novelist in her final months. I thought she wanted to kill me.
Elena Gosalvez Blanco
A Closer Read

Taking Offense

Reading through bad feeling
Garth Greenwell
Essays

How Mrs. Dalloway Began

Slipping into Virginia Woolf’s sentences
Edmund de Waal
Essays

When Does a Divorce Begin?

Most people think of it as failure. For me it was an achievement.
Anahid Nersessian
Dan Fox as a child with his nain, or grandmother, in the chicken-filled yard of Siambr Wen, near Llanrwst, North Wales, UK
Essays

What Happened When I Began to Speak Welsh

By learning my family's language, I hoped to join their conversation.
Dan Fox

Browse

Essays

From the Archives

G.B.S.—Mankind’s Friend

Thomas Mann
March 1, 1951
From the Archives

Germany and the Germans

Thomas Mann
December 1, 1946
Blue stamps from WWII ration book
Essays

Note on the Home Front

I shall never forget that first winter of gasoline rationing
Eve Riehle
September 1, 1945
A photograph of a London street during WWII.
Essays

After a Visit to England

London during the Blitz
Thornton Wilder
September 1, 1941
From the Archives

Tides of American Politics

Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr.
December 1, 1939
From the Archives

Two Antiquaries: Walpole and Cole

Virginia Woolf
March 1, 1939
From the Archives

Address at the Dedication of the Thomas Mann Collection at Yale University

Thomas Mann
June 1, 1938
From the Archives

Afterthoughts on Constitutions

Carl Becker
March 1, 1938
From the Archives

A Conversation About Art

Virginia Woolf
September 1, 1934
From the Archives

Hitler’s National Socialism

Leon Trotsky
December 1, 1933