Nonfiction

Essays

When Does a Divorce Begin?

Most people think of it as failure. For me it was an achievement.
Anahid Nersessian
Books

Vanity Fair’s Heyday

I was once paid six figures to write an article—now what?
Bryan Burrough
A Closer Read

Taking Offense

Reading through bad feeling
Garth Greenwell
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
Sepia toned photograph showing painter Joan Mitchell behind a canvas in her studio
Essays

The Unfolding of Time in Paint

My encounters with Joan Mitchell's panels
Rachel Cohen

Browse

Nonfiction

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
From the Archives

A Negro Nation

W. E. B. Du Bois
October 1, 1942
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

When Democratic Virtues Disintegrate

Carl Becker
July 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