American literature Archives

American literature

Twain Dreams

by John Jeremiah Sullivan,

The enigma of Samuel Clemens

The Keys to Veracruz

by Charles Portis,

From the unfinished novel The Woman from Nowhere

Campaign Literature

by Thomas Chatterton Williams,

From a certain angle, Donald Trump’s presidency may not have moved the United States in entirely the wrong direction. One of the few areas to benefit from his stewardship, the…

Christopher Beha on Arts and Entertainments

by Jesse Barron,

Christopher Beha discusses sex tapes as literary vehicle, the celebrity impulse, and the problematic absence of religion in American literature

American Scolder

by John Stuart Mill,

From annotations written by John Stuart Mill on his personal copies of the first editions of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Essays, which were published in two volumes, in 1841 and 1844.…

The decline of gossip

by Joseph Epstein,

Death by icicle

by Patrick Dacey,

Wow, Fiction Works!

by Colson Whitehead,

By Colson Whitehead, from “James Root on How to Read,” part of a talk delivered last July at the Tin House Writers Workshop, in Portland, Oregon. Sag Harbor, Whitehead’s fourth…

Radiant Poison

by Vivian Gornick,

Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, and the end of the Jew as metaphor

New books

by John Leonard,

After Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the Preface

Art by Jeff Wall,