The Panopticon

Revisiting Foucault’s treatise on the flow of power

The Genius of James Boswell

Samuel Johnson's biographer set a high bar for the rest of us.

Rumi’s Masnavi

The 13th-century visionary was so much more than a poet.

Magnificent Masha

Through her many books, journalist Gessen shines an unsparing, incisive light on Russia

Mother Goose and Idiolect

The famous rhymes are a gift to language

Dear Rufus,

A loving letter to James Agee