Philippa Foot was one of a group of brilliant women philosophers who swam against the tide of 20th-century moral thought. By Nakul Krishna.

David Plante's unhagiographic portraits of three literary women. By Kate Bolick.

Why do archaeological fraudsters work so hard to deceive us? Because bad science makes for good stories. By Ted Scheinman.

How Laura Ingalls Wilder’s frontier vision of freedom and survival lives on in Trump’s America. By Vivian Gornick.

An Interview with Prop Anon by R.U. Sirius.

How Stephen F. Cohen became the most controversial Russia expert in America. By “Tailgunner” Jordan Michael Smith.

We need a new 'Manufacturing Consent.' By Matt Taibbi.

He is the dramatic thunderstorm at the heart of philosophy and his provocation is more valuable than ever. By Julian Baggini.

On the danger of talking about books you’ve neglected: an excerpt from the forthcoming book by the late Umberto Eco.

Theodore Dreiser moved to New York during the Gilded Age to become a journalist. He didn't like what he saw. By Mike Wallace.

Wilde's first play, ‘Vera; or the Nihilists,’ is rarely written about or staged. By Jennifer Wilson.

An exchange in Netflix’s “The Center Will Not Hold” shows Didion’s mastery of the journalist’s necessary mental and emotional bifurcation.

Joan Didion’s seminal 1961 Vogue essay on self-respect.

Writing books was just a means to an end: Twain’s goal was to make money and then make even more money. By Alan Pell Crawford.

The left-wing poet died in 1973, weeks after a military coup led by general Augusto Pinochet.

"Speaking with his novelist friend Paul Bourget, prior to writing Le Horla, Maupassant confessed that he frequently encountered his own double, and while he repeatedly assured himself that it was pure hallucination, he recognized that his mind was starting to slip." By Aaron Dabbah.

A 19th-century philosopher’s nervous breakdown can teach us something about finding peace in a world in crisis. By Adam Etinson.

“Language-games.” By Ian Ground.

From invading Afghanistan to dismantling Confederate monuments, George Orwell has been pressed into the service of all sorts of causes. But the real Orwell remains unknown. By Peter Ross.

‘Did Hearn feel comfortable in Japan because being a foreigner overshadowed his physical difference?’ Kenny Fries on Lafcadio Hearn.