Pournelle, Gingrich and Trump see a future that must be secured by authoritarian institutions that group together humanity’s best and prevent the rest from stifling them. By David Auerbach.

Mark Twain left behind notes for a children’s story, soon to be published. How faithful should it be to his perspective? By Mythili G. Rao

In “Edge of Irony: Modernism in the Shadow of the Habsburg Empire,” Marjorie Perloff returns to the world of her birth. She engages in a close reading of six major post-imperial Austrian writers, making the case for the existence of a distinctive and valuable tradition of “Austro-Modernism.” By Adam Kirsch.

Revisiting the work of A. E. Housman. By Adam Kirsch.

Frank Herbert’s “Dune,” an enduring science fiction classic, owes much of its mythology to “The Sabres of Paradise,” an undeservedly forgotten history. By Will Collins.

Longtime contrarian continues to be a fly in the establishment's ointment. By Robert W. Merry.

Science fiction author Jerry Pournelle passed away earlier this week after a sudden illness at the age of 84. He helped popularize the military science fiction genre with novels such as Janissaries and The Mercenary, but is also credited with a major milestone: the first author to write a novel entirely on a computer. Pournelle wrote on his blog on Thursday that he had come down with a cold and the flu while attending DragonCon in Atlanta, Georgia, and his son Alex confirmed his passing last night, (via File770) saying that he didn’t suffer. Steven Barnes, with whom...

On the Tragic Life and Death of the Master and Margarita Author. By Julie Lekstrom Himes. (Jan 23, 2017)

A year before leaving Enfield—the Georgian-style school building would later be converted into a train station and then ultimately be demolished—John Keats discovered Books. Books were the spoils left by the Incas, by Captain Cook’s voyages, Robinson Crusoe... By Fleur Jaeggy.

What kind of books do you write when you believe civilization is doomed? By Laura Miller.

Nancy MacLean, a professor of history and public policy at Duke U., has riled libertarians with her new book, "Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America." By Marc Parry.

In 1940, John Steinbeck helped catalog wildlife in the Sea of Cortez. Now, a new creature lurks beneath the ultramarine waters. By Lauren J. Young.

A quiet bombshell of a biography that reclaims a revolutionary Thoreau for the 21st century. By Daegan Miller.

James Thomas Snyder celebrates Rebecca West’s classic “Black Lamb and Grey Falcon.”

Thoughts on poverty, misery, and the great revolutions of history.

What happened when one of the world’s most unusual, and beloved, computer programmers disappeared. By Annie Lowrey.

The surprising persistence of Henry David Thoreau. By Jedediah Purdy.

By Patrick West.

H.P. Lovecraft and J.G. Ballard both put architecture at the heart of their fiction, and both made the humble corner into a place of nightmares. By Will Wiles.

The acclaimed and controversial French author discusses his new show of photographs. By Christian Lorentzen.