The Critic Elizabeth Hardwick Was Very Tough on Biographies. Now Here’s One of Her.
To be a literary biographer is to court the extravagant ridicule of the very people you write about. For all of the salutary services a writer’s …
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Visconti’s Operatic Autopsy of German History, Restored Anew
The revered Italian director Luchino Visconti was openly gay yet devoutly Catholic, ostensibly Communist yet unyieldingly aristocratic. In short …
Sorry, Stephanie Grisham, You Are Not Redeemed
I did not and will not crack open the cover of Stephanie Grisham’s White House memoir, but yesterday I read sneak peeks and synopses of it, and …
Homes That Sold for Around $750,000
Each week, our survey of recent residential sales in New York City and the surrounding region focuses on homes that sold around a certain price …
U.S. and Britain Help Ukraine Prepare for Potential Russian Cyberassault
WASHINGTON — In the closing days of 2015, the lights went out across a swath of Ukraine as Russian hackers remotely took over an electric utility …
Why We Have to Wave the ‘Bloody Shirt’ of Jan. 6
Policy is rational. Politics are not. It takes a story to move voters, an emotional connection that tells them something about themselves and the …
Smoky Cocktails Without a Single Ember
Smoking in crowded bars may mostly (and happily) be a relic of the past, but the cocktail glass itself hasn’t lost all elements of smoke — often …
3,000 Years Ago, Britain Got Half Its Genes From … France?
Three years ago in the journal Nature, a vast international research team led in part by Harvard geneticist David Reich shined a torchlight on …
Your Friday Briefing
The Westminster subway station in London on Thursday. Credit…Alberto Pezzali/Associated PressAn Omicron wave heads for the U.K. As Britain …
In Search of the Black Utopia
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has a long history of “period rooms” that use art, architecture and furnishings to convey a sense …