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Featured highlights ...
Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Atlantic Monthly
Writings by and about Nathaniel Hawthorne offer insight into his life and work.
Flashbacks: The Difficult Grandeur of Robert Lowell
Writings by and about Robert Lowell offer insight into the life and poetry of a tormented legend.
Flashbacks: Balkan Epic
Rebecca West's classic account of her journey to the Balkans, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, appeared first in The Atlantic Monthly in 1941.
Interviews: Never Again Again
In March of last year, Atlantic Unbound interviewed Samantha Power, whose book, A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, is the winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction.
Flashbacks: Mencken, America's Critic
Articles by Jacques Barzun, Alfred Knopf, and H. L. Mencken himself offer an in-depth look at the controversial newspaper legend.
Flashbacks: The Public and Private Worlds of Charles Dickens
Personal recollections, essays, and reviews by Edmund Wilson, David Lodge, and others, shed light on the life and career of Charles Dickens.
The Buying of Books (February 1922)
"Sometimes, when I have bought a book that I did not need and am a little ashamed to go home, I make an inscription in it: 'To my dear wife, upon her birthday.'" A minister confesses to his insatiable appetite for new books.
Flashbacks: The House of Wharton
The story of Wharton's association with The Atlantic, and a sampling of her poems, short stories, and critical reviews of her work.
Journalism and Morality (June 1926)
"Other reporters would have done as I did, confident of the approval of their superiors; and this was true of nearly all metropolitan newspapers twenty years ago, not merely of those which were denominated yellow." By Silas Bent.
Green Days and Photojournalism, and the Old Man in the Room (August 1972)
At Life, in the halcyon days, an apprentice reporter could encounter Henry Luce in his private elevator, and wind up with Margaret Bourke-White on assignment in the jungle. By Michael J. Arlen.
Notes on the New Journalism (May 1972)
The New Journalist is in the end less a journalist than an impresario. Tom Wolfe presents ... Phil Spector! Norman Mailer presents ... the Moon Shot! By Michael J. Arlen.
Flashbacks: Mark Twain in The Atlantic Monthly
The story of Twain's association with The Atlantic, and a sampling of his writings.
Flashbacks: Who Was Kipling?
A sampling of writing from The Atlantic's past offers a range of views on the many contradictions of Rudyard Kipling.
Great Moments in Literary Baseball (May 1987)
"The centrefielder cannot hold...." By Robert Atwan.
Classic Review: Evelyn Waugh—The Best and the Worst (October 1954)
An appraisal of Waugh's novels, by Charles J. Rolo.
Poetry Pages: Recollecting Longfellow
In The Atlantic's early years, he was the poet of the age. David Barber introduces a selection of Longfellow's poems that were originally published in The Atlantic.
Flashbacks: Thoreau's "Wild Apples"
At the end of his life Henry David Thoreau was working on essays commissioned by The Atlantic. One of them, "Wild Apples," has recently resurfaced.
Flashbacks: Tracking Hemingway
Atlantic articles from 1939 to 1983—by Edmund Wilson, Malcolm Cowley, Alfred Kazin, and others—track the strengths and weaknessnes of this American literary lion.
Flashbacks: Henry James
A retrospective selection of pieces by and about Henry James, including his first short story to appear in the magazine (in 1865); the first installment of Portrait of a Lady, which was serialized in the magazine in 1880-81; Leon Edel's "The Deathbed Notes of Henry James," from June, 1968; and more.
Flashbacks: Great Books
The Modern Library had its say. Here's a look back at what The
Atlantic Monthly has had to say over the years about some of the
greatest literary works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Classic Review: Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens (September 1861)
"The very title of this book indicates the confidence of conscious genius."
Classic Review: Middlemarch, by George Eliot (April 1873)
"The verdict which public opinion has pronounced, or, rather, is from time to time pronouncing, on the writing of George Eliot is certainly a very complicated one."
Classic Review: Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman (January 1882)
"The book cannot attain to any very wide influence."
Classic Review: On the Road, by Jack Kerouac (October 1957)
"The novel contains a great deal of excellent writing. Mr. Kerouac has a distinctive style, part severe simplicity, part hep-cat jargon, part baroque fireworks."
Classic Review: Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov (September 1958)
"Lolita blazes with a perversity of a most original kind. For Mr. Nabokov has distilled from his shocking material hundred-proof intellectual farce."
More Classic Reviews from The Atlantic's archive.
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In the November 2006 issue ...
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Babes in Toyland
The Arcades Project, by Walter Benjamin; Carried Away, by Rachel Bowlby; Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping, edited by Chuihua Judy Chung, Jeffrey Inaba, Rem Koolhaas, and Sze Tsung Leong; Mall Maker, by M. Jeffrey Hardwick; Victor Gruen, by Alex Wall. By Benjamin Schwarz.
BOOKS
Production Values
American Idol lets us feel their pain. By Dale Peck.
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READING LIST
Walk-In Closet
Post-Brokeback, more gay love stories for straight people. By Terry Castle.
BOOKS
A French Quarrel
What Algeria’s past can—and can’t—tell us about the present day. By Christopher Hitchens.
BOOKS
A Chronology of the Algerian War of Independence
By Christopher Hitchens.
Cover to Cover
A guide to additional releases. By Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz.
Recently ...
EDITOR’S CHOICE
The Path of Least Resistance
What to read this month. By Benjamin Schwarz.
BOOKS
New Fiction
After This, by Alice McDermott. By Joseph O’Neill.
BOOKS
The Drama of the Gifted Parent
Hey! Leave those kids alone! By Sandra Tsing Loh.
BOOKS
New Fiction
By Scott Prater.
BOOKS
A Close Read
Breakable You, by Brian Morton. By Christina Schwarz.
READING LIST
Zoologically Correct
A wisecracking playboy gets friendly with bunnies, birds, even dogs. By Bill Maher.
BOOKS
New Fiction
The Keep, by Jennifer Egan. By Joseph O’Neill.
BOOKS
Poison Pen
The exceptional insouciance of Jessica Mitford. By Christopher Hitchens.
BOOKS
Mitfordiana
By Christopher Hitchens.
THE CRITICS
Cover to Cover
A guide to additional releases. By Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Orson Agonistes
Orson Welles: Hello Americans, by Simon Callow; Framing the Early Middle Ages, by Chris Wickham. By Benjamin Schwarz.
BOOKS
Feckless Youth
What Kennedy magic? By Christopher Hitchens.
READING LIST
Establishing Shots
The picture books that style makers use. By Sally Singer.
BOOKS
Zip It
Erica Jong’s stunning self-absorption. By Cristina Nehring.
BOOKS
New Fiction
The Emperor's Children, by Claire Messud. By Elizabeth Judd.
ROUNDUP
Dark Passage
A selective investigation of recent mysteries and thrillers. By Jon Zobenica.
Cover to Cover
A guide to additional releases. By Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz.
ESSAYS
Close Reading
Learning to write by learning to read. By Francine Prose.
ESSAYS
Academic Discourse and Adulterous Intercourse
What campus novels can teach us. By Megan Marshall.
ESSAYS
Notes on the History of Fiction
Who would give up the Iliad for the “real” historical record? By E. L. Doctorow.
EDITOR'S CHOICE
Chairs, Rag Mags, Indian Wars
Phaidon Design Classics; A Dash of Daring, by Penelope Rowlands; Yellowstone Command, by Jerome A. Greene. By Benjamin Schwarz.
BOOKS
Cheap Thrills
A story of American women in financial jeopardy. By Sandra Tsing Loh.
BOOKS
New Fiction
Digging to America, by Anne Tyler. By Elizabeth Judd.
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FLASHBACKS
The Indomitable Jessica Mitford
Articles by and about the muckraking journalist make clear that her name is synonymous with far more than cheap funerals. Introduction by Molly Finnegan.
INTERVIEWS
Sorrow Without Pity
Carmen Callil discusses Bad Faith, her unflinching portrait of a fascist Frenchman in Nazi-occupied France. By Grant Rosenberg.
INTERVIEWS
Stop the Insanity!
Sandra Tsing-Loh describes the elite, utopian island of urban private education—and explains why she opted to steer clear of it. By Jennie Rothenberg.
INTERVIEWS
Doodlers-in-Chief
Sina Najafi talks about his quirky publication, Cabinet Magazine, and its forthcoming book of doodles by U.S. presidents. By Shaun Raviv.
FLASHBACKS
Remembering Martha Gellhorn
A longtime Atlantic contributor, Gellhorn's career was far more glorious than her brief marriage to Ernest Hemingway.
FLASHBACKS
A Taxonomy of Knowledge
Atlantic authors from the nineteenth century to the age of Wiki wax
philosophical on encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauri. Introduction by David Zax.
INTERVIEWS
Poet in Residence
David Barber, The Atlantic's poetry editor, talks about the writing and teaching of poetry, and about his new collection of poems, Wonder Cabinet By Sarah Cohen.
INTERVIEWS
Reading and Writing
Novelist and critic Francine Prose talks about creativity, literary craftsmanship, and her new book, Reading Like a Writer. By Jessica Murphy.
INTERVIEWS
Same Planet, Different Worlds
Gary Shteyngart, author of the novel Absurdistan, discusses American rappers, Azerbaijani kidnappers, and what makes satire serious fiction. By Jennie Rothenberg.
INTERVIEWS
A Woman's Place?
Caitlin Flanagan, America's feistiest stay-at-home mom, shares her thoughts on gerbils, gay marriage, and Robert Graves. By Jennie Rothenberg.
INTERVIEWS
Sentence by Sentence
Short story writer Amy Hempel talks about forensics, seeing eye dogs, and her new Collected Stories By Jessica Murphy.
INTERVIEWS
Beinart Talks Back
The author of The Good Fight defends his vision of the American Left. By Elizabeth Wasserman.
INTERVIEWS
Tight-Knit, Loose-Lipped
Elizabeth Strout on her new novel, Abide With Me—a story of small-town gossip and a minister's unraveling. By Katie Bacon.
INTERVIEWS
You Bet Your Life
Poet Gail Mazur on Robert Lowell, "the textural richness of the ordinary," and the value of artistic community. By Tess Taylor.
INTERVIEWS
Terra Incognita
Essayist Rebecca Solnit, the author of A Field Guide to Getting Lost, discusses the art of falling off the map. By Jennie Rothenberg.
INTERVIEWS
Paper Trail
Alice Quinn on the delicate task of piecing together the unfinished work of poet Elizabeth Bishop. By Tess Taylor.
FLASHBACKS
Birthplace of a Magazine
A look back at reflections on The Atlantic's early years in Boston. Introduction by Kathryn Crim.
FLASHBACKS
Howells Rediscovered
A collection of articles by and about The Atlantic's third editor, William Dean Howells, celebrates his contributions to the magazine and American literature. Introduction by Abigail Holstein.
INTERVIEWS
Master Among Men
Doris Kearns Goodwin, the author of Team of Rivals, talks about Lincoln and the unlikely band of colleagues he rallied to his cause. By Katie Bacon.
Books in Brief
Books reviewed in The Atlantic Monthly in 2005.
INTERVIEWS
Warriors for Good
Robert Kaplan talks about his new book, Imperial Grunts, and his extensive time on the ground with the soldiers of the U.S. military. By Elizabeth Dougherty.
INTERVIEWS
Bleak House
Rachel Cusk talks about her new novel, In the Fold, which explores the dark underside of a modern British fiefdom. By Jennie Rothenberg.
INTERVIEWS
Commander in Grief
Joshua Wolf Shenk on how melancholy both tore Abraham Lincoln apart and gave him strength. By Katie Bacon.
POLITICS & PROSE
White-collar Wasteland
Barbara Ehrenreich's new book, Bait and Switch, is a subversive report from the front lines of disappointment. By Jack Beatty.
INTERVIEWS
Zadie, Take Three
The author of White Teeth and The Autograph Man talks about her new comedy of manners-cum-campus novel and the pitfalls of literary celebrity. By Jessica Murphy.
INTERVIEWS
The Limits of Tolerance
Salman Rushdie talks about his new novel, Shalimar the Clown, the Islamic moral universe, and the crushing of Kashmir. By Katie Bacon.
INTERVIEWS
Clinton Reconsidered
John Harris, the author of The Survivor, on why Clinton and his legacy will be debated for decades to come. By Katie Bacon.
POLITICS & PROSE
The Teddy Treatment
Theodore Roosevelt—"master therapist of the middle class" By Jack Beatty.
INTERVIEWS
Write What You Like
Curtis Sittenfeld, the author of Prep, on literary page-turners and the problem with too much cleverness. By Katie Bacon.
INTERVIEWS
Myths and Metaphors
Kazuo Ishiguro on Jane Austen, adapting his work for film, and his latest
novel, Never Let Me Go By Jennie Rothenberg.
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