By: Sarah Weinman

GEORGE V. HIGGINS (1939-99) is usually remembered for his 1972 novel, The Friends of Eddie Coyle. It was his first outing, and its unglamorous look at the underworld set Higgins’ work apart from the grand […]

By: Mark Kingwell

He invented cultural criticism.

By: Lucy Sante

HANS MAGNUS ENZENS­BERGER (born 1929) is a poet, critic, playwright, translator, magazine editor, and author of children’s books about science and mathematics. He has often been called Germany’s greatest living poet. T. W. Adorno, introducing […]

By: Patrick Cates

If you grew up glued to a television set in England in the ’80s, as I did, nothing irritated you more than local and general election broadcasts, which your parents insisted on watching while you […]

By: Lynn Peril

On September 23, 1969, a group of women, conspicuous among them a tall, patrician blonde, handed out mimeographed leaflets to passersby and newlyweds alike at New York City’s marriage bureau. Rather than wedding-day platitudes, the […]

By: Joe Alterio

Her acting career has garnered PARKER POSEY (born 1968) the moniker “Queen of the Indies,” but she deserves an upgrade. In the fantasy life of the young suburban boys who actually grow up to be […]

By: Joshua Glenn

In a 1945 essay, the French-Jewish author, philosopher, and journalist ALBERT CAMUS (1913-60) asked, “What is a man who revolts?” His answer: “First of all, it’s a man who says no. But if he refuses, […]

By: Peggy Nelson

What do you do when you’re ROBERT MUSIL (1880-1942), when you’ve been nominated for a Nobel prize, when you live in abject poverty because you refuse to compromise, when you’re plagued by the success of […]

By: Jason Grote

Writing in 1949, Philip Rahv divided American literature into volatile, rebellious “redskins” and puritan, effete “palefaces.” Although Rahv was dividing the lowbrow from the high, I would assert that, today, our “redskins” are intellectually restless […]

By: Lynn Peril

Classically chiseled male bodies in sumptuous black and white.

By: Joe Alterio

I lived in California for nearly ten years, and whenever I would take the interminable ride up or down The Five, I would stick my old Nikon F1 out the window and try to play […]

By: Greg Rowland

Spider-Man and Dr. Strange co-creator STEVE DITKO (born 1927) is the third member of the triumvirate of genius that originally conceived the Marvel Universe. Yet while Stan Lee and Jack Kirby reflected aspects of the […]

By: Annie Nocenti

CHARLIE KAUFMAN (born 1958) writes film scripts that zig when you expect a zag. Fantastic notions are met with deadpan nonchalance, creating comedy of simmering delirium. He redefined the screwball comedy as more of a […]

By: Peggy Nelson

No one writes edge-of-your-seat, action-packed, cinematic cliffhangers better than NEAL STEPHENSON (born 1959), and that’s just the talking-heads parts of his novels of ideas. He mashes up solid theoretical discourse (physics, cryptography, philosophy, semiotics) with […]

By: Matthew Battles

In a wire cage in the Pisan sun at the end of the Second World War, the forces of chaos and order clashed for EZRA POUND (1885–1972) more keenly than ever. With the accusation of […]