Evil stories
Plus: The complete Auden, imaginary numbers and more
Micah Mattix
Micah Mattix is a senior editor of The Spectator’s World edition and the author of the Prufrock newsletter. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, the New Criterion, the Atlantic and many other publications.
Saturday
Thursday
The exhaustion of American culture
Plus: America and Israel, a history of Labour and more
Books you should plan to read this fall
The temperature might have soared but there’s plenty of good lit to look forward to
Wednesday
The lost art of dying
Plus: The history of Library of America, reading Larkin and more
Wednesday
The man who invented waterskiing
Plus: Medieval street musicians, a married Eliot, and more
Saturday
Ancient souvenirs
Plus: a speculative history of France, Auden’s essays and more
Friday
The supposed prosperity of ancient Rome
Plus: The life and work of René Magritte, the never-ending OED and more
Tuesday
Molière at 400
Plus: England’s eccentric gardens, Blade Runner at forty and more
Monday
The Marxist writer who railed against Lenin
Maxim Gorky looked to literature and culture as much as to revolution
Thursday
Lincoln in context
Plus: Céline’s war novel, Oxford’s disappearing second-hand bookstores and more
Tuesday
In praise of (very) small independent publishers
They punch above their weight, especially with religious books
What your bookshelves say about you
Plus: The English jazz scene and more
Saturday
Dog dreams
Plus: A not-so-radical history of the American Revolution
Thursday
Those tiresome gendered novels
Plus: P.D. James’s moral detective fiction, the rise of palm oil and more
Tuesday
The problem with climate change alarmism
Plus: In praise of bookstores, a radical left-wing critique of feminism and more
Sunday
The welcome return of The Kids in the Hall
Only the 90s could have given us something so bizarre and anarchic
Saturday
Writing race
Plus: Against emotional overstatement, a history of frankincense and more
Tuesday
Should writers talk?
Plus: The Doobie Brothers, Eudora Welty and more
Monday
The Optimist’s Daughter at fifty
A rich and daring novel reminds us that memory must be given its due
Saturday
Is Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose a failure?
Plus: A life of Tocqueville, Britain after the Sixties and more
