When ordinary people die, remaining behind are gravestone epigraphs, photographs, and obituary notices pasted in family scrapbooks. Henry Beetle Hough, however, was not an ordinary man. A true New Englander, Hough loved writing as much... Read More

It is a common complaint that marriage changes people. For Nadia Chaabani, that fear was real: “A knot tightened around my heart. It was so strong that as soon as Ahmed was out of the room I started screaming to keep from... Read More

The benchmark triumphs of mankind evoke images of snapping flags atop devastating pinnacles, world records falling before stunning, unrelenting challengers, and technologies remolding once impossible feats into merely deadly endeavors.... Read More

“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.” Ralph Waldo Emerson famously sounded this rallying call to individualism in his essay “Self-Reliance.” Emerson, along with... Read More

When a biographer (or, in this case, biographers) undertakes to write the life of a person who is already the subject of previous works, it is usually either the result of a discovery of a new cache of documents, or because the... Read More

For the author, the lush Redwood country of California’s Anderson Valley gave him a sense of purpose, a reverence for nature, and a pride in accomplishment that neither his childhood on the poor side of Los Angeles nor the Vietnam War... Read More

Football player, coach, artist, and actor—William Lone Star Dietz played each of these roles during his long, celebrated career, and in each of these personas he found success. Questions from the hazy background of Lone Star’s early... Read More

While the First American Revolution was about liberty, which, among other things, meant a license for some men to own slaves, the Second American Revolution was fought over freedom. This broader concept went beyond emancipation to extend... Read More