Literature

The evolutionary argument for Dr. Seuss The evolutionary argument for Dr. Seuss

Why do we often care more about imaginary characters than real people? A new book suggests that fiction is crucial to our survival as a species.
By Laura Miller May 18, 2009

  • Portrait of the public intellectual as mere mortal

    Susan Sontag's journals mean something different to just about everyone.
    By Amy Benfer December 18, 2008

  • The slush pile gave me writer's block!

    Everything was fine until I started reading unsolicited manuscripts.
    By Cary Tennis August 20, 2008

  • "Beowulf" vs. "The Lord of the Rings"

    One is a living universe, the other a 3-D voyage to schlockville. A great essay by Tolkien helps us understand why.
    By Gary Kamiya November 20, 2007

  • I'm addicted to Harry Potter fan fiction!

    Every moment I'm alone, I'm secretly reading the stories, the forums, the recommendations. I can't stop!
    By Cary Tennis November 2, 2007

  • I dream of Darcy

    A new wave of Austen-mania revolves around ballgowns, romance and Colin Firth's sexy breeches. But what would Jane herself say about this fantasy of the perfect man?
    By Rebecca Traister June 27, 2007

  • Nelson Algren's New Orleans

    The 1956 classic "A Walk on the Wild Side" captured the Crescent City as we'll never see it again -- seedy, brutal, alive.
    By Allen Barra September 7, 2006

  • Wole Soyinka: Exit, pursued by a bear

    The Nigerian Nobel laureate's weird memoir recalls a life of protest, exile -- and farcical political interventions.
    By Matt Steinglass April 20, 2006

  • The rake of Rouen

    A new biography depicts Madame Bovary's creator as a sexual adventurer who spent his life at war with his bourgeois self.
    By Stephen Amidon April 15, 2006

  • Reading "Lolita" in Alabama

    Fifty years after its publication, and 20 after my first reading, Nabokov's masterpiece is still dangerous -- but not for the reasons you might think.
    By Allen Barra December 22, 2005

  • Women's studies

    Chick lit is often dissed for being trashy and dumb. Back off! These novels of fashion and family are recording women's history.
    By Rebecca Traister November 1, 2005

  • The blogger who loathed me

    My cyber-nemesis had been trashing me for months. Then we met, and I had a chance to take a terrible revenge.
    By Steve Almond October 13, 2005

  • Fantastic friends

    Bestselling writers Neil Gaiman and Susanna Clarke talk with Salon about fairies, folk tales and fighting the tyranny of realism.
    By Laura Miller October 8, 2005

  • The man who knew too much

    Edmund Wilson had four wives, dozens of affairs, a drinking problem -- and the sharpest critical mind of his generation.
    By Allen Barra October 4, 2005

  • "Borges: A Life" by Edwin Williamson

    Jorge Luis Borges went from being an unknown middle-aged librarian to one of the 20th century's most influential writers. So why do so few people read him now?
    By Allen Barra August 27, 2004

  • Letters

    Writers, editors, publishers and, yes, even readers respond to "The Confessions of a Semi-successful Author."
    March 24, 2004

  • "The Spooky Art" by Norman Mailer

    In a new volume of advice to young writers, the great man of American letters weighs his own legacy -- and finds it wanting.
    By Aaron Hicklin April 14, 2003

  • "Iris"

    This film about old people, genius, love and light just might be a masterpiece.
    By David Thomson January 10, 2002

  • Sex and the open stacks

    As an unsuspecting adolescent searching my local library, I was lured into the smoky den of literature by Anaïs Nin's erotica.
    By Kathy Wilson August 29, 2001

  • For the love of literature

    Scott Fitzgerald stole Zelda's ideas, plagiarized her diaries and even pushed her into an affair. He was arguably the worst husband of his generation -- and that made him its best author.
    By Jonathon Keats August 25, 2001

  • Sentenced to death

    Is a snooty "sentence cult" sending the Great American Novel to hell in a pretentious purple handbasket?
    By Laura Miller August 16, 2001
Page 1 of 3    oldest ⇒
Salon Directory › l › Literature (63 stories)

From Salon's blogs