A DEFENSE OF JOY
by Mario Benedetti translated by Maria Popova
Rachel Carson on Writing and the Loneliness of Creative Work
Many of the titans of literature have left, alongside a body of work that models powerful writing, abiding advice on the craft that examines the source of that power. Unrivaled…
The Paper-Flower Tree: An Illustrated Ode to the Courage of Withstanding Cynicism and the Generative Power of the Affectionate Imagination
Much of what makes the story so wonderful is the magical realism of this deliberate interpolation between reality and make-belief — the characters themselves dip in and out of the…
Vintage Posters for Libraries and Reading
After a look at those vintage ads for iconic books, how about some vintage ads and posters for all books? Delightfully colorful and brimming with endearingly bad copywriting, these mid-century…
Neil deGrasse Tyson Selects the Eight Books Every Intelligent Person on the Planet Should Read
How to “glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world.”
Anne Sexton’s Sensual Love Poem “Song for a Lady,” in an Animation Inspired by Oliver Sacks
“So many doors open when you are present with an angle.”
Meet Mary Somerville: The Brilliant Woman for Whom the Word “Scientist” Was Coined
That women should face such an Everestine climb toward inclusion and equality is a piece of curious and rather cruel cultural irony, for the very word “scientist” didn’t always have…
Hooked on the Heavens: How Caroline Herschel, the First Professional Woman Astronomer, Nearly Died by Meathook in the Name of Science
How a paragon of persistence in the face of hardship discovered eight comets and paved the way for women in science.
Gauguin’s Stirring First-Hand Account of What Actually Happened the Night Van Gogh Cut off His Own Ear
Certain relationships are charged with an intensity of feeling that incinerates the walls we habitually erect between platonic friendship, romantic attraction, and intellectual-creative infatuation. One of the most dramatic of…
The Divine Within: Aldous Huxley on Mind-Body Integration and How We Become Who We Are
Aldous Huxley (July 26, 1894–November 22, 1963) endures as one of the most visionary and unusual minds of the twentieth century — a man of strong convictions about drugs, democracy,…