Issue


Featured Articles

Fear Of The City 1783 To 1983

Author: Alfred Kazin

The city has been a lure for millions, but most of the great American minds have been appalled by its excesses. Here an eminent observer, who knows firsthand the city’s threat, surveys the subject.

Ouija

Author: James P. Johnson

In 1913 the Ouija board dictated a novel. Twenty years later it commanded a murder. It is most popular in times of national catastrophe, and it’s selling pretty briskly just now.

Mother And Son

Author: Malcolm Cowley

Earthquake

Author:

An all-but-forgotten San Francisco photographer has left us a grand and terrible record of the destruction and rebirth of an American city

How The Media Seduced And Captured American Politics

Author: Richard C. Wade

A noted historian argues that television, a relative newcomer, has nearly destroyed old—and valuable—political traditions

City Lights

Author: Edward Sorel

The decline and fall of the lamppost

“If I Had Another Face, Do You Think I'd Wear This One?”

Author: Harold Holzer

…so Lincoln joked. Actually he was eager to pose for portraits.

Two Years In Kansas

Author: Warren P. Trimm

To get started as a prairie homesteader in the 1870s you needed uncommon reserves of strength, sanity, courage, and luck. Trimm had the first three.

Artists In Their Studios

Author: Lois Dinnerstein

As painting became a respectable profession in America, artists began to celebrate their workplaces