Amid the waning of the humanities, Said turned out to be one of the last literary scholars with a public presence.

Why did “A Brief History of Time” make its author the most famous scientist in the world?

How the master of suspense got his sadistic streak

Has any other novelist lived a life so steeped in political intrigue?

A celebrated chronicler of human suffering, John Steinbeck could not abide other people.

Blake Gopnik’s biography shows an artist haunted by death, seeking refuge in consumerism.

A new book about the free jazz pioneer illuminates the moral and political significance of the postwar avant-garde.

In Robert Kolker’s "Hidden Valley Road," a family tragedy illuminates the mysterious origins of an illness.

A compelling personal story has long obscured the substance of his politics.

The great tension in Sontag’s life lay in her enduring desire for reinvention.

Why we shouldn't reduce her career to a few golden years.

James Atlas wrote two influential literary biographies. Now, he turns to memoir.

Max Eastman smuggled Lenin’s last testament out of Russia, and popularized Marxism in the United States. Does his sex life matter?

Gwendolyn Brooks’s life and work asserted the humanity of black people in America.

How Angela Carter escaped a puritanical childhood and stifling marriage, and reimagined sexuality.

A new biography tells how the poet formed a taste for ambiguity and indirection.

The poet was reserved and private in an age of confession. Now, a new biography tries to reveal her secrets.

The science fiction writer's newly published diaries show a man grappling with confusion, bigotry, and the weight of his own talent.

A pair of academics reconstruct the life of a Victorian bachelor.

Understanding Clarice Lispector’s strange and surreal fiction