Longreads

When Jose Rios walked into a Bank of America branch last year, he hoped to open an account for the car repair shop he owned. He didn’t expect to end up with a prison sentence. Days after Rios…

The following is a transcript of President Obama’s second inaugural speech: MR. OBAMA: Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice, Members of the United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow…

This Tuesday, a week before Barack Obama’s second inauguration, FRONTLINE will air a probing look at the first four years of his presidency. With inside accounts from his battles with his…

We will post remembrances of Nora Ephron soon. Please read some of the many wonderful pieces she wrote for the magazine: “My Life As an Heiress” Ephron’s Personal History about…

The following is excerpted from Nothing and Everything: The Influence of Buddhism on the Avant-Garde 1942-1962, published by Evolver Editions, an imprint of North Atlantic Books.  I think…

H ot Sauce Committee Part Two , out May 3, is, according to the Beastie Boys, a return to their fundamental smartassery after 2004 s uncharacteristically serious To the 5 Boroughs, which was, in…

Memphis, Tennessee was only 90 miles west of Jackson, my childhood home. But Memphis was as far away as the north pole in my mind. The history that we were given about it was done in light pencil…

To say that John Brockman is a literary agent is like saying that David Hockney is a photographer. For while it's true that Hockney has indeed made astonishingly creative use of photography, and…

Hunter S. Thompson was just 22-years-old in 1959 when he first began writing The Rum Diary, or what he initially called “the great American rum novel.” He envisioned it as something of a contemporary and rum-soaked version of The Great Gatsby, one of Thompson’s favorite books. Based on the time Thompson spent working for an English language newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rico, The Rum Diary fictionally chronicles the drunken and debauched life of Paul Kemp, an American journalist sauntering through San Juan with a savage lust for women, blood and booze. Once finished, Thompson spent nearly a decade revising and shopping it to publishers before reverting to other projects. It wasn’t until 1998 that Thompson was finally able to publish The Rum Diary.