On public lives, secret memoirs, and censoring the dead.
Search results
Orwell’s Last Neighborhood
While envisioning the darkest of futures and grappling with mortality, the English writer retreated to an idyllic Scottish isle to write Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Why Are We Still Ignoring Lee Krasner?
Lee Krasner wasn’t just instrumental to the evolution of Jackson Pollock as an artist. Her influence extended across the Abstract-Expressionist movement.
Doomed in Nashville
On a whirlwind book tour, Monica Drake fights to resist the pull of an emotional — and physical — abyss.
Doomed in Nashville
On a whirlwind book tour, Monica Drake fights to resist the pull of an emotional — and physical — abyss.
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Amanda Mull, Allegra Hobbs, Andrew O’Hagan, Andrew Kay, and Joe Veix.
Get With the Modern Age, Sign Up for the Longreads Books Newsletter
Sign up for the Longreads Books Newsletter, and you too could be never not reading a book.
When Zora and Langston Took a Road Trip
In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston gave Langston Hughes a lift to Tuskegee in her Nash coupe, nicknamed “Sassy Susie.” It was one of most fortuitous hangouts in literary history.
The Fault in Our Stars: On Fake Celebrity Interviews
Fake celebrity interviews have been around for years, but Germany has seemingly become one of the largest exporters.
When Sartre and Beauvoir Started a Magazine
In 1945, Les Temps modernes shocked the world with its pessimism and grim determination, and catapulted its founders into intellectual superstardom.

