Our top stories of the week, as chosen by the editors at Longreads.
Search results
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Behind the ‘Literary Brat Pack’ Label
At Harper’s Bazaar, Jason Diamond offers a look back at the “literary brat pack–Jay McInerney, Bret Easton Ellis, Tama Janowitz and a group of other writers in the 1980s as famous for their coke-fueled late nights at the Odeon as they were for publishing celebrated novels before the age of thirty.
Posted inCurrent Events, Nonfiction
Trump Revives a Shameful Tradition: Targeting a Minority Group with Crime Reports
The president’s executive orders and inflammatory rhetoric follow a predictable path.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction
A Culinary Legend’s Next Fight
Paula Wolfert’s groundbreaking cookbooks changed the way we eat. An Alzheimer’s diagnosis changed her life, but not her outlook.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Selling of ‘Valley of the Dolls’
“A new book is like a new brand of detergent,” Jacqueline Susann famously said. “You have to let the public know about it. What’s wrong with that?”
Posted inReading List
Roald Dahl at 100: A Reading List
Roald Dahl, the whimsical and wicked mind behind Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, and other famous children’s literature, would have turned 100 on September 13, 2016. Here are seven stories about the man behind these tales.
Posted inArts & Culture, History
Percy Ross Wants to Give You Money!
He was was a self-made, blue-collar millionaire in Reagan’s America. But when Percy Ross decided to give away his fortune, he made things simple: all you had to do was ask for it.
Posted inUncategorized
Equity in Publishing: What Should Editors Be Doing?
An online roundtable about the grim state of diversity and equity in publishing.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
Can a Sports-Crazed City Turn a Theater Person into a Baseball Person?
Shannon Reed thought she knew what kind of fan she was, until she moved back home to Pittsburgh.
Posted inBooks
Late in Life, Thoreau Became a Serious Darwinist
But he died before he could finish his book on natural history. As Emerson put it, Thoreau “depart[ed] out of Nature before… he has been really shown to his peers for what he is.”
