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If Alfred Hitchcock contained multitudes, his films contained infinitudes in the eyes of his viewers, who wrote him too many letters to count
Collecting Intelligence
The author and friend of John le Carré’s, whose radio tribute to the espionage writer is out now, traces the arc of le Carré through his most memorable books
Notes from Underground
Harriet Tubman left behind no written history of her life, but her stories—of the Underground Railroad and the allies she made along the way—live on
Revisionist History
Churchill gets a bad rap for the 1943 Tehran conference, where Roosevelt and Stalin won out. Looking back, the Old Lion might have been right all along
Splendor in the Grass
The story of how Central Park and its beating heart, the bucolic Sheep Meadow, came to be
Playing with Fyre
The bizarre, ongoing story of Billy McFarland, the mastermind behind the music-festival fiasco who started a podcast behind bars
Bon Voyage!
A new book collects the best of airport style, from an impossibly bouncy-haired Dolly Parton to Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin
Short List
Books to read this week, from a history of crime and punishment in ancient Rome to a novel of clashing cultures and an account of post–W.W. II recovery
The First Lady of the Skies
Between her record as the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air and her disappearance a decade later, Amelia Earhart was the Eleanor Roosevelt of flying, championing women’s careers in aviation
Nancy Reagan’s Cross to Bear
The First Lady dedicated herself to achieving a picture-perfect life. A look at her traumatic—and covered-up—childhood helps explain why
Heartbreak Hotel
Photographs from a new book pay homage to the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc, the dazzling seafront retreat that has played host to Ernest Hemingway, Jane Birkin, and Mick Jagger, on its 150th anniversary
Malcolm of All Trades
Malcolm Gladwell discusses his new book, Mao Zedong, and why the statues of history’s bad guys should stay up
You Heard It Here First
The voice recordings of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton offer a window into two of 20th-century literature’s fieriest spirits
Heroes and Villains
What happens when you discover your heroine was a vile anti-Semite?
The Turing Enigma
Nearly 70 years after being prosecuted for homosexuality, Alan Turing is joining the Queen on Britain’s £50 note. His nephew warns that the code breaker wouldn’t have wanted to be seen as a victim
