Ireland’s Literary Femme Fatale
The James Bond producer remembers Edna O’Brien, the pioneering writer whose books were once banned for their depictions of female sexuality
The Last Renaissance Man
Ely Callaway went from running the Burlington textile company to founding ultra-successful wine and golf businesses—all while hiding a lifelong secret
Elephant Man
The secret history of the Asian elephants that Belgium’s Leopold II dispatched to Africa in service of his ruthless colonial vision
An Ode to the Humble Paperback
From Lady Chatterley’s Lover to Bright Lights, Big City to A Little Life, books that were better the next time around
Reality Check
From the French Proverbe to the English Experiment, a new coffee-table book surveys the avant-garde journals that paved the way for the 1920s’ Surrealist movement
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss 75 newly reissued editions of Georges Simenon’s detective novels, featuring the French inspector Jules Maigret
Churchill’s Angels
How a secret W.W. II–era British spy ring fought the Nazis from New York’s Rockefeller Center—and how a female agent almost lost her life in the process
Hee-Haw, Taylor Swift!
It’s hard to recall a time when the singer wasn’t topping charts and bringing home Grammys. But her success was far from a sure bet
Terroir Terror
A former sommelier at a four-star New York City restaurant recalls a harrowing sexual assault she experienced behind the scenes of the fine-dining world
Requiem for a Continent
Ahead of Earth Day, photojournalist Guillaume Bonn’s haunting images expose the dark side of Africa’s wildlife havens, which are increasingly falling victim to unchecked industrialism
E. A. Hanks
Tom Hanks’s daughter makes her literary debut with a revelatory memoir
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss a mountain climber’s account of sailing from Maine to Alaska, an examination of the air we breathe, and a look back at J.F.K. and Nikita Khrushchev’s Cold War–era diplomacy
False Prophets
How an investigation into a Mormon murder spree led one author to uncover the lurid world of America’s New Age movement—cult leaders, reincarnation, QAnon, and all
A Forgotten Master of Pulp Fiction
The only thing more noir than the work of writer Cornell Woolrich may have been his own life
The Mother of Surrealism
How one woman born into a world on the brink of turmoil inspired Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, André Breton, and the love of her life, Salvador Dalí
Private Predicaments and Natural Disasters
Meghan Daum wrote a book called The Catastrophe Hour. Three months before it was published, her house burned down.
Palm Springs Eternal
Two new coffee-table books capture the timeless allure of Palm Springs, a favorite destination of Sinatra and Capote and a birthplace of modernist architecture
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss a history of Russian espionage, a window into the world of snakes, and a curated guide to the best of international cinema
One Hundred Years of Gatsby
Editions of The Great Gatsby—which achieved popularity only after F. Scott Fitzgerald’s death—abound, but the mysteries surrounding the Great American Novel endure
