In a 1939 essay, the critic Philip Rahv argued that there have been two main types in American literature: the solemn and semi-clerical, which he associates with Henry James, and the exuberant, ...

Joan Didion Biographer Is as Unsparing as She Was: “I’m Just Trying to See Her Plain” Lili Anolik, who’s unearthed Eve Babitz and exposed Donna Tartt, now strips the sentiment which has gathered ...

Joan Didion leans against her Corvette Stingray, a cigarette perched between her fingers. Her unsparing, unsmiling gaze seems to sear through the lens of photographer Julian Wasser’s camera, and one ...