J. D. Salinger spent ten years writing The Catcher in the Rye and the rest of his life regretting it. Before the book was published, he was a World War II veteran with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder; ...

When molecular biologist Max Delbrück received the Nobel Prize in 1969, he rejoiced but also had a lament. Samuel Beckett’s contributions to literature, which were honored at the same time, seemed to ...

In his excellent introduction to Edith Wharton’s The Writing of Fiction, the author and critic Brandon Taylor offers an observation that bears repeating: Literature from the past may contain dated ...