Search results for

Can we learn from our past mistakes? Pico Iyer finds modern meaning in Graham Greene's novel about a naive American who arrives in a foreign place full of ideas about democracy, and how he can teach an ancient culture a better, "American" way of doing things.

Lyle Link left his father's farm after deciding that picking corn and shoveling manure wasn't for him. He met his future wife, Marion, at church and never looked back. Now 90, Link describes the life they lived together and his heartache now that she's gone.

Though his faith has waned over the years, author John Marks finds a metaphor for his own struggle with belief in the shadowy, invisible world of Bram Stoker's Dracula.

A century after Richard Wright's birth, his books still resonate — both with his daughter, Julia, and with a new generation of fans, some of whom are just discovering the author.

Since his debut in 1951, Holden Caulfield — the funny, complex, wry protagonist of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye — has given voice to generations of teens caught between youth and adulthood.

Eric G. Wilson, author of Against Happiness, has embraced his inner gloom and wishes more people would do the same. He talks to Melissa Block about why the world needs melancholy and the link between sadness and artistic creation.

For Stella Rimington, the author of Illegal Action, secret intelligence is second nature; for nearly 30 years, she worked for MI5, Britain's domestic intelligence agency, rising through the ranks to become the first woman appointed director general.

The 12 short stories that make up Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics mix scientific erudition and wild fantasy to tell a wonderfully unique story of creation. Salman Rushdie calls it "possibly the most enjoyable story collection ever written."

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist opens up about his experiences as a father to four children and husband to writer Ayelet Waldman in his new book of personal essays, Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father and Son.

Once the center of an obscenity trial, William S. Burroughs' novel is a dark, wild ride through the terror of heroin addiction and withdrawal, filled with paranoia, erotica and drug-fueled hallucinations.