Adina Hoffman’s biography of Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Al, My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness: A Poet’s Life in the Palestinian Century, is not a love story. Instead, it is a story of loss and how from that loss Taha has created art. Amira became a “muse” in Taha’s work, a symbol of everything his family lost when they became refugees; indeed, it was everything.
Bob Dylan does not want us to know who he is. He recently turned seventy, and if no one has figured him out by now, nobody probably ever will. The Andy Warhol Factory’s Screen Test of Bob Dylan, filmed in 1965 attempts to get close to him, figure out what
Ivan Lett– When Emperor Charles V was elected Holy Roman Emperor in June 1519, his influential position became incredibly important for the strength of his family. Only three years before, he had inherited the vast lands of the Spanish Empire, which already spanned the far ends of the globe, and
Summer vacationers all over America right now are camping for a weekend, spending the afternoon at the pool, or if they are adventurous, going snorkeling. Most people probably are not embarking on a dangerous transatlantic voyage and leaving their children for a six-month tour of a foreign country, but that’s
And speaking of American icons: The Yankee Clipper has had a great run so far this season, thanks in no small part to Jerome Charyn’s new biography, Joe DiMaggio: The Long Vigil. On Facebook, almost 1,800 fans have gathered this spring for new updates on Joe, his relationship with Marilyn,
100 years ago today, Austrian composer Gustav Mahler died, after a tumultuous life and marriage and a rise to success between Vienna and New York. This summer, we’re publishing the bestselling biography Gustav Mahler, by Jens Malte Fischer, translated by Stewart Spencer. Fischer explores Mahler’s early life, his relationship to
This past month, on July 16, in the middle of the night, Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, along with aides, soldiers, a television crew, and forensics experts gathered to exhume Simón Bolívar. Simón Bolívar helped free six countries from the Spanish Empire, rendering him the hero of most of Latin America.
In the wake of a heated commentary by Carlin Romano in The Chronicle Review, the academy has revived a familiar and unsettling debate over the merits of philosopher Martin Heidegger's work in light of the thinker's well-known connections to Nazism. The publication of Emmanuel Faye's book, Heidegger: The Introduction of