At 15, Peter Matthiessen began “scribbling” essays and poetry, saying that it “restores your balance and your sanity.” ...

Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in 1856. He published his autobiography, Up from Slavery, in 1901. The word “up” implies rising from lower to higher. In his writings, Washington frequently ...

Matthew Davis, author of a Mount Rushmore biography, explains how four presidents ended up on a mountain that was never meant to honor them.

But Matthiessen was hung up on what he saw as the deficiencies of his own. He was convinced Betty hadn’t loved him as much as she’d loved her other two children — something she eventually admitted was ...

Our favorite titles of the year resurrect overlooked histories and examine how the United States ended up where it is today ...

Significant figures in the social and political circles that shaped revolutionary America, the Schuyler sisters found ways to ...

Lives that make engrossing stories—from Brahms to Zo.

Cockerell began writing a conventional family history but eventually made it a purely archival project: The book is told entirely in excerpts taken from newspapers, diaries, books and letters, ...