Arts & Life

Rachel Brosnahan plays housewife-turned-stand-up-comic Midge Maisel in Amazon's new series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Arts

Zippy And Delightful, 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' Spotlights An Unlikely Comic

6:05pm December 04, 2017

by John Powers

Amazon's new series centers on a spurned 1950s housewife who has a knack for stand-up comedy. Critic John Powers says Rachel Brosnahan delivers a "genuinely funny performance" in the title role.

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Arts

Library for Kids Goes Online

5:55pm December 04, 2017

by David Kestenbaum

The Internet Archive and the University of Maryland launch such a library, and it's free to anyone with an Internet connection. Kids helped design the library, and they had final say on the books.

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Ezra Pound poses in Rapallo, Italy, not long after his 1958 release from St. Elizabeths Hospital, where he spent 12 years.

Books
Arts

Do Politics Matter In Poetry? New Biography Explores The Case Of Ezra Pound

1:46pm December 04, 2017

by Maureen Corrigan

A central figure in 20th century poetry, Pound was also an outspoken fascist. In The Bughouse, Daniel Swift investigates whether or not the poet's politics and madness matter to his work.

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'Nuclear War Planner' Reflects On The Cold War And Assesses The Current Threat

1:46pm December 04, 2017

In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press in hopes they would help end the Vietnam War. He looks back on his early days as a national security analyst in The Doomsday Machine.

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Arts

Kennedy Center Celebrates Latest Honorees, But Without The First Family

5:14am December 04, 2017

by Elizabeth Blair

Lionel Richie, Gloria Estefan, hip-hop pioneer LL Cool J, Norman Lear and dancer Carmen De Lavallade are this year's Kennedy Center Honorees. Not present, the president and first lady.

Books
Arts

In 'Hiddensee,' Gregory Maguire Gets Under The Shell Of 'The Nutcracker'

4:53pm December 03, 2017

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

Author Gregory Maguire made his name rewriting fairy tales. Now, he's taken on The Nutcracker — a beloved holiday classic, yes, but one that Maguire says makes no sense as it's usually performed.

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Film actress Hedy Lamarr, pictured here around 1955, was both a major star on screen and an inventor by night.

Arts

In 'Bombshell,' The Double Identity Of Hollywood Star Hedy Lamarr

8:08am December 03, 2017

by Lulu Garcia-Navarro

In Alexandra Dean's new documentary, the stunning silver-screen beauty of the 1930s and '40s is also the inventor of a technology that makes today's wireless encryption possible.

Americans are more curious about different cuisines than ever before. But who gets to write about these cuisines, and which ones get covered?

Arts

Breaking The Bubble Of Food Writing: Cultivating Diverse Stories

8:00am December 03, 2017

by Adrian Miller

The world of food is vast, but we tend to hear about the same cuisines over and over again. So how do we tip the scales in favor of more diversity among food writers?

Books
Arts

Girl Meets Frog Monster In 'Mrs. Caliban'

7:00am December 03, 2017

by Jean Zimmerman

This season's secret weapon in literary banter will be Mrs. Caliban, a peculiar, wonderful, overlooked 1983 novella by Rachel Ingalls, about a housewife whose life is upended by a suave frog monster.

The Odyssey, by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson

Books
Arts

Emily Wilson's 'Odyssey' Scrapes The Barnacles Off Homer's Hull

10:00am December 02, 2017

by Annalisa Quinn

Wilson — the first woman to translate The Odyssey — has created a fresh, authoritative and slyly humorous version of Homer's epic that scours away archaisms while preserving nuance and complexity.