Simon Callow

Under the Spotlight

Richard Sennett’s new book, The Performer, ranges beyond acting to musical, political, social, and pictorial performance.

Mozart the Modernist

In his new biography, Patrick Mackie conjures a vertiginous version of Mozart as the quintessential artist of the modern world.

The Foolscap Pages

“I never stopped writing: diaries, plays, even, God help me, poetry.”

Ol’ Blue Eyes

Paul Newman’s posthumous memoir is a many-sided self-interrogation by a man who was a mystery to himself.

Shape-Shifters

In The Method Isaac Butler traces the evolution of an acting theory that was both ferociously denounced and fanatically embraced.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Pianist

Jeremy Denk’s memoir is not just about piano lessons but about life lessons—how the artist creates a self.

A Taste for the Difficult

In his performing, his critical writing, and his conversation, the prodigious Charles Rosen was driven by ceaseless curiosity and the urge to share his knowledge.

Early Life isn’t Everything

Setting the record straight on Mike Nichols’s mother, Brigitte

Charm Defensive

Mike Nichols was charismatic, witty, invariably quotable. But do I feel I knew him? Not at all.

Pandemic Journal, March 17–22

Dispatches on the coronavirus outbreak from Madeleine Schwartz in Brooklyn, Anne Enright in Dublin, Joshua Hunt in Busan, Anna Badkhen in Lalibela, Lauren Groff in Gainesville, and more.

Truth, Beauty, and Oliver Sacks

‘Everything in Its Place: First Loves and Last Tales’ by Oliver Sacks

Tenn’s Best Friend

‘The Luck of Friendship: The Letters of Tennessee Williams and James Laughlin’

Superman in Tweeds

The Emperor Robeson

His significance as an emblematic figure is crucial to an understanding of the American 20th century