Postscript
What Willie Mays Meant
The late, great ballplayer’s myth had a specifically New York aspect.
By Adam Gopnik
Alice Munro Reinvigorated the Short Story
Working with the author, who has died, at ninety-two, was both a thrill and a lesson in intentionality.
By Deborah Treisman
The Beautiful Rawness of Steve Albini
The producer was uncompromising in his opposition to the commercialization of music. That might seem today like a Gen X relic—or it might seem kind of awesome.
By Amanda Petrusich
The Indestructible Art of Frank Stella
The artist, who has died at eighty-seven, rattled standards of modernist abstraction rather as Bob Dylan did those of folk music.
By Peter Schjeldahl
Helen Vendler’s Generous Mind
The professor and critic will be remembered for her brilliant books, but teaching brought her genius to the fore.
By Nathan Heller
Christopher Durang’s Stage Directions for Life
The Tony-winning playwright’s dark, antic satires were many people’s gateway to theatre. I was one of those people.
By Michael Schulman
Remembering William Whitworth’s Editorial Eye
An editor who could see around corners and deep into thorny manuscripts.
By Ian Frazier
Iris Apfel Wore Fame Well
Apfel pursued the driving creative project of her life—getting dressed, dazzlingly—for eight decades without any promise of greater glory. How could she ever have seen it coming?
By Rachel Syme
The Death of Alexei Navalny, Putin’s Most Formidable Opponent
The opposition leader, who died in prison, had been persecuted for years by the Russian state. He remained defiant, and consistently funny, to the very end.
By Masha Gessen
Lev Rubinstein, a Devoted and Defiant Lover of Language
The Russian poet and essayist was a founding member of the Moscow conceptualist movement, an “implausibly social” presence in Moscow, and a firm believer to the end in the possibility of living in Russia with dignity and decency.
By Masha Gessen