Interviews

Joseph Auner
The Enigmatic Arnold Schoenberg: Unraveling the Mysteries with Joseph Auner
In the evening of March 31, 1913, the Musikverein in Vienna erupted. The concert had been planned as a celebration of the Viennese avant-garde, featuring new works by Alexander Zemlinsky,... Read more...
Frank Burke
Decoding Fellini: Discovering the Secrets of Federico Fellini with Frank Burke
In the winter of 1959, a filmmaker sat in a Roman hotel room, staring at a blank page, and seriously considered abandoning the film he had promised to make. Federico... Read more...
The Categorical Imperative and Beyond: A Discussion with Markus Kohl on Kant’s Philosophy
The Categorical Imperative and Beyond: A Discussion with Markus Kohl on Kant’s Philosophy
In 1766, Immanuel Kant published a short book mocking the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, who claimed to communicate with spirits and angels. The book was sharp, witty, and unsparing in... Read more...
Simon Keefe
In the Footsteps of a Genius: A Conversation with Simon Keefe on Mozart's Final Decade in Vienna
In the summer of 1791, a stranger appeared at Mozart's door in Vienna with a commission and a request for secrecy. The visitor, who refused to identify himself, wanted Mozart... Read more...
Paul Halpern
Unraveling the Quantum World: Paul Halpern on Erwin Schrödinger’s Enduring Influence
In the summer of 1933, Erwin Schrödinger fled Nazi Germany with little more than his manuscripts and a domestic arrangement that scandalized almost everyone he met. He was traveling with... Read more...
Out of Kafka: Ruth Gross Appraises Franz Kafka’s “Dark and Wry” but Humorous World
Out of Kafka: Ruth Gross Appraises Franz Kafka’s “Dark and Wry” but Humorous World
One morning in the summer of 1912, Franz Kafka sat down at his desk in Prague and wrote a story in a single unbroken session that lasted through the night... Read more...
Bruce J. Hillman
Dueling Physicists: Bruce J. Hillman on the Nobel Physicist who Challenged and Antagonized Albert Einstein
There is a photograph taken at the 1927 Solvay Conference in Brussels that has become one of the most reproduced images in the history of science. Gathered around a table... Read more...
Ernest Hemingway Unmasked: Verna Kale Uncovers Hidden Gems in Hemingway's Letters
Ernest Hemingway Unmasked: Verna Kale Uncovers Hidden Gems in Hemingway's Letters
In the summer of 1925, a 26-year-old American living in Paris handed a manuscript to a small publisher on the Left Bank and waited. The Sun Also Rises appeared the... Read more...
Peter Hays
A Clean, Well-Admired Style: Peter Hays On Ernest Hemingway’s Life and Art
In the winter of 1922, a suitcase disappeared at the Gare de Lyon in Paris. Inside it were nearly all of Ernest Hemingway's early manuscripts: stories, poems, and carbon copies... Read more...
No Ordinary Writer: John Banville on Influences and Fashioning “a Singular Voice”
No Ordinary Writer: John Banville on Influences and Fashioning “a Singular Voice”
In 2005, John Banville was in the middle of an ordinary working day in Dublin when his publisher called to tell him he had won the Booker Prize for The Sea.... Read more...
Finding Einstein: Jimena Canales Peels Away Layers of Myth to Unmask Albert Einstein the Man
Finding Einstein: Jimena Canales Peels Away Layers of Myth to Unmask Albert Einstein the Man
Sixteen nominations, sixteen rejections. By the time the Nobel Committee finally awarded Albert Einstein the Prize in Physics in 1922, he had already been passed over so many times that... Read more...
Heather Clark
Not So Silent: Heather Clark Attempts to Restore Sylvia Plath's Rightful Place in American Literature
In October 1962, Sylvia Plath sat alone in a small London flat during one of the coldest English winters in decades, waking before dawn each morning to write while her... Read more...