Reads by Maria Popova
The Creative Tension Between Vitality and Fatality: Illuminating the Mystery of Sylvia Plath Through Her Striking Never-Before-Revealed Visual Art
“How frail the human heart must be — a throbbing pulse, a trembling thing — a fragile, shining instrument of crystal, which can either weep, or sing.”
Sun and Moon: Stunning Illustrations of Celestial Myths by Ten of India’s Greatest Indigenous Artists
Ancient allegorical reflections on the universal themes of life, love, time, harmony, and our eternal search for a completeness of being.
91-Year-Old Lebanese-American Poet, Philosopher, and Painter Etel Adnan on Memory, the Self, and the Universe
“The universe is itself the glue that keeps it going, therefore it is memory in action and in essence, in becoming and in being. Because it remembers itself, it exists. Because it exists, it remembers.”
An Illustrated Fictional Day in the Real Lives of Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein
Parisian misadventures in multitasking drawn from one of history’s great loves.
Sam Shepard in Love, on Love
“There can be a real meeting between two people at the point where they always felt marooned. Right at the edge.”
John Quincy Adams on Efficiency vs. Effectiveness, the Proper Aim of Ambition, and His Daily Routine
“The spark from Heaven is given to few — It is not to be obtained by intreaty or by toil.”
The Terror Within and the Evil Without: James Baldwin on Our Capacity for Transformation as Individuals and Nations
“It has always been much easier (because it has always seemed much safer) to give a name to the evil without than to locate the terror within.”
What to Look for During a Total Solar Eclipse: Mabel Loomis Todd’s Poetic 19th-Century Guide to Totality, with Help from Emily Dickinson
“A vast, palpable presence seems overwhelming the world. The blue sky changes to gray or dull purple, speedily becoming more dusky, and a death-like trance seizes upon everything earthly.”
How to Live to the Full While Dying: The Extraordinary Diary of Alice James, William and Henry James’s Underappreciated Sister
“It is the most supremely interesting moment in life, the only one in fact when living seems life.”
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