Gertrude Stein

There's no one right way to write a life story. You can arrange it in chapters or as a series of vignettes. You can present it with or without illustrations. You can approach it from the outside looking in, as found in most biographies. Or you can tell it...

No serious writer in America works with a lighter touch than Robert Olen Butler. That sure hand, guided by a potent creative intelligence, saves books like "Tabloid Dreams" (1996), inspired by supermarket weekly headlines, from mere whimsy. Butler...

No serious writer in America works with a lighter touch than Robert Olen Butler. That sure hand, guided by a potent creative intelligence, saves books like "Tabloid Dreams" (1996), inspired by supermarket weekly newspaper headlines, from mere whimsy....

No serious writer in America works with a lighter touch than Robert Olen Butler. That sure hand, guided by a potent creative intelligence, saves books like Tabloid Dreams (1996), inspired by supermarket weekly headlines, from mere whimsy. Butler...

The best way to spend a summer day? Glad you asked: Let us suggest the 24th annual Newberry Book Fair, held within the blessedly air-conditioned confines of one of the most austerely beautiful buildings in Chicago, the Newberry Library at 60 W. Walton St....

Presidential candidates can command instant national attention when they want it. But John McCain and Barack Obama each took a hushed approach to letting the world know where they stand on the California ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage. The muted...

Lucky Plush Productions' "The Sky Hangs Down Too Close" is a richly imagined concoction of abstract dance theater, performance art, new vaudeville and contemporary dance. Though the text by Peter Carpenter, Jon Sherman and Meghann Wilkinson is...

By Darin Strauss The daunting thing, of course, is the word itself. You hear "genius," you picture Wile E. Coyote, tinkering alone in the sierras, cobbling together the rocket-powered cycle on which he will catch only trouble. Sarajevo-born Chicago...

It was a gray winter's day in Paris in February 2007. The weather seemed to suggest a trip to a cemetery. As much time as we spend in Paris, my husband, Skip, and I had never visited P�re-Lachaise Cemetery. With daughter Sarah along, on a short...

Inspired by Andy Warhol's earlier portrait of Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, Israeli art dealer Alexander Harari in 1978 approached gallerist Ronald Feldman, (who commissioned the original,) to ask if Warhol would be interested in making a series of...

When people think summer, they tend to think outdoors. But visiting a local museum is a great way to get out of the global warming for a few hours. More than cooling down, you'll enrich your brain and your soul. Not every week has something new (August...

You can do Paris by the numbers: Tote a favorite guidebook from point to point and read blurbs about the Arc de Triomphe or the Louvre. But to understand why Paris and its amazing landmarks matter, here's some reading that will help you embrace the city...