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Articles of War

How an author discovered W. E. B. Du Bois’s definitive history of Black participation in W.W. I, and why it remained unfinished—and largely forgotten

Cowboy Mouth

Drawing to Survive

The King’s English

To write about King George VI, Sally Bedell Smith was granted exclusive access to royal archives that included his World War II–era diaries and love letters to Queen Elizabeth

Mean Streets

Staying Gold

A new book of rare and previously unseen photos marks the 40th anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders, based on the 1967 novel and starring Hollywood stars in their early years, from Tom Cruise to Diane Lane to Patrick Swayze

You Mess with the Buller, You Get the Horns

With its dedication to gluttony and vandalism, and its inclusion of two disgraced British P.M.’s, Oxford’s Bullingdon Club has a deservedly bad reputation. But it’s not going anywhere

The Studio 60 Problem

Susanna Moore Isn’t Done Running Away

The author has never been one to stay put. Her new book is no exception

Dial “Midwife” for Murder

The little-known story of a 1920s midwife who supplied women with arsenic to kill their abusive husbands

Catherine Lacey

The author discusses her latest novel, a fictionalized biography of a “Frankenstein’s monster of 20 artists and 20 writers” whom she admires, from Kathy Acker to Susan Sontag

An Amusement Park of Dreams

The first-ever art amusement park—launched in 1987 in Hamburg, and featuring art by everyone from Basquiat to Baselitz to Lichtenstein—has since been all but forgotten. Ahead of Luna Luna’s reopening, next year, a new book surveys this feat of the imagination

Rudy Then and Rudy Now

Rudy Giuliani’s fall from respected New York mayor to Trump consigliere is well documented. But the cracks in his moral makeup were there from the outset

The Princess Bride

The Prophet Motive

From The Glass Castle to Prohibition

Jeannette Walls looks back at her tumultuous upbringing and her days as a gossip columnist in New York, and discusses her latest book, a novel set in the 1920s

We’ll Always Have Paris

In Paris Hilton’s new memoir, the socialite seems disingenuous and her ghostwriter’s touch is too obvious. And yet, we’re still captivated

Staff Picks

Don’t miss an epic catalogue of Edward Hopper’s paintings, a tale of walking from Washington D.C. to New York City, and an appreciation of the architect Shigeru Ban

Mona Simpson’s Guide to Writing

In an interview, the novelist discusses her new book, her early days working at The Paris Review, and finding inspiration

Murder, They Wrote

This month’s mystery books take on the subject of war from all angles—and places, from the English countryside to Egypt

Changing the Game

How Mel Brooks Got Smart

Over a seven-decade career, the actor and filmmaker behind some of the most successful TV comedies of all time achieved success by becoming a poet of failure

A Trio of Traitors

Three Days in New Orleans

The second annual New Orleans Book Festival, held on the Tulane University campus and co-chaired by Walter Isaacson, featured panels with Maggie Haberman, Michael Lewis, and AIR MAIL’s Alessandra Stanley and Nathan King