by STEVEN HOELSCHER The first time I encountered the photography of Ansel Adams wasn’t in a museum gallery, but during a college course. I remember the moment well. The course, “Wilderness and the American Mind,” introduced me to that critical, contested concept through a wide range of memorable texts. In… read more
Freedom to Write, Freedom to Read: The Story of PEN
by MARION WYNNE-DAVIES Defending freedom of expression is a crucial issue for writers worldwide. Authors have united to fight for the freedom to write and defend readers’ rights. The most influential of these groups is PEN (originally P.E.N., an acronym for Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, and Novelists), an international organization… read more
Milton in Phoenix
by AARON T. PRATT Any Shakespeare collector would want a copy of Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles, which is arguably the most comprehensive history of England, Ireland, and Scotland written during the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. Carl H. Pforzheimer bought a copy of the first edition (1577) for his library of early… read more