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When Ford picked up stakes and went to New York or Paris for months at a time, he brought Indra with him. When he moved into another house in Chania, Crete, he brought Indra, who again took over as houseman and companion—though never as lover. This was in the mid-1970s, and both Paris and Manhattan were enjoying what may have been the last artistic flowering of bohemia.

A photograph of Lorde in front of a blackboard on which is written “Women are powerful and dangerous” has become a familiar, widely shared image. In response to attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and women’s and LGBT rights, the words of the self-described “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” have lately gone viral, turning her into an online superstar.

The crises faced by Cather’s characters seem remarkably similar to those of our own times. If all you know of her work is the novels you read in high school, these essays might motivate you to read the rest of her œuvre. Rereading her novels, I’m struck by how relevant they remain, and how women like Lena, Ántonia, Thea, Lucy, and Alexandra face many of the same struggles as do women today.

A SINEWY MAN stands erect with a serene gaze. He has a massive book propped against his muscular left thigh and he appears to have a toga draped around his body. As I approach this statue (standing in a corner of the chapel of the University of Milan), I realize that he is not just well-defined. Those are actually his muscles and that’s his own skin he’s bearing.

Vaid writes incisively and critically about identity-based movements and the need to form coalitions and find common purpose with other minorities that society has left and continues to leave behind. Without such coalition-building, she argues, identity-based politics “does not lead to liberatory outcomes.”

Best known as a writer and illustrator, Edward Gorey (1925–2000) was also a theater enthusiast. He designed the sets and costumes for Broadway’s Dracula, winning the 1978 Tony Award for Best Costume Design.