The idea of dismissing the literary activity of a whole city would seem absurd, but this is apparently Stephen Schwartz’s approach to San Francisco (“Escapees in Paradise,” December, 1985). Nor does ...

Helen Vendler, a literary scholar and reviewer of poetry who was revered and feared in equal measures, whose scalpel-sharp critiques could elevate or wound careers and who introduced hundreds of poets ...

Struggling as a single mother in 1967 to raise a son on scant funds while teaching 10 college courses a year, Helen Vendler realized that “the only way I could make my life easier was to give up ...