Table of Contents
Volume 53, Number 3 · February 23, 2006
J.M. Coetzee, Sleeping Beauty 
Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez, translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman
Wislawa Szymborska, Moment (poem)
Thomas Powers, 'The Biggest Secret'
State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration by James Risen
Daniel Mendelsohn, An Affair to Remember
Brokeback Mountain a film directed by Ang Lee, based on the story by E. Annie Proulx
Ronald Dworkin, The Strange Case of Judge Alito
Luc Sante, Summoning the Spirits
The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult Catalog of the exhibitionby Clément Chéroux, Andreas Fischer, Pierre Apraxine, Denis Canguilhem, and Sophie Schmit
John Banville, Homage to Philip Larkin
Collected Poems (2003) by Philip Larkin, edited and with an introduction by Anthony Thwaite
First Boredom, Then Fear: The Life of Philip Larkin by Richard Bradford
Collected Poems (1988) by Philip Larkin, edited and with an introduction by Anthony Thwaite
Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life by Andrew Motion
Required Writing: Miscellaneous Pieces, 1955–1982 by Philip Larkin
Selected Letters of Philip Larkin, 1940–1985 edited by Anthony Thwaite
Tim Flannery, The Ominous New Pact
Gordon S. Wood, How Democratic Is the Constitution
America's Constitution: A Biography by Akhil Reed Amar
Righteous Anger at the Wicked States: The Meaning of the Founders' Constitution by Calvin H. Johnson
William Dalrymple, The Case for India
The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity by Amartya Sen
James Fenton, The Art of the Dead
Italian Memorial Sculpture, 1820–1940: A Legacy of Love by Sandra Berresford, with introductory essays by James Stevens Curl and Fred S. Licht, additional articles by Francesca Bregoli and Franco Sborgi, and photographs by Robert W. Fichter and Robert Freidus
Amos Elon, A Shrine to Mussolini
The Body of Il Duce: Mussolini's Corpse and the Fortunes of Italy by Sergio Luzzatto, translated from the Italian by Frederika Randall
J.H. Elliott, Barbarians at the Gates
Bárbaros: Spaniards and Their Savages in the Age of Enlightenment by David J. Weber
Christopher Benfey, The Making of a Poet
Summer Doorways: A Memoir by W.S. Merwin
Present Company by W.S. Merwin
Charles Rosen, From the Troubadours to Frank Sinatra
The Oxford History of Western Music by Richard Taruskin
Letters
Robert D. Kaplan, In the 'Crucible of War'
Contributors
John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He is the author of many novels, including The Book of Evidence, The Untouchable, and Eclipse. Banville's novel The Sea was awarded the 2005 Man Booker Prize. On occasion he writes under the pen name Benjamin Black.
Christopher Benfey is Mellon Professor of English at Mount Holyoke. His edition of Lafcadio Hearn: American Writings has just been published by the Library of America. (May 2009)
J. M. Coetzee, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2003, is currently Visiting Professor of Humanities at the University of Adelaide. His new work of fiction, Summertime, from which the piece in this issue is drawn, will be published by Harvill Secker in October. (July 2009)
William Dalrymple is the author of The White Mughals, which won the Wolfson Prize for History, and The Last Mughal, which won the Duff Cooper Prize. His new book, Nine Lives, will be published in the fall. (February 2009)
Ronald Dworkin is Frank Henry Sommer Professor of Law and Philosophy at NYU and Jeremy Bentham Professor of Law and Philosophy at University College London. His books include Is Democracy Possible Here? (2006), Justice in Robes, Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of Equality, and Freedom's Law. He is the 2007 winner of the Ludvig Holberg International Memorial Prize for "his pioneering scholarly work" of "worldwide impact."
J. H. Elliott is Regius Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the University of Oxford. His books include The Count-Duke of Olivares and Spain and Its World. Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America, 1492– 1830 has just been published. (June 2006)
Amos Elon's most recent book is The Pity of It All: German Jews Before Hitler. He is a Fellow at the Center for Law and Security at NYU. (February 2008)
James Fenton iis the editor of The New Faber Book of Love Poems and D.H. Lawrence’s Selected Poems. (July 2009)
Tim Flannery, former director of the South Australian Museum, is a professor at Macquarie University in Sydney and chair of the Copenhagen Climate Council. His latest book is The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth. (December 2008)
Daniel Mendelsohn, a frequent contributor to The New York Review, is the Charles Ranlett Flint Professor of Humanities at Bard College. His translations, with commentary, of the Collected Poems and Unfinished Poems of Constantine Cavafy will be published this month. His other books include The Elusive Embrace: Desire and the Riddle of Identity (1999), Gender and the City in Euripides' Political Plays (2002), The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million (2006), and How Beautiful It Is And How Easily It Can Be Broken: Essays (2008). (March 2009)
Thomas Powers is the author of The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA (1979), Heisenberg's War: The Secret History of the German Bomb (1993), Intelligence Wars: American Secret History from Hitler to al-Qaeda (2002; revised and expanded edition, 2004), and The Confirmation (2000), a novel. He won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1971 and has contributed to The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, Harper's, The Nation, The Atlantic, and Rolling Stone.
Charles Rosen's latest book is Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist. (March 2009)
Luc Sante is the author of Low Life, Evidence, The Factory of Facts, and, most recently, Kill All Your Darlings: Pieces 1990–2005. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and teaches writing and the history of photography at Bard College.
Wislawa Szymborska, one of Poland's leading poets, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996. (February 2006)
Gordon Wood is the Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History at Brown. A collection of his essays, The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History, was published in March. (May 2008)
