Truth And Fiction

March 2023
1min read


Perhaps Thomas Macaulay in 1824 gave us the definitive word on the value of the historical novel. In his essay “On Mitford’s History of Greece” he comments on the inability of writers of history, even one as celebrated as Plutarch, to convey the full essence of an era: “Historians have, almost without exception, confined themselves to the public transactions of states, and have left to the negligent administration of writers of fiction a province at least equally extensive and valuable.”

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Stories published from "April 1993"

Jefferson’s Second Home
Authored by: Wayne Fields

THIS SPRING, THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF JEFFERSON’S BIRTH, RESTORATION BEGINS ON POPLAR FOREST, WHICH HE ONCE CALLED “THE BEST DWELLING HOUSE IN THE STATE, EXCEPT THAT OF MONTICELLO.” WHILE THE WORK PROGESSES, THE HOUSE IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, AND ITS GHOSTLY EMPTINESS HEIGHTENS THE SENSE IF ITS ORIGINAL OCCUPANT.

The Allegheny River
Authored by: The Editors

Watershed of the Nation

From This Moment On
Authored by: The Editors

The Songs of Cole Porter

You’re The Top
Authored by: The Editors

Cole Porter in the 1930s

The Spain Among Us
Authored by: Henry Wiencek

After half a millennium we scarcely feel the presence of Spain in what is now the United States. But it is all around us.

This Is The Place
Authored by: Michael S. Durham

Retracing the Pioneer Trail in Mormon Utah

Washington Acropolis
Authored by: William E. Carnahan

The U.S. Capitol stands where it always has, but the columns that originally held it up have become a hauntingly beautiful monument somewhere else

Wisky For The Men
Authored by: Vance Bourjaily

A novelist joins his ancestor on a trip West and discovers in her daily travails an intimate view of a tremendous national migration

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