Nathan Wolff

Oct 21, 2024 | washingtonpost.com | Nathan Wolff

Stephen King gives a tour last year of the library at his home in Bangor, Maine. (Tristan Spinski for The Washington Post)Review by Nathan WolffOctober 21, 2024 at 8:30 a.m. EDTIn Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Alice Doane’s Appeal,” the protagonist-narrator tries to scare two young women with a story of wizardry, murder and incest. But when his listeners laugh off this hackneyed effort, he quickly changes tack.

Jun 14, 2023 | mrt.com | John Kaag |Jonathan van Belle |Nathan Wolff

Princeton University Press. 232 pp. $27.95 - - - Henry David Thoreau's mother, it is often said, did his laundry. The continued attraction of this old chestnut - debunked by Rebecca Solnit and Laura Dassow Walls, among others - is that it undermines Thoreau's supposed claim to manly self-reliance on Walden Pond.

Jun 13, 2023 | washingtonpost.com | Nathan Wolff

Comment on this storyCommentHenry David Thoreau’s mother, it is often said, did his laundry. The continued attraction of this old chestnut — debunked by Rebecca Solnit and Laura Dassow Walls, among others — is that it undermines Thoreau’s supposed claim to manly self-reliance on Walden Pond.