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Robert Schlesinger is his father’s son; he’s got the bow ties to prove it. More importantly, he also inherited Arthur Schlesinger’s insight into American presidents and how they govern.

Robert was born nine years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the president for whom his father was an advisor, speechwriter and “court historian.” The elder Schlesinger, who died last year at age 89, was himself the son of a prominent social historian and Harvard professor.... Read more

It’s often been said that Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels owe their absorbing investigatory detail to the author’s medical degree. While working as a ship’s doctor and in private practice, Doyle got glimpses into the frailty of the human condition that were terrific on-the-job training for a writer.... Read more

You don’t need to be creative to break a Guinness world record. Countless record holders have put thought into inventing unlikely categories, and to beat them you just have to do them one better.... Read more

Authors, illustrators, cartoonists and readers spent the weekend reveling in the written word at the 4th Annual Burlington Book Festival.

What does the future hold for books in our increasingly technologically-driven society?

Is the written word dying a terrible death or is it merely adapting into video games and text messaging? You be the judge.

Music: James Kochalka Superstar, "Monkey Vs Robot," Monkey Vs Robot... Read more

Seven years ago, libraries and bookstores around Vermont began to host readings that were something of a curiosity for these parts: The author was a thirtysomething woman tarted up in leopard-print Spandex, precarious-looking heels and a pouffy, bleached-blond wig.... Read more

When Alistair MacLeod showed up at a 1974 gathering of writers in New York City, people looked at his nametag and exclaimed, “Alistair MacLeod! I thought that you died!” “No,” he responded, “I just went back to Canada.”... Read more

Authors may not have quite the pull of Hollywood celebrities, but when they read from their own work, their cadences can fill a room. This weekend, some famous voices will be raised for the first time at the fourth annual Burlington Book Festival. After an opening ceremony featuring Sen. Bernie Sanders and Mayor Bob Kiss, Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic reads his verse.... Read more

Lincoln writer Louella Bryant remembers when Howard Dean, running for president in 2004, smiled with seeming invincibility on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

That’s when her husband told her the rest of the story.... Read more

John Elder Robison prefers machines to people. Machines are predictable — governed by rules and logic. People, on the other hand, are unpredictable, and at times illogical.

Robison’s memoir Look Me in the Eye is a personal account of living with Asperger’s — an autism spectrum disorder often characterized by social dysfunction and ineptitude, poor motor skills, and compulsive interests and behaviors. But his story also resonates with anyone who has struggled with being “different.”... Read more

One day about 12 years ago, Plainfield poet Charles Barasch had a vision: It was “Bobo Brazil,” the first African-American professional wrestling champion, pinning former President Richard Nixon to a mat. And there, staring incredulously from an imagined grandstand, was Nixon’s wife Pat.... Read more